What was announcedMeritz Securities has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with The Optimism Foundation ("Optimism") to cooperate on the tokenized financial asset business.
The two sides will examine structures for the issuance, settlement and distribution of tokenized financial assets using OP Stack-based networks, including OP Mainnet. The subject of this cooperation is a business model that uses the public Layer 2 as the distribution and settlement infrastructure for tokenized financial assets.
“The significance of this agreement is that it examines the role a securities firm can play as tokenized financial assets are distributed and settled on a public Layer 2. We will review ways to cooperate with Optimism, putting investor protection and consistency with the regulatory framework first.”Meritz Securities representativeWhat Meritz is focused onWithin the scope of applicable laws and its securities business license, Meritz Securities will examine ways it could take part in the supply and distribution of tokenized financial products backed by domestic assets. Meritz Securities plans to review the detailed scope of cooperation under the agreement, taking into account the ongoing development of Korea's security token regulatory framework and current market conditions.
“We're excited about the ongoing growth of our work in Korea, and glad to welcome Meritz Securities to the OP Stack as they begin exploring tokenization. What makes it interesting is what happens when issuance and settlement sit on the same open network instead of in separate systems. Meritz is starting with a practical question, which is what role a securities firm plays in that, and we look forward to exploring it with them.”Jing WangCEO and Co-Founder, OP LabsAbout OP MainnetOP Mainnet is built on the OP Stack, the open-source, MIT-licensed technology stewarded by The Optimism Foundation. More than 50 production chains run on the OP Stack, and they averaged more than 900 million transactions a month from January through September 2026.
Meritz Securities is a leading Korean comprehensive financial investment company with standalone shareholders' equity of KRW 8.35 trillion as of June 2026, with strengths in investment banking and expanding wealth management and digital financial services. Meritz Securities is currently exploring a range of digital asset-related business opportunities in preparation for the integration of digital assets into the regulated financial system, including spot ETFs, fractional investment and security tokens, trading platforms, and KRW-denominated stablecoins.
About OptimismThe Optimism Foundation is building toward a world of a million chains, all settling to Ethereum. The OP Stack is the open-source, MIT-licensed foundation that gets us there: the shared infrastructure beneath more than 50 production chains, the home of OP Mainnet, and the technology behind OP Enterprise. Exchanges and institutions are already building on it, from xStocks' tokenized equities on OP Mainnet to Korean securities firms exploring tokenization on the OP Stack, including KB Securities, DB Securities, and Meritz Securities, to the DeFi and consumer applications spanning the broader ecosystem. In the first nine months of 2026 alone, OP Stack chains settled $35 trillion in stablecoin transfer volume. OP Labs is the core service provider for The Optimism Foundation.
Aerodrome Finance and Velodrome will merge into a single cross-chain decentralized exchange called Aero on Oct. 21, with AERO converting one-for-one and VELO converting at roughly 0.044 AERO, according to the project’s launch hub. Aerodrome holders receive 94.5% of the new token supply and Velodrome holders 5.5%. Nothing converts automatically; holders must complete the migration themselves through the upgrade portals.
The merged DEX goes live across seven networks: Base, Ethereum mainnet, OP Mainnet, Arc, Ink, Robinhood Chain and Arbitrum. Existing locked positions, the veAERO and veVELO voting tokens, become sAERO, a staked form of the new token that directs rewards and earns exchange revenue as it accrues.
The VELO-to-AERO swap ratio and new supply The conversion is fixed at 1 AERO to 1 new AERO, and roughly 0.044 new AERO per VELO. The VELO rate follows from the projected launch supply: about 1.99 billion AERO and 2.63 billion VELO, with Aerodrome holders allocated 94.5% of the new supply and Velodrome holders 5.5%.
That works out to a projected total of about 2.11 billion new AERO, roughly 1.99 billion from Aerodrome plus 116 million from Velodrome’s share. Dividing those 116 million tokens across the 2.63 billion VELO supply produces the 0.0440 rate. Because the rate depends on supply at launch, the project presents it as approximate.
What holders must do before and after launch The migration is manual. Anyone self-custodying AERO, VELO, veAERO or veVELO must move through the upgrade portals at aerodrome.finance or velodrome.finance, which open when Aero launches at Oct. 22, 00:00 UTC (Oct. 21, 8 p.m. ET). Before upgrading, holders must claim any unclaimed rewards and rebases and clear active votes; anything left unclaimed cannot be recovered afterward.
VELO held as xVELO must first be bridged back to OP Mainnet, and the upgrade needs a small amount of ETH for network fees: ETH on Base for Aerodrome, and ETH on OP Mainnet for Velodrome. veNFTs that voted in the final epoch can upgrade one hour later, at Oct. 22, 01:00 UTC.
Locks carry over: remaining lock time is rounded up to the next full week, and permanent locks become maximum-duration stakes. sAERO replaces the weekly voting cycle with real-time allocation, so holders can steer AERO rewards toward liquidity pools and earn exchange revenue as it accrues, with a 47-hour cooldown on initial allocation changes.
Why the merger matters for Base and Optimism DeFi Aerodrome is the central trading and liquidity marketplace on Coinbase’s Base network, and Velodrome holds the equivalent role on Optimism; both were built by developer Dromos Labs on shared code. Aerodrome’s AERO token already anchors much of Base’s DeFi activity, and folding Velodrome’s liquidity into it creates one venue across seven chains instead of two competing ones.
The mechanics also shift how emissions are allocated. Today locked-token holders vote weekly to direct the next week’s rewards; under Aero, sAERO holders allocate in real time. Aerodrome has leaned on these incentives to steer liquidity, and the change is a bet that continuous allocation beats the weekly cycle.
Exchanges run their own schedules. Aero says it has coordinated the upgrade with major exchanges, and Binance confirmed on Oct. 16 that it will support the swap for its users.
What happens next The final voting round closes Oct. 21 at 6:59 p.m. ET, and the upgrade portals open an hour later. The new AERO contract address will be published through official Aero channels on launch day, and transfers and trading open at the moment of upgrade. Holders should confirm any address against those official channels before approving a transaction.
Frequently Asked Questions Do I need to do anything before the Aerodrome-Velodrome merger? Yes, if you self-custody AERO, VELO, veAERO or veVELO. Claim any unclaimed rewards and rebases, clear active votes, and bridge xVELO back to OP Mainnet before launch. Nothing migrates automatically.
What happens to my VELO tokens? Each VELO converts to about 0.044 new AERO, applied to both circulating and locked tokens. Complete the swap manually through the upgrade portal at velodrome.finance, which requires a small amount of ETH on OP Mainnet for fees.
When does the Aero merger launch? Aero launches Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. ET (Oct. 22, 00:00 UTC), when AERO and VELO emissions end and the upgrade portals open. Holders who voted in the final epoch can upgrade one hour later, at Oct. 22, 01:00 UTC.
Will my locked veAERO or veVELO carry over? Yes. veAERO and veVELO convert into sAERO, with remaining lock time rounded up to the next full week and permanent locks becoming maximum-duration stakes.
AUTHOR
Tokoni Uti is a Lagos-based writer with several years of experience. Her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, the Los Angeles Free Press and the San Diego Free press among others. She is a graduate of Bowen University.
Ethereum scaling is a big opportunity, but betting on the right infrastructure isn’t as simple as buying a token and waiting. The Optimism price prediction story revolves around the OP Stack and its Superchain vision: a network of chains built on shared technology rather than relying on a single Layer 2 to do everything.
Optimism Is Building Beyond One Layer 2Optimism helps applications run faster and cheaper than Ethereum mainnet while settling back to Ethereum. Its ecosystem can support DeFi, consumer applications, gaming, and custom chains, per analyst post on X.
The bigger bet, though, is the OP Stack. Instead of focusing solely on Optimism’s own network, the technology allows projects to launch their own chains using shared infrastructure and standards. If adoption grows, Optimism could benefit from an expanding ecosystem rather than one network alone.
Superchain Adoption Could Strengthen the Bull CaseEthereum has deep liquidity and substantial developer activity, but a single chain can’t efficiently handle every application at scale. Optimism’s Superchain vision aims to connect growth across multiple chains through common technology.
The bullish argument is straightforward: if more major applications and companies launch their own Layer 2 networks, the OP Stack could become a major standard for Ethereum scaling. Also, the OP token that has begun rallying and could soon target $0.25 or even $0.36 contingent on demand rising.
That would put Optimism in the middle of a wider infrastructure trend. Still, adoption isn’t automatic, and launching more chains doesn’t necessarily guarantee greater value for OP holders.
OP Token Value Capture Remains the CatchCompetition across Ethereum scaling is intense. Other projects are also competing for applications, developers, and liquidity, so Optimism needs more than a compelling technical narrative to stand out.
There’s another problem. The Superchain could grow while investors continue asking how much that expansion directly benefits the OP token. Network success and token performance aren’t always the same thing.
For now, the Optimism price prediction depends less on hype and more on measurable progress: Superchain activity, OP Stack adoption, new chain launches, stablecoin liquidity, decentralized exchange volume, developer growth, and OP token utility. The infrastructure thesis is compelling, but the token still needs to capture value from the ecosystem it hopes to power.
Story Ends Here
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Optimism [OP] has extended its explosive bullish advance by recording a 19% price surge in the last 24 hours as Unichain moves toward adopting OP Enterprise for its production infrastructure.
At the same time, the network on-chain sentiments are strengthening, with the network’s trading volume doubling alongside surging bridge volume, whale orders, and retail orders.
Can Optimism’s positive developments extend its rally toward higher resistance levels?
Unichain migration strengthens Optimism’s enterprise push
Unichain’s planned transition to OP Enterprise marks a significant development for Optimism’s managed blockchain services. The arrangement covers core infrastructure, including sequencers, RPC services, monitoring, and incident response.
Unichain’s mainnet migration is planned for the 29th of October.
The move provides a concrete example of a major blockchain adopting Optimism’s infrastructure. It could also strengthen the Superchain ecosystem by supporting interoperability across OP Stack networks.
Rising volume supports OP’s recovery
According to AMBCrypto’s analysis of derivative data, OP’s trading volume has doubled to approximately $250.64 million over the past 24 hours, accompanying its 19% price increase for the same period.
The trading volume spike points to growing market participation among both networks – whales and retail traders.
Source: Santiment
Meanwhile, bridge volume has reached levels never attained over the last two months. Over the past week only, each day averaged $10 million, with the weekly volume totaling $702 million.
The spike points to increased cross-chain activity, which in turn strengthens the bullish bias.
Source: DefiLlama
Can OP bulls extend the rally to $0.182?
That’s not all; Optimism’s whale and retail orders are increasing across Spot and Futures markets. If participation continues to strengthen, OP could extend its advance toward higher resistance levels.
On the daily chart, the pennant pole at $0.182 stands out as the possible target in line for the network bulls. Unichain migration and an increase in trading volumes will aid in the bounce back of OP.
However, what matters here is the ability of buyers to maintain demand even after the impact of news wears off. A cooling-down period might lead to a profit-taking phase, while sustained buying pressure might ensure that the rally continues.
Source: TradingView
Final Summary
OP has recorded significant daily gains as Unichain’s planned transition to OP Enterprise strengthened the network’s managed blockchain services.
The network trading and bridging volumes are skyrocketing as retail traders and whale positions for a potential continuation rally.
Yi Lihua: Expects the market to rebound quickly and kick off a new uptrend after bottoming out.
Yi Lihua, founder of Liquid Capital, stated that the only thing to focus on in the current market outlook is determining at what level to buy the dip. Citing the 2023 Bitcoin bull market as a reference, he believes Bitcoin will drop to a certain point before a sharp rebound kicks off a new uptrend, once again leaving many investors hesitant to buy the dip unable to enter the market in time.
8 minutes ago
TypeSafe has upgraded Jev to version 1.14: The tool can locate objects from images, and returns coordinates even when it fails to identify the target.
Beating AI News Flash: TypeSafe AI has released Jev 1.14, rolling out experimental visual capabilities for its fast-judgment model. Developers can use the model to detect if a person is present in a camera feed, or compare two photos to confirm if they show the same dog. The new Box localization feature can also locate specified objects in images, returning coordinates of rectangular regions to guide other programs on where to crop or perform operations.
TypeSafe CEO Diogo Almeida revealed that the older Jev 1.13 was already capable of processing images, but the team held back from launching this feature due to concerns about insufficient reliability in visual task accuracy. Both versions now support image input, with images usable directly as judgment conditions and options, though the Box localization feature is exclusive to Jev 1.14.
In experimental mode, the context limit per single request has been expanded from 64,000 tokens to around 262,000 tokens, quadrupling the original capacity. The new version also enhances overall judgment capabilities; the company notes the most notable improvement is in multilingual support, though it did not disclose specific metrics.
Jev 1.14 is currently available via `jev-preview`, with a planned rollout to the default stable version on October 21. However, TypeSafe explicitly warns that the visual and long-context features remain in the experimental phase and are not yet production-ready. Long context not only increases latency but may also reduce accuracy. Box localization also has a unique limitation: it will return coordinate boxes even if the specified object is not present in the image. As such, developers must additionally verify the existence of the target to prevent subsequent programs from operating on incorrect positions.
8 minutes ago
OKX's Oracle Season 3 kicks off, with a total prize pool of $250,000.
According to official announcements, OKX’s Season 3 of its Predictor program has officially launched, with a total prize pool of $250,000. This season focuses on hot topics during earnings season, featuring a season main leaderboard, regular weekly contests, and an independent weekly leaderboard dedicated to earnings season. Users can earn free XP by completing tasks, participate in predictions of real-world events like earnings season, and split corresponding rewards based on their activity rankings. XP can be obtained via Planet interactions, inviting friends, and completing designated ExchangeOS trading tasks, the platform noted. No registration is required; eligible users can participate through the "Planet" - "Outcomes" section in the OKX App.
8 minutes ago
Bitget PoolX: Locked ETH to Unlock 150,000 USDT Airdrop
Bitget PoolX is launching a new ETH lock-up campaign, where users who lock up ETH can participate in sharing a 150,000 USDT airdrop. The campaign runs from 15:00 (UTC+8) on October 15 to 15:00 (UTC+8) on October 20, with an individual lock-up cap of 1,500 ETH. This PoolX round supports a long-term holding bonus mechanism: the system will apply an additional 1x multiplier to the effective locked amount, calculated based on the user’s minimum ETH holding over the past 15 days.
8 minutes ago
DeepSeek has experienced 5 outages in half a month, with simultaneous disruptions affecting its website, mobile app, and API. The issues have not been resolved even after two and a half hours.
Beating AI Express News: On the morning of October 15, DeepSeek suffered another service outage. Its official status page shows the outage began at 08:11, affecting the web chat service, V4 Pro and V4.1 Flash APIs. DeepSeek announced at 09:08 that it had located the cause and was implementing repairs. However, as of 10:43, the outage had lasted over two and a half hours and remained unresolved. The official classified the incident severity as Full Outage, with no specific cause disclosed yet. This marks DeepSeek’s fifth service outage recorded since October. On October 2, web and API services were abnormal for 1 hour and 54 minutes. Two outages occurred on October 12, lasting 11 minutes and 15 minutes respectively. Compared with previous incidents, this outage has the longest duration.
8 minutes ago
Over the past hour, $486 million in liquidations have been recorded across the entire crypto network, with long positions being the main liquidation target.
According to Coinglass data, the global crypto market saw $486 million in liquidations over the past hour, including $465 million from long positions and $20.7 million from short positions. Liquidations related to Ethereum trading hit $201 million, while Bitcoin trading liquidations totaled $117 million.
Despite a 30-day gain of 64%, the token still sits roughly 68% below its price from a year ago and 97% below its all-time high.
OP, the native token of Optimism, climbed nearly 20% at one point in the last 24 hours after Uniswap announced that Unichain will hand its production operations to OP Enterprise.
The rally came as Bitcoin and several major altcoins faced renewed selling pressure, giving OP a rare boost.
Unichain Handover Sends OP Higher CoinGecko reported in a post on October 14 a 19.4% daily gain for OP that took it to $0.1621, linking the move to Uniswap’s announcement that Unichain would transition to OP Enterprise.
However, at the time of writing, it had given up some of those gains and was trading at around $0.156, still a 14% jump in 24 hours and 28% in seven days. It also gained 64% in 30 days but remains down nearly 68% from a year ago.
Trading activity also rose alongside the price. OP recorded around $226 million in 24-hour volume, a 128% increase from the previous day. The last time the token went higher than it did today was in mid-May when it touched $0.166.
Uniswap’s October 9 announcement explained that Unichain’s testnet migration was scheduled for October 13, with mainnet migration set for October 29. The transition leaves Unichain’s chain ID, contracts, balances, and existing Uniswap v2, v3, and v4 deployments unchanged.
Under the arrangement, Optimism will operate the production infrastructure, including sequencers, remote procedure call services, monitoring, and incident response across mainnet and testnet. Unichain users are not expected to face changes to their existing experience.
You may also like: Hayden Adams Claims SBF Bought Uniswap.com to ‘Flex’ on the Company Uniswap Buys PONS Stake, Token Jumps 40% to New All-Time High UNI Jumps 16% as Robinhood Chain DEX Volume Hits $1.3B The handover also prepares Unichain for native interoperability across the OP Stack. Once that functionality goes live, users will be able to transfer assets, starting with ETH, between Unichain and other OP Stack networks without relying on a bridge.
OP Rallies as Wider Market Struggles The price move stands out against the conditions reported by CryptoPotato yesterday. Several major altcoins lost ground, with NEAR falling roughly 10%, Zcash dropping more than 6%, and both Cardano and Hyperliquid shedding around 5%. Ethereum also briefly dipped to $2,400 before recovering above $2,500.
Zcash seems to have turned things around, recouping more than 4% in the last 24 hours to go above $1,250, while NEAR dumped another 4% and was hovering just above $5 at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin had fallen as low as $80,850 before rebounding toward $84,000, while daily liquidations across crypto markets exceeded $800 million.
Optimism (OP) has surged 9.17% to $0.1511 over the past 24 hours, extending its weekly gains to 25.47% as Uniswap prepares to move Unichain’s production operations to Optimism through OP Enterprise.
Summary
Optimism rose 9.17% in 24 hours as Unichain prepared to transfer production operations to Optimism.
Uniswap scheduled Unichain’s OP Enterprise testnet migration for October 13 and mainnet migration October 29.
OP traded near $0.1511 with $232.25 million in daily volume and 25.47% weekly gains recorded.
Unichain will retain existing contracts, balances, chain identification, and Uniswap deployments following the scheduled migration.
Technical indicators placed immediate resistance near $0.16, with the 200-day exponential moving average at $0.1422.
According to CoinGecko, OP recorded approximately $232.25 million in daily trading volume, with its market capitalization reaching $348.33 million. The rally followed Uniswap’s October 9 announcement that Unichain would move its production infrastructure to OP Enterprise, with the mainnet migration scheduled for October 29. The token briefly approached $0.1625 before retreating toward $0.15.
Optimism price rises as Unichain prepares for migration
Optimism attracted renewed buying interest after Uniswap confirmed plans to transfer Unichain’s infrastructure operations to OP Enterprise. The transition will place responsibility for network operations, including sequencers, monitoring and transaction access services, with Optimism.
The market reaction pushed OP toward $0.1621 during the latest trading session, representing a temporary increase of nearly 20% from its earlier daily levels. However, the token surrendered part of those gains as selling pressure emerged near $0.16.
The latest CoinGecko snapshot placed OP at $0.1511, up 9.17% over 24 hours and 25.47% over the past week. Its circulating supply stood near 2.3 billion tokens, supporting a market valuation of approximately $348.33 million.
Earlier market observations recorded a 30-day gain of approximately 64%. Despite the recent recovery, OP remained roughly 68% below its price from a year earlier and 97% below its historical peak.
Trading volume increased alongside the rally. Earlier reports placed daily turnover near $226 million, approximately 128% above the previous session, before the supplied CoinGecko snapshot showed volume reaching $232.25 million.
The rally coincided with Uniswap’s announcement, although the available trading data does not establish how much of the price increase came directly from the planned migration.
Meanwhile, several major cryptocurrencies struggled as OP gained ground. NEAR Protocol fell roughly 4.7%, while Hyperliquid (HYPE) declined 1.7%. Bitcoin (BTC) slipped 0.20% to around $83,491, while Ethereum (ETH) rose approximately 1% to $2,503. Zcash (ZEC) gained 6.30% to $1,270, and Cardano (ADA) edged up 1% to $0.2364, according to CoinGecko data.
Unichain will move to OP Enterprise on October 29
Uniswap announced the migration on October 9, confirming that Unichain would adopt OP Enterprise to prepare for native communication between networks built on the OP Stack.
The rollout schedule identified October 13 for testnet migration and October 29 for mainnet migration. Uniswap’s announcement describes the dates as planned milestones, with the mainnet transition still pending as of October 14.
Through OP Enterprise, Optimism will operate Unichain’s production infrastructure. Its responsibilities include running sequencers on mainnet and testnet, providing remote procedure call services, monitoring network performance and responding to operational incidents.
Sequencers organize blockchain transactions before they are submitted for settlement. RPC services allow applications and wallets to communicate with the network, while monitoring systems help operators identify technical problems.
Uniswap confirmed that the transition would preserve Unichain’s existing chain ID, smart contracts, balances and applications. Deployments of Uniswap v2, v3 and v4 will remain unchanged.
For users, the company stated, “nothing changes.” Unichain will continue operating as a Stage 1 rollup with permissionless fault proofs, while contract upgrades remain subject to Optimism Governance and the Security Council.
The migration is intended to prepare Unichain for native interoperability across networks using the OP Stack. Once the feature becomes available, users are expected to transfer supported assets, beginning with ETH, between participating chains without using a separate bridge.
Uniswap has not announced a specific date for the activation of those native transfers. The October 29 migration therefore should not be treated as confirmation that cross-chain functionality will become immediately available.
Unichain already operates on technology developed within the Optimism ecosystem. Its February 2025 mainnet launch introduced an Ethereum layer-2 network built using the OP Stack.
The network began operating after several months of testing, during which its developers reported processing more than 100 million transactions.
Optimism price faces resistance near $0.16
While the announcement supported renewed market interest, the daily chart showed OP encountering selling pressure after reaching an intraday high near $0.1625.
The supplied technical analysis placed the token at $0.1524 after opening at $0.1586, representing a 3.85% decline within that daily candle. This differs from CoinGecko’s rolling 24-hour increase because the measurements cover different periods.
Despite the intraday pullback, Optimism remained above four closely watched exponential moving averages. Its 20-day EMA stood at $0.1345, followed by the 50-day EMA at $0.1223 and the 100-day EMA at $0.1160.
The 200-day EMA was positioned at $0.1422, below the latest market price. Trading above that longer-term average suggested an improvement in OP’s technical structure following months of weakness.
Optimism (OP) price chart, source: TradingView
However, the recent rejection near $0.1625 left immediate resistance between $0.16 and $0.1625. A sustained recovery above that region could bring $0.17 into focus, followed by $0.18 if buying pressure strengthens.
On the downside, the 200-day average near $0.1422 remains an important support level. A decline below it could expose the 20-day EMA at $0.1345, followed by the 50-day EMA at $0.1223.
The Relative Strength Index stood at 60.40, above its moving average of 56.36. The reading indicated positive momentum, although it remained below the conventional overbought threshold of 70.
An RSI reading above 50 generally indicates stronger upward momentum, while readings above 70 can suggest that an asset is becoming overbought. OP’s current position leaves room for additional gains, but the indicator does not guarantee a continued rally.
If the token remains above $0.1422, the latest technical structure would continue to support a potential retest of $0.16. Failure to hold that level would weaken the recovery and increase attention on lower moving averages.
Optimism has expanded its role across OP Stack networks
Optimism’s involvement in Unichain follows earlier efforts to expand the services available to networks built with its blockchain technology.
In January 2026, Optimism governance approved a proposal to allocate 50% of net Superchain sequencer revenue to OP token buybacks during a one-year trial.
The proposal received 84.4% approval from participating voters and established monthly token purchases beginning in February. Repurchased tokens are held in the Optimism treasury, with their future use subject to governance decisions.
The arrangement links part of the ecosystem’s operating revenue to OP purchases, although Uniswap’s latest announcement did not disclose any new revenue-sharing terms or projected income from the OP Enterprise migration.
The OP Stack already supports several Ethereum layer-2 networks. Unichain joined that group when its mainnet launched in February 2025, while other deployments have included networks developed by Coinbase and World.
Earlier this year, South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit partnered with Optimism on blockchain infrastructure designed for its own operations. The arrangement involved the OP Stack and a self-managed deployment model, allowing the exchange to control key infrastructure components.
For Unichain, the immediate next milestone remains its October 29 mainnet migration. Uniswap’s published schedule identifies Optimism as the operator of the production sequencers, RPC infrastructure, monitoring systems and incident response services following the transition.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Billionaire Paul says he will short U.S. stocks for the full year and holds long positions in oil.
Billionaire and legendary hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones told CNBC that 2027 could be a highly challenging year for U.S. stocks, with the market facing its most unfavorable capital flow environment since 2002. He noted that the corporate buyback and M&A trends that have supported U.S. equity gains in recent years may reverse, while AI giants’ IPOs and subsequent secondary offerings will further expand stock supply. Jones highlighted that potential listings of AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, plus financing needs for AI infrastructure development, could drive more corporate stock issuances. Comparing the current market to the eve of the dot-com bubble burst, he argued that a flurry of IPOs and stock lock-up expirations may exert sustained pressure on the market. Additionally, Jones warned that the U.S.’s widening fiscal deficit could eventually force the government to adjust fiscal policies amid market pressure; a $20–$25 oil price surge after the U.S. midterm elections would also likely hit stocks sharply. He said he holds long oil positions and bluntly stated: “I will be shorting the whole year.”
7 minutes ago
Binance will support the IoTeX (IOTX) network upgrade and hard fork.
Per an official announcement, Binance plans to suspend IoTeX (IOTX) token deposit and withdrawal services at 09:00 UTC+8 (China Standard Time) on October 19, 2026, to facilitate the network upgrade and hard fork. The measure is designed to deliver a seamless experience for users. The project team will execute the network upgrade and hard fork at block height 53,533,081, scheduled for approximately 10:00 UTC+8 on October 19, 2026.
7 minutes ago
Metric will launch a decentralized exchange (DEX) for tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on the Robinhood Chain.
Metric announced it will launch a decentralized exchange on Robinhood Chain, utilizing Active Pools and propAMM infrastructure, targeting tokenized real-world assets (RWA) with established market pricing.
7 minutes ago
A low-cost HYPE whale has cumulatively sold off tokens worth $22.49 million at a high point, generating returns exceeding 2119%.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi (@ai_9684xtpa), smart money holding HYPE with a cost base as low as $3.87 has been selling the token from $93 to $81, locking in an estimated profit of $21.48 million. Two hours ago, the entity deposited another 100,276 HYPE tokens (valued at approximately $8.17 million) to Kraken. Since September 28, the total amount of HYPE it has transferred to centralized exchanges (CEXs) now stands at 261,926.4 tokens, with a total value of $22.49 million. The average deposit price is $85.87, delivering a return of over 2119%.
7 minutes ago
U.S. overall inflation in September likely to see its largest increase in five months, putting October's interest rate hike expectations to the test.
Latest market projections show U.S. September headline CPI is expected to rise 0.6% month-over-month, up from August’s 0.4% and potentially marking its largest monthly gain in five months. The year-over-year CPI increase is forecast to climb from 3.4% to 3.6%. Driven by Middle East tensions and oil prices, rising energy costs are likely the main catalyst for accelerating inflation. For core CPI, markets expect a 0.2% month-over-month rise and 2.5% year-over-year gain, with the monthly pace slowing from the prior period. Goldman Sachs projects September energy prices to rise around 5% month-over-month, while housing inflation continues to cool. The divergence between headline and core inflation trends may complicate the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments. Fed officials remain divided on their next policy move. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester believes inflationary pressures are spreading to more sectors and is open to a rate hike at the end of October; Governor Christopher Waller, however, has said there is no need for consecutive rate hikes at two back-to-back meetings. Markets will closely watch whether this data will shift expectations for the interest rate path in October and December. U.S. September CPI will be released at 20:30 tonight, September PPI will be released on Thursday, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on Friday. If CPI comes in higher than expected, it may reinforce expectations of further policy tightening; if core inflation slows, it may support the Fed pausing rate hikes.
7 minutes ago
Whale Rotates $89.5M from $BTC to $ETH Over 3 Days
This mysterious whale continues to rotate from $BTC into $ETH.
Over the past 3 days, the whale has sold 1,074.36 $BTC ($89.5M) and bought 36,159 $ETH ($90.6M).
Optimism’s OP token rose approximately 18% on October 13, 2026, trading between $0.13 and $0.16 during the session.
That single-day move caps a month in which OP climbed somewhere between 62% and 66%.
Over a matched window of roughly four weeks, Bitcoin gained around 9% and Ether gained around 3%.
The numbers behind the move
OP’s run has momentum across several timeframes. The token was up around 21% over seven days, on top of the 30-day gain of 62% to 66%.
OP’s market capitalization now sits between $350 million and $365 million. Circulating supply is around 2.3 billion tokens, against a maximum supply of 4.29 billion.
OP did not win the month outright, though. Starknet’s STRK, a competing scaling token, surged 322% over the previous four weeks.
What’s been happening under the hood
Optimism is a layer-2 network, meaning it runs on top of Ethereum to handle transactions faster and more cheaply.
The project also anchors the Superchain, its vision of many networks built on shared Optimism technology that can talk to one another.
In September 2026, Optimism governance approved Upgrade 20. The update targets better Superchain interoperability and improvements to fault proofs, the system that lets users challenge invalid transactions.
Upgrade 20 also allocates 50% of Superchain revenue to OP token buybacks, starting in February 2027.
Unichain announced its testnet migration to OP Enterprise on October 13, the same day as OP’s jump. A mainnet follow-up is planned for October 29.
Across the Pacific, partnerships in South Korea are taking shape. KB Securities and Securitize are among the names exploring tokenized money-market funds on OP Mainnet.
What this means for traders and the layer-2 race
The buybacks do not begin until February 2027, so the current price action reflects expectations rather than any buying that has already happened.
OP’s sub-$400 million market cap leaves it more sensitive to flows than the giants.
STRK’s 322% surge complicates any tidy narrative about Optimism winning the scaling wars. Capital appears to be rotating into layer-2 tokens broadly, and OP is one beneficiary rather than the only one.
With around 2.3 billion of 4.29 billion tokens circulating, future unlocks could add selling pressure that offsets some of the enthusiasm.
The near-term checklist looks fairly clear. Watch the October 29 Unichain mainnet date, any concrete announcements from the South Korean partners, and how Superchain revenue develops ahead of the February 2027 buyback start.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Uniswap’s Layer 2 network Unichain is moving to Optimism’s OP Enterprise stack, handing production operations to Optimism while leaving the chain’s user-facing state intact. The testnet migrates on October 13 and the mainnet follows on October 29, according to the Uniswap announcement.
For anyone using the network, the switch is designed to be invisible. Unichain’s chain ID, deployed contracts, balances, and applications all stay the same, and the Uniswap v2, v3, and v4 deployments continue to run without interruption. The migration adds to a busy stretch of Uniswap protocol work, which recently included a StablePair hook for stablecoin pairs.
Why Unichain Is Moving to OP Enterprise
The upgrade prepares Unichain for native interoperability across the OP Stack, the modular framework developed by Optimism. Once interoperability is live, assets can move between Unichain and other OP Stack chains without a bridge, starting with ETH. Moving onto OP Enterprise also gives Unichain first access to native interoperability and OP Stack releases as Optimism ships them.
On the operations side, Optimism will run the production stack: sequencers on mainnet and testnet, RPC access, monitoring, and incident response. Unichain remains a Stage 1 rollup with permissionless fault proofs, and contract upgrades stay under Optimism Governance and the Security Council, as they do today.
What Stays the Same for Users
Uniswap is explicit that “for Unichain users, nothing changes.” Wallets keep addressing the same chain ID, so no reconfiguration is needed, and existing balances, contracts, and applications remain in place.
What shifts is the infrastructure behind the chain. The sequencer, which orders transactions into blocks, is the most consequential operational lever on a Layer 2, and it now sits with Optimism alongside RPC and incident response. The main user-facing benefit, bridge-free asset movement, arrives only after interoperability ships and applies to ETH first.
What Happens Next
The October 13 testnet migration gives developers roughly two weeks to validate tooling and contracts before the mainnet moves on October 29. Unichain users should expect no downtime or required action, and the first visible change will come later as native interoperability begins to roll out. For developers, the testnet window is the moment to confirm that wallets, indexers, and tooling resolve correctly against the new foundation before real value moves across it.
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PANews reported on October 12 that, according to SoSoValue data, the crypto market was mixed across sectors. The Layer 2 sector rose 6.62% over 24 hours, with Starknet (STRK) up 111.53%, while Optimism (OP), Celestia (TIA) and zkSync (ZK) gained 15.45%, 20.38% and 34.23%, respectively. Meanwhile, the DePIN sector rose 6.24%, with Grass (GRASS) up 49.41% and Filecoin (FIL) up 13.91%.
In addition, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 1.43% to break above $83,000, and Ethereum (ETH) rose 0.14% to break above $2,500.
Other standout sectors included: the RWA sector, up 4.74% over 24 hours, with Plume (PLUME) gaining 22.68%; the DeFi sector, up 2.29%, with Wormhole (W) gaining 37.16%; the PayFi sector, up 0.86%, with Zcash (ZEC) gaining 6.47%; and the Layer 1 sector, up 0.61%, with NEAR Protocol (NEAR) gaining 15.52%.
Elsewhere, the Meme sector fell 0.58%, with MemeCore (M) down 12.49%, and the CeFi sector fell 0.72%, with Cronos (CRO) down 1.43%.
Crypto sector indices reflecting historical sector performance showed that the ssiDePIN, ssiRWA and ssiDeFi indices rose 6.37%, 4.74% and 1.94%, respectively.
Optimism [OP] sees a bullish rebound following a price decline on the 7th of October that saw the asset fall roughly 12%. The pullback coincided with declining on-chain performance, Total Value Locked (TVL), and DEX volume.
However, off-chain market activity has driven the recent 11% price surge, as capital inflows and market positioning support the potential for further price gains in the near term.
OP’s derivatives market points to further gains The perpetual market position remains strongly bullish, with Open Interest (OI) and the Funding Rate being the key indicators suggesting this.
OI in itself does not necessarily imply a bullish or bearish position in the market, but measures capital in the perpetual market.
In the past 24 hours, Optimism‘s OI surged significantly, reaching a high of roughly $107.82 million following a 17.25% increase as of writing, confirming an inflow of $18.98 million.
Source: CoinGlass In addition to this, there has been a positive Funding Rate reading of 0.0096%. The Funding Rate measures whether long or short positions are dominating the capital positions in the perpetual market.
When positive, it indicates that the bulls are in more control, with more long positions than short positions in the market. These conditions suggest there is a chance that the price will still move higher in the near term.
Whale activity supports OP’s bullish outlook Capital flows and broader market sentiment have been whale-dominated, with the Whale-Retail Delta confirming this.
The Whale-Retail Delta measures whether whales, investors with large capital, or retail short-term traders have been in control, based on a positive or negative reading.
Source: CoinGlass At press time, the reading was positive at 0.332, but the slight drop on the 9th of October indicates that retail participation is currently playing a role.
Binance whales played a significant role in the activity, with the Whale Long/Short Ratio metric showing a high buy-volume reading of 2.24. On Bybit, however, whales have taken a neutral stance.
Market sentiment remains positive Sentiment remains bullish, as one would anticipate with an asset rallying. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that market sentiment remains positive, with a reading of 4.68 as of writing.
The sentiment indicator operates between -10 and 10 on the scale. When the scale tilts towards a high positive reading, as it has presently, it confirms that the bulls are in control of the price.
Given the market sentiment, there is a high chance that Optimism crypto‘s price will continue to maintain the bullish level it has sustained over the past couple of trading hours.
Final Summary Optimism saw Open Interest rise 17.25% to $107.82 million, reflecting $18.98 million in capital inflows. Positive Funding Rates, whale activity, and a CoinGlass sentiment reading of 4.68 support a bullish outlook for OP.
Optimism [OP] was not spared by the capital outflow that the crypto market has seen in the past day, with $91.76 billion leaving the market. As a result, OP fell 12% at press time.
Fundamentally, there are factors that could be attributed to the recent loss. One is the on-chain activity and volume of trading activity that has been on a declining streak over the past couple of days.
Optimism sees on-chain activity decline There’s been a capital exit that is presently ongoing in the market, with roughly $14.33 million exiting the total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama. TVL has been declining since October 5th, with a current value of $485.95 billion.
When there’s a decline in TVL over 36 hours, it’s a sign that investors may be anticipating a short-term decline in the asset. The most evident reason for this drop has been the volume activity across decentralized exchanges on the OP mainnet.
Source: DeFiLlama The data shows that while volume across these DEXes peaked on September 3 at about $495 million, it has since declined notably to its normalized level of roughly $21 million, according to data from DeFiLlama.
Declining activity at this scale often implies that there’s less usage across the chain, as well as less utility for its native OP token.
Can OP rebound from the demand zone? There’s potential for a possible rebound for OP in the near term, depending solely on how price performs at its present level, where it currently trades.
Chart analysis indicates that OP has now dropped into a demand zone on the chart that played a role in the asset’s most recent upswing. If this demand level holds, there’s a chance the price rallies back to its previous local high on the chart at $0.15.
Source: TradingView It’s important to watch the Accumulation/Distribution indicator to track the potential for a possible rebound in price. This is a volume-weighted indicator that tracks whether investors are buying or selling their holdings into the market.
At the time of writing, the A/D indicator has dropped to roughly -12.8 million in weighted volume on the chart. If this drop continues, there’s a potential that the price invalidates the demand zone, trending further lower.
For now, examining the A/D could provide the needed insight into whether the market sees a rebound or further downside on the table.
Market sentiment remains neutral Market sentiment, according to CoinMarketCap, has remained neutral. This implies that investors are not decisive on whether the present bearish condition would persist, and neither are they optimistic about a potential bullish takeover.
While there’s been no confirmation yet that there’s a rebound on the table, investors sitting on the sidelines may not be great for a rebound. But this remains to watch, as a change in sentiment may precede a price trend.
Source: CoinGlass Final Summary Optimism’s OP token has declined 12% as TVL and DEX trading volume continue to fall, pointing to weakening on-chain activity. OP has entered a demand zone, but a sustained decline in the A/D indicator could expose the token to further downside.
Key Takeaways AMD shares are currently trading at $633.91, approaching the 52-week peak of $645.46. Stifel has upgraded its AMD price target from $635 to $700 while maintaining a Buy recommendation. CEO Lisa Su confirms that semiconductor demand continues to exceed production capacity with relief expected in 2027. The chipmaker’s valuation has reached $1.03 trillion following a 285% surge in the last twelve months. Su emphasizes the need for industry collaboration on AI safety standards as technology adoption accelerates. Advanced Micro Devices is currently valued at $633.91 per share, hovering near its annual peak of $645.46. This performance has propelled the semiconductor manufacturer to a $1.03 trillion market capitalization, reflecting impressive investor returns of 285% year-over-year.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD
Investment firm Stifel recently reaffirmed its bullish stance on the semiconductor company. The firm elevated its twelve-month price objective to $700 from the previous $635 level while reiterating its Buy recommendation.
According to Stifel analyst Ruben Roy, the company’s server processor division represents the primary catalyst for future expansion. Roy emphasized that growth limitations stem from ecosystem infrastructure and DRAM availability rather than weak customer interest.
The analyst highlighted two critical factors for investors to monitor going forward: initial revenue contributions from the MI450 platform and profit margin performance in the final quarter.
CEO Addresses Supply Chain Constraints During a visit to Taiwan this week, CEO Lisa Su met with manufacturing partners including TSMC and delivered clear remarks to the press: customer orders continue to surpass available production.
“We have also increased our own supply and capacity in 2026, but I can say that the demand is even higher than our supply,” Su explained. She indicated that more substantial capacity expansions will arrive in 2027.
Su’s observations align with broader industry sentiment. Memory manufacturer Micron recently issued optimistic forward guidance, while electronics manufacturer Hon Hai reported quarterly revenue figures that exceeded analyst projections.
However, not all market participants share this enthusiasm. Some analysts remain cautious about potential overcapacity risks, mounting corporate debt levels, and emerging regulatory challenges facing the semiconductor sector.
The executive also addressed artificial intelligence governance during her Taiwan visit. While describing AI as “incredibly good for the world,” Su stressed that leading AI developers must establish cooperative safety frameworks as deployment expands.
She referenced the Trump administration’s recently announced Super Intelligence Force as a positive development. “The most important part of this is that we work together as an ecosystem,” she stated.
Strategic Position and Market Dynamics The semiconductor manufacturer crossed the trillion-dollar valuation threshold last month. This milestone followed renewed investor interest in CPU producers after Meta unveiled its latest AI agent technology.
The firm maintains competitive positions across multiple segments. It challenges Intel in conventional processor markets while simultaneously competing against Nvidia in AI accelerator hardware used for machine learning model development.
AMD recently announced plans to acquire artificial intelligence startup World Labs in an $8.2 billion transaction. Management views this acquisition as strategic expansion of its model portfolio and technological capabilities ahead of quarterly results.
Stifel anticipates the chipmaker will deliver better-than-expected September quarter results with raised forward guidance. The firm advises investors to focus on management commentary regarding the Helios platform and World Labs integration strategy.
From a valuation perspective, AMD currently trades at a price-to-earnings multiple of 161.4. According to InvestingPro’s assessment, current share prices appear elevated relative to calculated Fair Value estimates.
Stifel’s research also covered competing semiconductor manufacturers. The firm expects market focus to shift toward Nvidia’s Vera Rubin shipment volumes in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027, along with sustained gross margin performance in the 72% to 73% range despite rising memory component costs.
Regarding Intel, Stifel maintained its Hold recommendation. The firm believes that securing outside foundry or packaging clients, combined with the 2027 capital expenditure roadmap, carries more significance than modest earnings outperformance.
Additional Wall Street firms including Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald have issued positive assessments on AMD in recent weeks. Both maintained optimistic ratings with $700 price targets matching Stifel’s updated forecast, citing the World Labs transaction and forthcoming Helios product launches as key growth drivers.
ether.fi entered into a three-way infrastructure partnership with decentralised lending protocol Aave and layer-2 network Optimism to expand the borrowing capacity underpinning its ether.fi Cash Visa card. The company says it will deploy a dedicated Aave V4 lending instance on Optimism’s OP Mainnet, targeting $500 million in lending capacity by 2027, up from approximately $22 million currently outstanding across its cardholder base. The move is presented as a response to outgrowing in-house credit infrastructure. ether.fi Cash, which launched in partnership with Visa in 2024, now counts 100,000 active cardholders across 300,000 registered accounts, a scale the company says has made bespoke lending architecture necessary rather than optional.
How the infrastructure stack works The technical arrangement assigns a specific role to each partner. Aave V4 provides a single lending market capable of accepting a wide range of collateral types held by cardholders: Ethereum derivatives, wrapped Bitcoin, stablecoins, platform tokens and vault receipts. Crucially, Aave V4 issues risk parameters on a per-asset basis within that unified market, which matters when collateral quality varies as widely as it does across a retail crypto user base.
Optimism’s OP Mainnet supplies the execution layer. The rationale is latency and cost: consumer card spending demands near-instant settlement at a price point that is commercially viable for sub-hundred-dollar transactions, conditions that Optimism’s rollup architecture is intended to meet.
Mike Silagadze, founder and chief executive of ether.fi, framed the ambition broadly. “Aave and Optimism are the right partners to help us scale from tens of millions to half a billion dollars in lending capacity. This partnership is about making it possible for anyone holding digital assets to use them like real financial capital, without ever having to sell,” he said.
Dan Roesbery, vice president of global crypto partnerships at Visa, noted that ether.fi Cash was helping bridge on-chain capital with everyday spending, though the statement did not add commercial detail to that claim.
Market context and competitive read-across The announcement lands against a backdrop of accelerating crypto card volume. According to data cited in the release from research firm Artemis, monthly crypto card spending rose from around $100 million in early 2023 to more than $1.5 billion by late 2025. Separate data from a16z and Paymentscan put July 2026 global crypto card spending at $759 million across roughly nine million transactions, approximately 2.5 times the $306 million recorded in July 2025. Optimism is reported to account for around 29% of that volume, ahead of Solana and Base, which each carry approximately 19%.
The credit-against-crypto model that ether.fi Cash uses sits in a structurally interesting position in the payments landscape. It competes not only with other crypto card issuers but, more broadly, with collateralised lending products offered by centralised exchanges and with the emerging cohort of DeFi-native credit facilities. The distinction ether.fi stresses is non-custodial ownership: cardholders are said to retain full ownership of their digital assets while drawing credit against them, which removes the counterparty risk present in exchange-based borrowing but introduces smart contract risk in its place.
For Optimism, the partnership is the latest in a series of institutional infrastructure deals. The network recently signed an MOU with South Korean fintech Toss to pilot a won-backed stablecoin, and has agreements covering Bitpanda‘s Vision Chain and Mitsui and Co.’s tokenised metals platform, Zipangcoin. Each deal reinforces Optimism’s positioning as a managed infrastructure provider for regulated and semi-regulated financial use cases rather than a purely retail-speculative chain.
The key milestones to watch are whether the $500 million lending capacity target is reached on schedule, which collateral types prove most popular in practice, and how the arrangement is treated by regulators as crypto card products draw increasing attention from payments supervisors in both the UK and the EU under evolving digital assets frameworks.
AI level 1 of 5: written by Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, structure or wording; edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean
The perpetual futures market has become one of crypto’s most competitive arenas, with dozens of platforms battling over the same pool of traders. At Cointelegraph’s CONNECT event in Seoul on September 29, Kyle Jenke, Optimism’s Chief Business Officer, offered a pointed thesis on what separates the winners from the rest: owning your infrastructure.
Jenke’s argument boils down to a simple idea. Exchanges that build and control their own dedicated chains can fine-tune everything from execution speed to compliance tooling, while those relying on shared or rented infrastructure are stuck working within someone else’s constraints.
Why infrastructure ownership matters for perps Perpetual futures, or perps, are derivative contracts that let traders bet on asset prices without expiration dates. They’re wildly popular in crypto because they offer leverage and flexibility, but they also demand serious backend performance. Latency, throughput, and reliable order matching aren’t luxuries for perp platforms. They’re survival requirements.
Jenke’s case is that the exchanges seeing the most traction have invested in dedicated infrastructure rather than deploying on general-purpose chains where they compete for block space with NFT mints, memecoins, and everything else. This is where Optimism’s OP Stack comes in, a modular framework that lets organizations spin up their own Layer 2 chains on Ethereum.
Kraken’s Ink chain serves as perhaps the clearest example of this thesis in action. Built on OP Stack, Ink has introduced native perps products and experienced rapid growth in total value locked. By running its own chain, Kraken can prioritize the transaction types and execution guarantees that matter most to derivatives traders without worrying about congestion from unrelated activity.
Dedicated infrastructure also gives exchanges granular control over compliance parameters. An exchange running its own chain can implement KYC gates, transaction monitoring, and jurisdiction-specific rules at the protocol level rather than bolting them on as afterthoughts.
Optimism’s deepening roots in South Korea Jenke’s appearance at CONNECT wasn’t a one-off. He also spoke at Ethereum Korea One the day before, on September 28, underscoring Optimism’s focused push into the South Korean market.
Upbit, South Korea’s dominant crypto exchange, announced its GIWA Chain in May 2026 as the first Self-Managed OP Enterprise deployment. In July, Optimism established a proof of concept for a Korean won stablecoin with Toss, one of the country’s most popular fintech platforms. That same month, DB Securities partnered with Optimism to explore real-world asset tokenization and security token offerings. Then in September, KB Securities, one of Korea’s largest brokerages, launched tokenized products through an Optimism partnership.
The competitive landscape shifts When an exchange controls its own block production, it can guarantee execution speeds and transaction ordering in ways that are impossible on shared infrastructure. For high-frequency and algorithmic traders, that kind of reliability isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the reason they choose one platform over another.
For the South Korean market specifically, Korea Blockchain Week, which hosted the CONNECT event, has become one of Asia’s premier crypto gatherings. Liquidity depth, regulatory compliance, and execution quality dominated the discussion, topics that map directly onto the infrastructure-ownership thesis.
Disclosure: This article was edited by John Chen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Bitget has begun restoring withdrawals after the September 24 security incident, starting with BTC on September 28.
The exchange has identified the attack path, remediated the vulnerability and confirmed that user balances remain unaffected, with a full security report expected this week.
Phased withdrawal resumption beginsBTC withdrawals on the Bitcoin and BSC networks resumed at 08:00 UTC on September 28, as scheduled. The resumption follows additional security work across Bitget’s withdrawal infrastructure.
Earlier the same day, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen addressed the incident, the withdrawal process and next steps during a live AMA.
Eight years of security and what comes nextThe September 24 incident is the first security incident of this nature affecting Bitget Exchange in eight years of operation. The vulnerability has been remediated, and no further unauthorized transfers have been identified since containment.
The security environment around digital assets has changed significantly over that period. Attacks have become more sophisticated, infrastructure more interconnected, and the consequences of a security failure more serious.
Bitget’s security framework has evolved alongside those risks. Over the past eight years, the company has strengthened its wallet infrastructure and risk controls, introduced monthly Proof of Reserves and established a dedicated User Protection Fund.
Bitget currently reports a comprehensive Proof of Reserves ratio of 127%, while the User Protection Fund stands at more than $464 million.
That record does not diminish the seriousness of the incident. It sets the standard against which Bitget’s response should now be measured.
How the attack happenedThe investigation found that the attacker exploited a vulnerability in a third-party security product to obtain high-level internal credentials. These credentials were used to send fraudulent withdrawal commands to the wallet system.
The resulting abnormal transfers bypassed risk controls. Private keys were not compromised, and cold wallets were not affected.
Bitget recognizes that the security of third-party systems integrated into its infrastructure forms part of its own security responsibility. Following the incident, the company has introduced stricter assessment criteria for third-party products, stronger controls around their deployment and independent verification for withdrawals.
It is also strengthening internal access controls, withdrawal verification and abnormal activity monitoring across the platform.
Investigation and recoveryBitget has confirmed that approximately $388 million in assets were transferred out during the incident. The figure reflects the latest reconciliation and classification of transactions associated with this incident.
Mandiant and SlowMist continue to support the independent forensic investigation. Their work covers the attack vectors and methods used, validation of containment and remediation measures, and asset tracing.
Bitget is also working with law enforcement, exchanges, blockchain projects, on-chain security specialists and other industry partners on tracing and recovery. Some affected assets have already been frozen, and Bitget has published identified attacker addresses and relevant tracing data.
Bitget expects to complete an official security report this week. Detailed findings will be disclosed through that report, with further material developments shared as they are verified.
Withdrawal scheduleETH withdrawals across Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism are scheduled to resume on September 29 at 08:00 UTC. USDT withdrawals across Ethereum, BSC, Solana and Tron follow on September 30 at 08:00 UTC.
Other supported tokens, fiat and P2P services are set to resume on October 2 at 08:00 UTC. Withdrawal availability will continue to be reflected directly on the Bitget platform.
As of 09:00 UTC on September 28, 9,585 users had initiated withdrawals, totalling approximately 4,098 BTC since resumption. Withdrawal status is currently normal.
User and institutional programsAlongside the withdrawal resumption, Bitget is introducing two limited-time programs for eligible users and professional clients.
The Bitget Alliance Program allows eligible users to share in transaction fees generated through trading activity on the platform. It runs from September 28 at 08:00 UTC to October 26 at 08:00 UTC. Full details are available here.
Project Stand Together offers eligible PRO clients and market makers special fee discounts and extended PRO level protection. Preferential rates run from September 28 at 10:00 UTC to October 30 at 09:00 UTC, while PRO level protection runs through November 30 at 09:00 UTC. Full details are available here.
Bitget will continue providing updates as the investigation, withdrawal resumption and asset recovery progress.
Disclaimer
This third-party press release is published substantially as received and does not reflect BeInCrypto's editorial views. BeInCrypto has not independently verified its claims or assessed the suitability, legality or appropriateness of any referenced asset, product or service; publication is not an endorsement. The content is general information, not investment research, financial, investment, legal or tax advice, a personal recommendation, offer or solicitation. Verify all information and seek professional advice where appropriate before acting. Crypto-assets may result in total loss.
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
CryptoQuant: Bitcoin's unrealized profits and take-profit volumes rise in tandem, market faces correction risk.
CryptoQuant Research Head Julio Moreno stated that amid Bitcoin’s recent rally, the market’s unrealized profit rate climbed to 33%, reaching its highest level since December 2024. At the same time, Bitcoin’s take-profit volume rose to 25,700 BTC, marking the highest level since 2026. Moreno pointed out that the simultaneous increase in the unrealized profit rate and take-profit volume typically signals that the current upward momentum is weakening, leaving the market facing a correction risk.
8 minutes ago
US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to Step Down on October 2nd
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Peirce has officially submitted her resignation and will step down on October 2. Peirce, who has served at the SEC for approximately 8 years, is known in the industry as the "Crypto Mom" for her longstanding advocacy of establishing a clear, rule-based regulatory framework for the crypto sector. Since February 4, 2025, Peirce has also served as head of the SEC’s Crypto Working Group, driving research into how existing securities laws apply to digital assets and decentralized systems. Her term as an SEC commissioner expired in June 2025, but under relevant regulations, she may continue serving for approximately 18 months until a successor is appointed. Peirce is expected to join the Regent University School of Law in Virginia in November as an associate professor, where she will conduct teaching and research in areas including federal litigation, securities regulation, and digital assets. Following her departure, the SEC will temporarily have only two Republican members: Chairman Paul Atkins and Commissioner Mark Uyeda, and the seat she is vacating may not be filled immediately.
8 minutes ago
Ansem: Airdrops remain a key catalyst for driving trading activity back on-chain.
Crypto trader Ansem stated that airdrops remain one of the strongest catalysts driving users and trading activity back on-chain. During the previous market cycle, trading terminals recorded massive trading volumes, yet many of these platforms have still not offered rewards to their users. Ansem argues that as competition between platforms to secure traders intensifies, rewarding early users will prove an effective means of building user loyalty and retaining liquidity. Past experience demonstrates that well-timed airdrops can unlock substantial on-chain activity, and he anticipates this strategy will reemerge in the current cycle.
8 minutes ago
Ten days after Arc’s mainnet launch, its DeFi total value locked (TVL) exceeds $490 million, with a 44.52% growth over the past week.
According to DefiLlama data, Circle's public chain Arc has reached $494 million in DeFi total value locked (TVL) 10 days after its mainnet launch. It grew 44.52% over the past week, ranking first in growth rate among top blockchains. In terms of DEX trading volume, the network recorded $55 million in trading volume in the past 24 hours.
8 minutes ago
A trader went long on NEAR worth $28.48 million, with an unrealized profit of $14.74 million currently.
According to monitoring by Onchain Lens, trader MK4 (@mk4_lul) currently holds open positions worth $43.63 million, with an unrealized profit of approximately $12.95 million. His largest position is a long NEAR trade: ? Holding 5.84 million NEAR tokens, valued at roughly $28.48 million; ? Average entry price: $2.35; ? Unrealized profit: ~$14.74 million; ? Cumulative historical profit and loss: ~$57.04 million (from spot and perpetual contracts).
8 minutes ago
Vitalik Buterin tests a mobile offline knowledge app, aiming to enable offline queries of all world facts.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin wrote in a post that he is testing a community-developed offline local knowledge application for mobile devices. The app works significantly better than the version he built himself two months ago, though it still lags behind models running on laptops in solving challenging problems. His evaluations included queries such as "the best vegan restaurant in my current city"—notably, all such apps currently perform poorly on travel-specific questions. Buterin thanked the relevant developers, expressing anticipation for further improvements and hoping to soon be able to query any world facts he cares about without an internet connection.
Editor’s Note: The ETFs tracking benchmark indices, lede and the headline were updated in the story.
U.S. stocks look set for a positive opening on Friday, with futures of the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rising, after closing Thursday on a mixed note.
Contributing to the optimism are comments from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who proposed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on a nuclear deal within seven days, provided that President Donald Trump agrees to accept conditions set forth by Iran.
"If certain conditions are met, the Strait of Hormuz will be open at the end of seven days, and talks will be restarted. The conditions we have asked the U.S. to meet are nothing new, nothing more than what was already in the Islamabad MOU, which was signed by the U.S. President," Araghchi told reporters on the sidelines of the UNGA, according to a report by Iran International.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 5.175%, and the 30-year bond was at 5.469%, while the two-year yields stood at 4.895%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool’s projections show markets pricing a 66.4% likelihood of the Federal Reserve hiking the current interest rates during its October meeting.
IndexPerformance (+/-)Dow Jones0.36%S&P 5000.37%Nasdaq 1000.66%Russell 20000.4%The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, were higher in premarket on Friday. The SPY was up 0.41% at $770.4, while the QQQ gained 0.72% to $746.43.
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Stocks In FocusAkamai Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) shares are in focus on Friday after the company announced a $11.6 billion seven-year deal with Anthropic for CPU infrastructure. Akamai shares were up 23.38% pre-market. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AKAM maintains a strong price trend in the long, medium and short terms. Costco Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:COST) reported better-than-expected results during the fourth quarter. Its earnings per share stood at $6.75, while revenue came in at $95.72 billion. Costco shares were down 0.17% in Friday’s pre-market trade. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that COST maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium and short terms. Scholastic Scholastic Corp. (NASDAQ:SCHL) shares are in focus on Friday after the company’s first-quarter results missed Wall Street expectations. Scholastic shares were down 10.22% pre-market. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that SCHL maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium and short terms. Tamboran Resources Tamboran Resources Corp. (NYSE:TBN) shares rose 4.86% pre-market ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter results, due before the opening bell. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that TBN maintains a strong price trend in the long, medium, and short terms, with a good momentum score. People People Inc. (NASDAQ:PPLI) shares were up 10.92% pre-market after a report by The Wall Street Journal stated that MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) is discussing taking over People. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that PPLI maintains a weak price trend in the long, medium and short terms. Cues From Last SessionMost S&P 500 sectors ended Thursday’s session lower, led by declines in materials, utilities and consumer staples stocks. Communication services and health care were the exceptions, finishing the session in positive territory.
Insights From AnalystsAnalysts at Schwab Center for Financial Research said in a note on Friday that Treasury yields edged lower across the curve yesterday, with longer-dated yields coming under greater pressure following the rate hike. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.93%, retreating from 19-year highs above 5% earlier this week.
While it was only a one-session move, the analysts highlighted that the pullback may indicate that the bond market welcomed the Fed’s firm stance on inflation, which has remained stubbornly above the central bank’s 2% target for years.
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The firm added that yields may also be easing modestly after their sharp climb following the Fed’s rate hike. It was the first increase since 2023 and signaled that Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is willing to back up his hawkish rhetoric with action.
Still, the analysts added that a 25-basis-point hike is unlikely to have a significant impact on energy-driven inflation, which pushed U.S. diesel prices above $6 a gallon this week. Diesel powers the trucks and trains that transport most goods across the country, raising the risk of either higher prices for consumers or tighter profit margins for companies, the firm said.
Upcoming Economic DataHere’s what investors will be keeping an eye on Friday:
August’s durable goods orders data will be released by 8:30 a.m. ET. University of Michigan’s final consumer sentiment survey data will be out by 10 a.m. ET. Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity MarketsCrude Oil WTI futures were trading lower in the early New York session by 1.9% to hover around $92.81 per barrel.
Gold Spot US Dollar rose 0.82% to hover around $4,308.84 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.25% lower at the 101.03 level.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 1.2% higher at $84,544.06 per coin over the last 24 hours.
Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising, while China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indexes declined. India’s Nifty 50 rose, while Australia’s ASX 200 index closed in the red. European markets rose in early trade.
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen shared key takeaways from her earlier live stream on social media, including: 1. Affected assets include ETH, XRP, BNB, AVAX, USDT, USDC and other tokens, spanning Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, BSC and Base. All on-chain cold wallets have been confirmed secure and were not impacted. 2. Bitget has contacted all affected chain foundations; some foundations have confirmed freezing hacker wallet addresses. The team will continue to follow up on relevant channels and release updates. 3. Bitget stated that based on IP behavioral characteristics and on-chain analysis, the attack method is highly consistent with known patterns of North Korean hacker groups. The platform has reported the incident to relevant authorities and is cooperating with global investigations. 4. Bitget Wallet operates on fully independent infrastructure from the Bitget exchange. This incident had no impact on Bitget Wallet, and all assets in Bitget Wallet are completely secure. 5. Regarding the platform’s financial status, Bitget said that in addition to its over $464 million protection fund, its own assets exceed $1 billion, with user funds fully backed at a 1:1 ratio, and all related data is verifiable on-chain. 6. On the timeline for resuming withdrawals, Bitget noted its goal is to complete a full recovery as soon as possible. A specific time window will be announced immediately once confirmed, and the platform will not commit to unachievable deadlines.
KB Securities Signs Tokenization MOU With Optimism and SecuritizeKB Securities, one of South Korea's leading brokerage firms and a subsidiary of KB Financial Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Optimism and Securitize to bring tokenized financial products to domestic institutional investors. The three parties will use OP Mainnet as the on-chain infrastructure for the initiative.
KB Financial Group is Korea's largest financial services group, with subsidiaries spanning banking, insurance, and asset management.
Two Initial Products Planned, With Broader Ambitions Ahead
adding a further local connection to the initiative.
Sources:
Optimism Foundation: KB Securities x Securitize x Optimism MOU Announcement
Crypto Times: Securitize, KB Securities, Optimism Foundation Sign Korea Tokenization MOU
Crypto News: KB Securities Taps Securitize, Optimism for Korean Tokenized Funds
TL;DR Optimism says aggregate TVL across the Superchain has moved above $14 billion. The figure combines multiple OP Stack networks rather than representing OP Mainnet alone. The milestone highlights the growing economic footprint of Base, World Chain and other interconnected OP Stack chains. Optimism’s Superchain has crossed a reported $14 billion in aggregate total value locked, giving the OP Stack another way to measure how far the ecosystem has expanded beyond a single Layer 2.
The number combines several networks built around Optimism’s shared technology rather than measuring OP Mainnet on its own.
The Superchain Is Bigger Than Optimism Mainnet That distinction matters.
The broader Superchain includes networks such as Base, World Chain and other OP Stack deployments that operate their own applications and user bases while sharing parts of the same technical roadmap.
Adding their TVL together creates a view of the capital sitting across the wider ecosystem.
It does not mean $14 billion is locked directly on OP Mainnet.
That makes the metric useful for understanding platform reach, but less useful if it is compared directly with the TVL of a single chain.
Interoperability Is The Bigger Bet Optimism’s long-term strategy is not simply to make one rollup larger.
It is to make many OP Stack chains behave more like parts of one interoperable system.
Upcoming work around shared proofs, messaging and cross-chain state is aimed at reducing the friction between those networks.
If that succeeds, aggregate metrics such as Superchain TVL may become more meaningful because capital could move more naturally across the ecosystem.
For now, the $14 billion figure shows scale rather than seamless interoperability.
Users still experience separate chains, bridges and application environments.
But the economic footprint is already large enough that Optimism can credibly talk about an ecosystem of chains instead of a single Layer 2.
The next stage is making that ecosystem feel as connected in practice as it looks on an aggregate dashboard.
For developers choosing where to deploy, the Superchain thesis also changes the decision from picking a single Layer 2 to joining a broader technical family. Shared tooling and standards can lower development costs, while future interoperability could make users less sensitive to which OP Stack chain an application actually lives on. That is the strategic promise behind the aggregate TVL figure. The ecosystem has already accumulated meaningful capital across separate chains; Optimism now has to prove that those chains can become more connected without recreating the security and liquidity fragmentation that rollups were supposed to reduce.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
KB Securities, part of Korea’s largest bank, has taken its first public step in tokenizing its business through migrating some of its traditional Korean financial products onto the Optimism [OP] Mainnet.
By doing so, they will be pairing their extensive institutional distribution channel with Securitize’s tokenization platform, as well as Optimism’s settlement layer.
It starts with a tokenized money market fund and a fund tied to a KB Asset Management strategy. This allows Korean institutions to obtain on-chain versions of their existing investments.
Source: X This lets KB Securities test demand before expanding to more asset classes. If successful, this model may also extend to stocks, ADRs, corporate debt securities, and Korean government-issued debt securities, once regulatory frameworks develop.
Ultimately, Korea’s participation could broaden institutional tokenization beyond U.S. dollar-denominated assets.
Optimism gains institutional traction The partnership gives Optimism an opportunity to move from just being a Layer 1 (L1) blockchain infrastructure into Korea’s institutional securities pipeline.
Meanwhile, OP Mainnet can process settlements with low cost, approximately two-second block times. Moreover, it is compatible with the Ethereum [ETH] protocol. This allows Securitize to be responsible for the tokenization and management of these new digital asset offerings.
This approach enables KB Securities to launch new product offerings that can be settled via an existing transaction rail.
The initial step will include a proposed issuance by a money market fund. The larger potential of this project will depend on if the regulatory agencies in South Korea allow securitizations. This could involve using similar rails to issue bonds and equities.
Notably, Securitize currently manages over $5 billion worth of tokenized assets, which provides a strong base for Optimism to expand upon.
Source: Optimism KB Securities’ success could create a repeatable institutional use case for Optimism throughout Asia rather than another single-use tokenization project.
Tokenization faces its adoption test Institutional adoption will determine whether KB Securities’ tokenized funds create lasting activity on OP Mainnet. Currently, RWA Assets Under Management (AUM) sits near $39 million, with Securitize holding about $26 million.
However, secondary transfers remain limited, often reaching only hundreds of dollars across recent 30-day periods. Therefore, this implies that almost all the current volume is being generated by primary allocation rather than active trading.
Securitize’s wider platform shows stronger demand, with monthly transfers reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, but those flows remain concentrated elsewhere.
Therefore, the key test will be whether KB Securities can attract repeat business from its customers. Repeat purchasing behavior and increased volume of trades occurring regularly among current holders.
In turn, this would demonstrate sustained interest and demand for the products being offered.
Optimism’s X post names a tokenized bond as the first product, while its same-day blog names two tokenized funds. Korea’s first regulatory phase starts in February 2027.
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Li Yihua: Expects a pullback, but advises against shorting amid the bull market trend.
Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi posted that 20 days ago, he predicted Bitcoin (BTC) would face significant resistance near $86,000 and likely undergo a phased pullback, making closing long positions around that level a sound choice. Yi added that while he expects a pullback, shorting is not recommended in a bull market—traders should instead keep pursuing long opportunities. He noted bull markets do not rise in a straight line, with each pullback potentially offering a re-entry chance, and warned against chasing "the last penny" of gains, stressing the importance of timely stop-losses and proper risk management.
3 minutes ago
Former OpenAI researcher: AI will eventually fully surpass humans, and in the future, only "human creation" itself will hold value.
Former OpenAI researcher Will Depue has published a lengthy article stating that humans will soon see machines surpassing them in nearly all intellectual and physical capabilities, adding that most people have not truly accepted this trend. Depue argues that human capabilities such as entrepreneurship and taste do not have a "special and safe moat," and professions including investors, entrepreneurs, consultants, content creators, and musicians may undergo changes similar to those experienced by software engineers and mathematicians. He believes AI will eventually reach or even exceed human limits in fields like literature, poetry, music, and visual arts. Even if AI lacks human emotions and love, it may still outperform humans in making others "feel loved"; in the future, the only jobs that can resist automation may be crafts that derive value solely from being "created by humans." Depue emphasizes this is not pessimism. He notes humans can still gain value from human-to-human communities, art, and relationships, but should seriously face the future where machines surpass their capabilities: "Don’t cling to your abilities—they will disappear soon." When asked about the timeline for this future, he says it could take five years or fifty years, but humans are approaching non-human intelligence that can understand and express the "human condition" in ways humans cannot comprehend.
3 minutes ago
The 5% yield on US Treasuries has lost its deterrent effect, and markets are now pricing in a 6% yield.
US 10-year Treasury yields have returned to the 5% mark, yet the crypto market and global equities have not seen sharp sell-offs. Wall Street’s pressure threshold for interest rate risk is gradually shifting from 5% to the 5.5%–6% range. Mike Bell, Head of Market Strategy at BlueBay Asset Management, noted there is no absolute “magic point” in the market that triggers sell-offs; the key lies in the relative premium between U.S. Treasury yields and risk assets’ earnings returns. As risk-free yields continue to rise, if corporate earnings do not expand in tandem, stock risk compensation will remain compressed. JPMorgan’s recent communications with large institutional investors found that market participants generally believe the yield level that could force a full revaluation of stocks has risen from 5% to 5.5%–6%. The growing share of AI, advanced manufacturing, and high-end services has also given some high-growth enterprises more abundant cash flow, weakening the short-term impact of high interest rates on corporate investment. However, financing costs above 5% may still exert sustained effects. Paul Jackson, Head of Global Asset Allocation Research at Invesco, pointed out that when the 12-month moving average of 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rises above 4.72%, global equities tend to face material pressure. Currently, this average stands at around 4.34%. Fed official Austan Goolsby also warned that a short-term 5% yield is not the same as a sustained yield above 5%; persistent high financing costs will eventually erode corporate budgets and capital expenditures. Neil Birrell, Chief Investment Officer at Premier Miton, added that the current market calm partly stems from institutional profit models not fully incorporating long-term discount rates above 5%; real pressure may emerge when the market focuses on revaluing forward cash flows.
3 minutes ago
Doubao's PR head refutes layoff rumors: Only 11 staff adjustments, 3 employees left.
Beating AI Express News: In response to recent online rumors about "Doubao layoffs" and "half of the dialogue team being cut," Liu Xing, Doubao's PR head, released a statement refuting the claims as untrue, stating the actual situation is organizational restructuring. Liu Xing explained that part of the functions of Doubao's General Session Team have been split into the Doubao Transaction Team and Doubao Work Team, with corresponding personnel transferred. Many employees remain engaged in dialogue experience-related work, such as optimizing dialogue experiences for transaction scenarios. According to him, the General Session Team has fewer than 50 members; 11 people were involved in the restructuring, of whom 3 left. Liu Xing stressed that online claims like "Doubao, used by 200 million people, is laying off staff" and "half of the dialogue team cut" are all untrue.
3 minutes ago
A crypto whale accumulated 2,460 BTC in purchases over 20 days, with an average position cost of approximately $79,000 per BTC.
According to Lookonchain monitoring, as Bitcoin (BTC) price dips, whale address bc1qdp bought another 536.93 BTC six hours ago, worth around $45.28 million. Over the past 20 days, the address has accumulated a total of 2,460 BTC, with a combined value of roughly $194.3 million, at an average purchase price of approximately $78,966.
3 minutes ago
Nikkei Index strengthens as Meta’s launch of AI devices boosts CPU-related stocks.
On Thursday, CPU-related stocks surged on news of Meta launching a small handheld device named "Meta Charm", lifting the Nikkei 225 index. The device is designed to run Meta’s new Muse AI assistant, spurring demand for key computer components. By midday trading close, the Nikkei index had risen 1.33% and the Topix index edged up 0.12%. Kazuaki Shimada, chief strategist at IwaiCosmo Securities, said the news boosted share prices of other CPU-linked companies. Socionext, Meiko Electronic and Ushio Inc all gained over 10%. Advantest, a chip test equipment manufacturer, rose 4%, while SoftBank Group notched a 0.52% gain. Strategists added that chip-related stocks have tended to hold up amid rising yields in recent trading sessions.
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KB Securities Partners with @Optimism and @Securitize on Tokenized SecuritiesSouth Korea's KB Securities has signed a memorandum of understanding with @Optimism and @Securitize to jointly develop a tokenized securities business targeting domestic institutional investors. , marking one of the most significant moves by a major Korean financial institution into on-chain finance.
Under the deal, each party takes a defined role.
, giving KB Securities access to an established institutional tokenization platform with deep industry reach.
Why OP Mainnet?The choice of @Optimism's OP Mainnet as the underlying infrastructure reflects the network's growing appeal for institutional use cases.
For KB Securities, the initiative represents a calculated first step in connecting Korea's established capital markets infrastructure with blockchain-based settlement rails, with room to scale as domestic regulatory frameworks for token securities continue to develop.
Sources
Digital Today: KB Securities joins Securitize, Optimism to pursue STO business for institutions
Seoul Economic Daily: KB Securities Partners With Securitize, Optimism Foundation on Tokenized Securities
KB Securities, part of KB Financial Group, one of South Korea’s major financial-services groups, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Securitize and the Optimism Foundation to explore tokenized securities for institutional investors in Korea, the companies announced on Sept. 23.
The agreement will combine the securities firm’s capital-market capabilities with Securitize’s regulated digital securities infrastructure and Optimism’s blockchain network. The companies aim to build a framework covering the issuance and distribution of tokenized investment products.
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The initial products are expected to include a tokenized money market fund and a tokenized fund based on one of KB Asset Management’s flagship strategies. The companies plan to consider additional products, including stocks, ADRs, corporate bonds and Korean government bonds, as South Korea develops its security-token rules.
KB Securities is also looking at offering existing tokenized funds from global asset managers to Korean institutional investors.
The partnership comes as South Korea moves toward a formal regulatory framework for tokenized securities.
The Financial Services Commission has said its policy direction will cover the phased tokenization of traditional securities including stocks, bonds and funds, with amended legislation scheduled to take effect in February 2027.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
KB Securities has signed a three-party agreement with Securitize and the Optimism Foundation to develop tokenized funds for Korean institutional investors, starting with a planned money market fund on OP Mainnet.
Summary
The first planned product is a tokenized money market fund for institutional clients. A fund based on a KB Asset Management strategy is also on the roadmap. Stocks, corporate bonds and Korean government bonds could follow as local rules develop. Securitize’s NYSE-listed shares give U.S. investors exposure to the tokenization company. In a Sep. 23 release shared with crypto.news, KB Securities said that the memorandum of understanding covers the development and distribution of tokenized securities in South Korea. Under the proposed arrangement, the brokerage would bring its institutional client base and securities issuance and distribution experience, while Securitize would provide tokenization infrastructure and Optimism would provide blockchain technology.
The companies plan to begin with a money market fund for institutional clients. KB Securities also intends to develop a tokenized fund based on one of KB Asset Management’s flagship strategies, though the release did not name the strategy or give a launch date for either product. The money market fund is planned for OP Mainnet, the Optimism network selected for the first product.
A memorandum of understanding sets out the parties’ planned cooperation; the announcement is not a product launch. KB Securities said later stages could include tokenized stocks and American depositary receipts, corporate bonds and Korean government bonds as the country’s rules permit. It is also exploring whether it can offer existing tokenized funds from global asset managers to institutions in Korea.
KB Securities plans funds before stocks and bonds The initial focus on funds puts the proposed products close to the first stage of South Korea’s tokenized securities framework. In its three-stage tokenization roadmap, covered by crypto.news on Sep. 4, the Financial Services Commission said selected privately pooled money market funds and institutional bonds would be among the products eligible when amended securities rules take effect on Feb. 4, 2027. Later stages would extend the framework to publicly offered securities and then connect securities settlement with stablecoin-based payments.
The FSC said existing licensed financial firms would be able to handle tokenized securities within the scope of their licenses. It also plans revisions to rules under the country’s capital-markets and electronic-registration laws. For KB Securities, the pace and scope of that work will matter as it moves from planned funds toward publicly offered shares and other instruments.
CEO Kang Jin-doo said the agreement would bring together the companies’ respective capabilities for products serving domestic institutional investors. KB Securities would continue to monitor regulatory and market developments as it works with global partners, he said.
The fund plans sit alongside work by other Korean brokerages on different parts of the transaction. On Sep. 21, Eugene Investment & Securities agreed to test stablecoin settlement with BEATOZ. Their trial will examine whether subscriptions, payments, and settlement for tokenized securities can run through a connected blockchain system. Eugene built a tokenized securities platform in 2024 and took part in a Korea Securities Depository pilot in 2025.
OP Mainnet is slated to host the first product For Optimism, the agreement places OP Mainnet in a planned institutional securities product rather than a general blockchain trial. The release identifies the network for the first money market fund, while leaving the technical design, issuance structure, and launch timing to be detailed later.
Jing Wang, CEO and co-founder of OP Labs, described KB Securities’ choice of OP Mainnet as “an early signal that this model works beyond the U.S. dollar market.” Her comment points to the Korean focus of the planned products, although the announcement has not specified the currency or assets of the first fund.
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said the companies were bringing tokenization infrastructure to Korean capital markets. The proposed division of work would put Securitize between KB Securities’ product and distribution operations and the blockchain network used to record the tokens.
KB Securities is part of KB Financial Group. According to the company figures included in the release, it held 76.5 trillion won in total assets, and 6.9 trillion won in shareholders’ equity as of December 2025. Its operations span six countries, including the United States.
Securitize gives the deal a U.S. market connection Securitize already operates in U.S. capital markets and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ. In July, it tokenized its own common shares on Solana and Avalanche as its stock began trading on the NYSE. Securitize said the blockchain-based tokens represent the same common shares, with the same applicable legal and transfer restrictions, rather than a separate class of stock.
For U.S. investors, SECZ is an existing publicly traded way to hold shares in one of the companies involved in the Korean agreement. The Sep. 23 announcement does not give a revenue estimate, investment amount or other financial terms for the proposed collaboration, so it does not establish a measurable effect on Securitize’s earnings.
The company also works with U.S. asset managers on tokenized funds. Its platform supports BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund, and Securitize said it managed about $5 billion in assets as of August 2026. In July, U.S. regulatory filings showed that South Korea’s Hanwha Group had built a 9.6% stake in the company through affiliated entities and investment vehicles, making it Securitize’s largest shareholder at the time.
Beyond the two planned funds, KB Securities said any move into tokenized stocks, depositary receipts or bonds would depend on how Korea’s securities framework develops. Its separate review of global asset managers’ existing funds would concern distribution to Korean institutional clients, rather than the creation of another fund under the three-party agreement.
Key Highlights Shares climbed to a 52-week peak of $225.88, delivering a 61.6% gain year-over-year Nykredit A/S initiated an $8.02 million position during the second quarter Second quarter earnings per share of $3.60 exceeded analyst expectations of $2.94; sales reached $2.74B Wall Street maintains a “Moderate Buy” rating with a consensus target of $230.14 Wolfe Research boosted its rating to “Outperform” with a $300 target in August Biogen shares touched a 52-week peak of $225.88 during Monday’s session, extending an impressive rally that has delivered 61.6% gains over the past twelve months.
Biogen Inc., BIIB
Tuesday’s trading session saw the stock open at $219.07, advancing approximately 1.7% intraday. The equity is currently trading above its 50-day moving average of $211.20 and well ahead of its 200-day moving average of $198.54.
The stock’s 1-year low of $135.39 highlights the substantial appreciation achieved over the trailing 12-month period.
The biotechnology company commands a market capitalization between $32.37 billion and $33.26 billion, with its price-to-earnings ratio ranging from 38.77 to 39.41 across recent sessions.
Quarterly Results Drive Upward Momentum The stock’s impressive performance has been supported by robust operational results. During its latest quarterly report, Biogen delivered earnings per share of $3.60, surpassing Wall Street’s consensus forecast of $2.94 by a substantial $0.66 margin.
Total revenue reached $2.74 billion, exceeding analyst projections of $2.46 billion while representing a 3.4% increase compared to the prior year period.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, Biogen has issued guidance calling for EPS between $12.00 and $13.00. The Street is currently modeling $12.41 in earnings per share for that fiscal year.
Major institutional investors have been actively accumulating shares. Nykredit A/S established a new position of 37,134 shares during Q2, representing approximately $8.02 million in value.
Several other institutional players expanded their positions as well. Wedbush Securities increased its stake by 5.1% in the second quarter. Rothschild Investment, Meeder Advisory, Kera Capital, and Parallel Advisors all boosted their holdings during the first half of the year.
Institutional ownership now accounts for 87.93% of Biogen’s total shares outstanding.
Wall Street Raises Price Targets Sell-side analysts have grown increasingly bullish on the stock. Wolfe Research elevated BIIB from “Peer Perform” to “Outperform” in August, establishing a $300 price objective.
Oppenheimer maintained its “Outperform” recommendation while keeping its $300 target intact. Canaccord Genuity increased its price objective from $245 to $248, reiterating a Buy rating.
RBC Capital lifted its target to $260 from $240, highlighting the lupus treatment candidate litifilimab as a significant near-term catalyst. H.C. Wainwright similarly raised its target to $251 from $237, citing the same rationale.
Piper Sandler increased its price objective to $245 from $225, pointing to improved forecasts for multiple products including Vumerity and Syfovre. Stifel maintains a Buy recommendation with a $242 target.
Across 33 analysts covering the stock, the consensus rating stands at “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $230.14.
According to InvestingPro’s Fair Value analysis, the shares may still be trading below their intrinsic value at present levels.
The company recently announced plans to implement Veeva Systems’ Vault CRM across its global operations, a strategic move that Raymond James analysts noted aligns with broader pharmaceutical industry trends.
Phase 3 clinical trial data for litifilimab in lupus is anticipated later in 2025, with Stifel among the firms expressing optimism about the potential outcomes.
Key Highlights The Nasdaq recorded its first all-time high since mid-2024 on Monday, propelled by artificial intelligence enthusiasm and declining crude oil values Meta’s stock price soared 11% following its Muse AI agent application climbing to number one on Apple’s App Store Reports suggest Iran may reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, triggering a significant drop in global oil prices Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized recent US-China trade negotiations as “very successful” Despite market strength, one prominent analyst reduced her S&P 500 forecast to 7,800, citing elevated interest rates as a concern Equity markets are positioned for further gains on Tuesday morning following Monday’s robust performance that delivered the Nasdaq’s first record close in over seven months.
Stock futures are showing gains across major indices. Nasdaq 100 contracts have advanced 0.2%, S&P 500 futures are trading modestly higher, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures have added approximately 106 points, representing a 0.2% increase.
Nasdaq 100 Dec 26 (NQ=F) Monday’s market strength stemmed from two primary catalysts: mounting enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence applications and a retreat in energy prices connected to diplomatic developments in the Persian Gulf region.
Meta Leads Technology Sector Rally on AI Success Meta platforms spearheaded Monday’s advance, with shares surging 11% after its Muse artificial intelligence assistant application claimed the top position in Apple’s App Store rankings. This performance provided momentum for the entire cohort of mega-cap technology firms collectively known as the Magnificent Seven.
Muse is already the #1 app in the App Store just one week after launch.
This is a perfect example of why $META installed base is such a moat because a great free product can turn into massive adoption almost immediately.
Good thing they never started selling off all that excess… pic.twitter.com/MVt5lVuuoB
— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) September 18, 2026
The impressive showing among technology leaders reinforced bullish expectations regarding demand for artificial intelligence semiconductors. This momentum carried the Nasdaq composite to its strongest closing level since early June.
Sentiment surrounding artificial intelligence received additional support from constructive developments in US-China commercial discussions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized initial meetings as “very successful,” with negotiators concluding preliminary sessions in advance of an anticipated summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Collaboration on artificial intelligence technology emerged as one of several subjects addressed during the discussions, contributing to the constructive market atmosphere.
The favorable momentum from American exchanges extended into Asian trading sessions. Japan’s Nikkei index and South Korea’s KOSPI benchmark both recorded advances on Tuesday.
Crude Markets Retreat Following Iran Diplomatic Developments Oil prices experienced a substantial decline after emerging reports indicated Iran’s willingness to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz shipping channel within one week, contingent upon American efforts to reduce military tensions.
Brent crude retreated below the psychologically significant $100 threshold, declining to approximately $99.75 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate dropped roughly 2% to $93.80. Energy markets had already experienced four consecutive sessions of losses entering Tuesday.
A high-ranking Iranian representative informed Japan’s Kyodo News agency that “there is a possibility of moving toward an agreement,” while emphasizing that Washington must demonstrate “seriousness and commitment” for diplomatic progress to materialize.
Crude prices experienced some volatility during early trading as market participants acknowledged escalating military actions by Houthi forces targeting Saudi Arabian territories, maintaining some geopolitical risk premium.
Notwithstanding the optimistic market tone, cautious voices remain. Emily Bowersock Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Bowersock Capital Partners, lowered her S&P 500 price target to 7,800, cautioning that elevated interest rates represent “a drag on stocks.”
The S&P 500 benchmark settled just below 7,765 on Monday. Current Treasury yield levels, she noted, present substantial competition for equity investments.
KB Home and AutoZone are scheduled to announce quarterly results on Tuesday during an otherwise subdued period for macroeconomic data releases.
Shares of Micron gained approximately 3% on Monday ahead of the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings scheduled for Sept. 30. Stifel projects fiscal Q4 revenue will reach $50.78 billion, reflecting 22% sequential expansion. Revenue growth is anticipated to decelerate to approximately 11% in the following quarter. According to Stifel, constrained DRAM shipment expansion may sustain tight supply conditions, bolstering pricing strength and profitability. The investment firm reaffirmed its Buy recommendation with a $1,500 target price. Micron (MU) shares advanced roughly 3% on Monday as market participants anticipated the memory semiconductor manufacturer’s fiscal fourth-quarter financial disclosure set for Sept. 30. Intraday trading pushed the stock beyond $1,030 after closing Friday’s session at $1,015.80.
Micron Technology, Inc., MU
This recent uptick continues a remarkable trajectory for Micron shares, which have surged more than 500% during the trailing twelve-month period. According to Stifel’s analysis, while the upcoming growth phase may exhibit moderation, constrained supply dynamics could nevertheless underpin robust pricing and profitability metrics.
Analyst Brian Chin forecasts fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $50.78 billion, marking sequential advancement of approximately 22%. His projections indicate this growth rate will moderate to around 11% in the subsequent quarter.
This anticipated deceleration isn’t attributed to weakening end-market demand. Rather, Stifel contends that Micron and competing memory manufacturers face physical limitations preventing shipment volumes from fully satisfying current market requirements.
Supply Constraints May Underpin DRAM Pricing Dynamics Stifel’s forecast calls for DRAM bit shipment expansion between 15% and 20% throughout calendar year 2027. This projection falls below the mid-to-high 20% growth trajectory anticipated for 2026.
Chin’s analysis suggests DRAM shipments would require expansion in the 40% to 50% range next year to completely eliminate the existing supply-demand gap. Such dramatic supply increases appear unlikely due to cleanroom capacity constraints and equipment delivery limitations.
Should supply conditions remain constricted, memory semiconductor pricing could maintain elevated levels even as shipment volume growth moderates. This dynamic could enable Micron to sustain elevated gross margin profiles and earnings power that might typically compress during periods of slower volume expansion.
Stifel anticipates Micron’s forthcoming financial results and forward guidance will surpass both the firm’s internal projections and broader Wall Street expectations. However, the firm cautioned that the magnitude of positive surprises may diminish compared to recent reporting periods.
This moderation partially reflects contractual pricing structures embedded in extended customer agreements. Certain contracts incorporate collar-based pricing mechanisms, which can dampen the amplitude of near-term revenue fluctuations.
Upcoming Sept. 30 Results Represent Critical Milestone Micron is scheduled to release fiscal fourth-quarter financial results on Sept. 30. Management will conduct its earnings conference call at 2:30 p.m. Mountain time.
The company delivered record-setting third-quarter performance, with revenue climbing to $41.46 billion from $23.86 billion in the preceding quarter. Adjusted earnings per share registered at $25.11.
Stifel maintained its Buy rating alongside a $1,500 price objective on Micron shares. Analyst sentiment remains broadly constructive, with Investing.com data indicating an average 12-month price target exceeding $1,500 across its coverage universe.
The primary consideration for investors involves Micron’s substantial valuation appreciation, which has elevated market expectations considerably. Any indication that memory pricing dynamics, artificial intelligence demand trajectories, or margin profiles are deteriorating faster than anticipated could trigger downward pressure on the stock.
Supply tightness presents a dual-edged scenario. While constrained availability can support favorable pricing, it simultaneously restricts unit volume expansion and may prevent Micron from fully capitalizing on available market opportunities.
For the immediate term, the Sept. 30 earnings announcement represents the next definitive catalyst. Market participants will scrutinize revenue progression, DRAM pricing trends, shipment capacity limitations, and management’s fiscal 2027 outlook commentary.
AMD stock climbed 9.04% as broader compute demand strengthened market momentum. Data center revenue doubled as EPYC and Instinct products expanded AMD’s reach. Nebius pricing changes signaled strong demand for AMD-powered computing capacity. AMD could gain a 2027 gaming window if rival next-generation GPUs face delays. High valuation leaves future gains tied to stronger deployments and revenue growth. Advanced Micro Devices shares surged 9.04% to $610.42 as stronger compute demand lifted the semiconductor stock on Monday. The move followed renewed interest in Meta’s Muse platform and expanding demand across global data center infrastructure. AMD also gains from its growing presence in server processors, accelerators, and future gaming hardware across major computing markets.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., AMD
AMD Broadens Its Data Center Opportunity Meta’s Muse platform highlighted the heavy computing demands created by persistent software agents operating across large cloud environments. These workloads need graphics processing, but they also require general-purpose computing for coordination, applications, system management, and background tasks. That structure expands the market opportunity for AMD’s EPYC processors and Instinct accelerators across modern enterprise data centers.
AMD already serves major cloud and enterprise customers with products built for high-performance computing and accelerated workloads worldwide. The company now promotes a broader infrastructure strategy instead of depending on one processor category for future growth. This approach gives AMD exposure to multiple spending areas as cloud operators expand capacity for demanding software workloads globally.
Recent financial results also show how quickly AMD’s data center business has expanded during the current growth cycle. Second-quarter 2026 data center revenue reached $6.7 billion, representing 107% growth from the same period last year. Total company revenue rose 50% to $11.5 billion, giving the segment greater importance across AMD’s overall business mix.
Strong Demand Supports Pricing Power Cloud provider Nebius added another demand signal after raising prices across several computing products in its infrastructure stack. Nebius increased rates for AMD EPYC Genoa capacity by 25% as demand strengthened and available resources tightened further. The company also raised Nvidia GPU prices, while memory-related services recorded even steeper increases during the latest adjustment.
Those price changes reinforce the role of central processors within large-scale computing systems, cloud platforms, and enterprise infrastructure. AMD has increasingly emphasized CPUs because they manage applications, move data, and support accelerator-heavy workloads across data centers. Stronger pricing for EPYC capacity suggests customers still value those processors despite intense competition across the global semiconductor market.
Forrest Norrod recently outlined AMD’s broader data center strategy and emphasized the company’s full-stack computing ambitions for large deployments. The strategy combines processors, accelerators, networking support, and software to address more parts of large infrastructure deployments. That mix gives AMD more ways to capture spending as cloud providers build larger computing environments for advanced applications.
Gaming Opportunity Meets High Valuation Reports also suggest AMD could introduce a next-generation gaming graphics card during 2027 and gain a temporary timing advantage. A hardware leaker indicated that AMD may release a successor to the RX 9070 XT sometime next year. Other products from the same generation could arrive later, which would limit the scale of that potential advantage.
Separate industry reports suggest Nvidia may delay its next major gaming GPU generation until 2028 in the consumer market. If those reports prove accurate, AMD could become the only major vendor launching fresh gaming hardware during 2027. Steam’s August 2026 survey showed Nvidia with 72.88% GPU share, compared with 18.68% for AMD among surveyed users.
AMD’s sharp rally has also pushed valuation measures well above some fundamental benchmarks used by market analysts. At $607.30, shares traded 114.12% above a GF Value estimate of $283.63 during the recent market advance. Meta has not identified AMD as a Muse supplier, so stronger deployments must support future revenue growth across AMD’s portfolio.
Crude oil markets declined to multi-week lows amid growing optimism for potential U.S.-Iran diplomatic engagement. Brent crude declined approximately 1.7% to settle at $102.09 per barrel, while WTI tumbled nearly 2% to $98.33. Donald Trump indicated willingness to engage with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the upcoming UN General Assembly. Security concerns persist following recent Houthi drone and missile strikes targeting Saudi infrastructure. Saudi crude exports via the Strait of Hormuz have surged significantly despite pipeline infrastructure damage. Crude oil benchmarks tumbled to their weakest position in over a week during Monday’s session as market participants assessed the potential for de-escalation in U.S.-Iranian tensions.
Brent Crude Oil Last Day Financial Futures (BZ=F) Brent crude futures for November delivery declined roughly 1.7% to reach $102.09 per barrel during early market hours.
West Texas Intermediate crude plummeted nearly 2% to settle at $98.33 per barrel, slipping beneath the psychologically significant $100 threshold.
The downturn continued Friday’s momentum as portions of the geopolitical risk premium embedded in energy prices started dissipating.
Potential Washington-Tehran Dialogue Weighs on Energy Markets Market participants are closely monitoring this week’s United Nations General Assembly convening in New York for indications of potential engagement between American and Iranian officials.
BREAKING: The Trump administration sent new private messages to Qatar, containing assurances that Trump now wants to reach a deal with Iran, per Qatar's foreign ministry.
This comes after Iran conveyed its conditions to the US through Qatar and is now awaiting a response.
Trump…
— The Hormuz Letter (@HormuzLetter) September 20, 2026
President Donald Trump expressed openness to a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during the international gathering.
Tehran has reportedly transmitted preconditions through intermediaries for resuming diplomatic negotiations, according to Reuters sources.
Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, noted that some geopolitical risk premium appears to be dissipating from crude valuations due to expectations that diplomatic channels might mitigate the confrontation.
Any advancement toward substantive dialogue could alleviate anxieties regarding extended interruptions to petroleum production and maritime transport across the Middle East region.
The diplomatic opening emerges even as Washington and Tehran maintain adversarial postures.
Iranian officials have cautioned they may deploy previously unused weaponry and strike targets not yet engaged if American forces initiate further military action.
Yemen-Based Militants Maintain Regional Supply Concerns Military threats continue to loom over the region.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi forces claimed responsibility for striking targets in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday employing both missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The militant organization additionally reported targeting a Saudi Aramco installation in Yanbu, a critical Red Sea petroleum export terminal.
Strikes against Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline infrastructure have interrupted certain crude transport routes toward Red Sea facilities.
Saudi Aramco has compensated by amplifying shipments through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
JPMorgan analysts noted that Middle Eastern petroleum flows have maintained greater resilience than anticipated despite the infrastructure challenges.
Regional crude flows averaged approximately 17.1 million barrels daily throughout the preceding ten-day period, according to the financial institution’s assessment.
Satellite tracking data revealed Saudi petroleum movements through the Strait of Hormuz averaged roughly 2.9 million barrels per day across a six-day span, compared with approximately 700,000 barrels daily during August.
Indications that Saudi Arabia has made supplementary crude available to Asian refining operations have further diminished immediate supply shortage apprehensions.
WTI Breaches $100 Barrier The descent below $100 for WTI marks a notable shift from earlier phases of the Middle East crisis, when supply disruption anxieties propelled crude valuations sharply upward.
A portion of Monday’s retreat may also reflect position adjustments as traders rolled holdings from the expiring October WTI contract into November deliveries ahead of Tuesday’s settlement.
Both Brent and WTI touched their weakest levels since September 10 during Monday’s trading session.
Declining petroleum prices are providing some relief to global financial markets as elevated energy expenses have fueled renewed inflationary pressures.
European equity indices and U.S. stock index futures advanced Monday as crude benchmarks retreated.
Energy market participants will continue monitoring UN proceedings, U.S.-Iran diplomatic developments and Saudi export activity for signals whether the recent price decline can sustain momentum.
Trader 0x362a opened a 10x long on 236 $BTC ($19.98M) on @Aster_DEX and is now sitting on a $726K unrealized profit!
Trader 0x362a opened a 10x long on 236 $BTC ($19.98M) on @Aster_DEX and is now sitting on a $726K unrealized profit!
20 minutes ago
Tencent open-sources T-Mem: AI memory starts learning "association"
Beating AI Express (Insight): Tencent’s PCG Team Open-Sources Long-Term Memory System T-Mem, Paper Accepted by EMNLP 2026 Main Conference. T-Mem not only stores information but also records potential future use scenarios when memorizing content. For example, if a user previously mentioned “a colleague is allergic to seafood” and later asks “where to eat for a team building trip”, ordinary memory systems would fail to connect these two sentences with almost no overlapping keywords. T-Mem pre-associates “seafood allergy” with “restaurant selection for gatherings”, enabling it to retrieve relevant old information in similar scenarios later. Evaluations show that when queries lack keyword overlap with old memories, ordinary memory systems’ performance drops significantly, while T-Mem is less affected. Removing Horizon Trigger—the component responsible for predicting future scenarios—results in a notable performance decline for T-Mem, confirming this part is the core of its “associative recall” function.
20 minutes ago
Privacy AI protocol Phala briefly broke through $0.06, with a 24-hour rise of 66.8%.
According to market data, privacy AI protocol Phala briefly crossed $0.06, currently trading at $0.05956, with a 24-hour gain of 66.8%. Official information shows that usage of its flagship privacy AI product Confidential AI has surged recently: the product processed around 5.5 billion tokens on September 15, rising to 16.8 billion and 17.8 billion tokens in the following days, and hitting 25.451 billion tokens on September 19. Supported mainstream models include GLM-5.3 (which often accounts for over 40–70% of usage), GLM-5.3 Flash, DeepSeek series, Kimi K3, and others.
20 minutes ago
Xiaomi has publicly halted its MiMo reinforcement learning project, with two training runs costing $3.47 million.
Beating AI News Brief: Xiaomi’s MiMo has halted two publicly live-streamed reinforcement learning training runs. Both the Pro and Flash runs completed a full 30 training steps each, with total combined costs of $3.4747 million. The Pro run cost $2.6207 million, while the Flash run cost $854,000. The investment delivered clear performance gains: On DeepSWE v1.1, Pro’s score rose from 58.41 at step 1 to 72.57, a 14.16-point increase; Flash’s score jumped from 48.67 to 65.68, a 17.01-point gain. However, both curves showed noticeable dips in the middle, meaning scores do not rise steadily with longer training. Two additional benchmark tests also improved: Pro’s internal code evaluation score rose from 57.54 to 65.43, and its AutomationBench score increased from 45.2 to 53.1. The training process was not smooth: Pro encountered GPU out-of-memory (OOM) errors due to uneven expert load, plus disconnections and restarts between its training cluster and evaluator. Flash had to restart from step 15 due to infrastructure errors. Later, Xiaomi filtered out tasks that were too simple for Pro and removed the cyber dataset with abnormal rollout patterns from Pro’s subsequent training.
20 minutes ago
The total value of the "Maji" contract account has rebounded to over $10 million, earning $7.15 million in the past 24 hours.
According to TradingBeats' monitoring, the crypto entity known as "Ma Ji" posted a $7.15 million profit over the past 24 hours, pushing its total account value back above $10 million. Its current long positions consist of 30,950 ETH (valued at $84.79 million), 279 BTC (valued at $23.72 million), and 89,000 HYPE (valued at $8.48 million).
This is a general announcement. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Fellow Binancians, Binance has completed the USDT contract swap on the Optimism network. Deposits and withdrawals for USDT via the Optimism network are now open. Note: Users may obtain their assigned tokens deposit address here. Users can deposit old Optimism USDT (OPUSDTE) and swap these tokens for new Optimism USDT at a ratio of 1:1 using the Convert function.Withdrawals of old Optimism USDT (OPUSDTE) will no longer be supported.There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise. For more information, please refer to: Binance Will Support the USDT Contract Swap on Optimism Network - 2026-09-17 Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-09-18
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)Summary
This is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here, if you haven't already.
Cryptocurrencies rallied after the Federal Reserve delivered its first interest-rate increase since July 2023, a counterintuitive reaction given the FOMC decision makes interest-bearing investments more attractive.
Bitcoin BTC$76,600.57
added almost 1% over the past 24 hours while zcash (ZEC) jumped by more than 23% to a record high.
Traders who remember previous Fed rate cycles, especially 2022, are likely to be cautious, however.
Bitcoin is currently about 40% below its October record high of $126,000. When the Fed began tightening in March 2022, it was also roughly 40% below its record high, the November 2021 peak.
Over the next 12 days, the largest cryptocurrency rallied 18% before sliding 50% for several months, a period that also saw the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
The relief leg of that pattern has already begun, with bitcoin defying a shift to the downside after the U.S. Clarity Act was shelved, but ETF flows continue to demonstrate weakness, with $746 million exiting spot bitcoin funds on Tuesday and Wednesday alone.
History also argues against a “one and done” rate rise. On only one occasion since 1994 has the Fed raised rates once and then stopped. Futures markets are pricing in a further 75 basis-point increase in the next six months. Goldman Sachs moved its forecast for the next hike forward to October.
The complication is that the Fed is tightening into a supply shock it cannot reach. Core inflation has eased to 2.4%, its lowest in five years, but both Brent and WTI crude are above $100 and U.S. diesel prices hit a record this week, while the 10-year Treasury yield sits at 5%.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh conceded the point directly, saying the central bank cannot affect individual prices, but can stop relative price changes broadening out.
The early signs of optimism are there, with zcash at a record high and bitcoin holding its ground through both a failed regulatory push and the first rate rise in three years. The 2022 comparison becomes testable at the end of the month, when the rally from four years ago petered out. Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead."
What’s trendingZcash jumps 23% as bitcoin and major tokens rise despite Fed’s first hike since 2023 (CoinDesk): Privacy token Zcash surged 23% over the past 24 hours as bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies rose overnight into Asian morning hours Thursday, alongside a recovery in stock futures.Treasury yields move lower after Fed kicks off hiking cycle (CNBC): Treasury yields edged slightly lower on Thursday. The 10-year Treasury yield was lower at 4.984%. The 30-year Treasury yield was down to 5.334%, while the yield on the 2-year note slipped to 4.705%.Dollar eases from seven-week peak as oil prices extend decline (Reuters): The dollar eased after touching a seven-week high following the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates and curb inflation. Today’s signalDollar IndexThe U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) climbed above 100 for the first time since late July after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday.
The index measures the currency’s strength against a basket of six major trading peers. A stronger dollar typically creates a headwind for risk assets, including bitcoin, by tightening global financial conditions.
DXY has remained above its 200-day moving average, its average closing level over the past 200 trading days, suggesting sustained momentum behind the greenback’s recovery.
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As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Sep 15, 2026
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
Why it matters:
As stablecoins move into regulated finance, APAC is becoming a key proving ground. This report maps the region’s rules, use cases, and RLUSD’s role.
The companion app connects to the ERA hardware wallet to add portfolio management, swaps, and dApp access across 14 networks — while private keys never leave the device. The release follows a full independent security audit by Cure53, and lands alongside a major update to ERA Lens, ERA’s on-device scam-warning system, plus new hardware-side capabilities including Bitcoin multisig and on-device 2FA.
ERA, the maker of the air-gapped ERA hardware wallet, today announced the launch of the ERA Software Wallet, a companion mobile app for iOS and Android that turns its air-gapped hardware device into a full self-custody ecosystem. The move addresses one of the most common trade-offs in crypto self-custody: hardware wallets are secure but often clunky to use day-to-day, while software wallets are convenient but hold keys online.
ERA’s model keeps the two roles separate by design — the phone prepares transactions, the hardware device signs them, and the private keys never touch the phone at all.
“People don’t abandon self-custody because they don’t believe in it – they abandon it because it’s inconvenient,” said Alex Devyatkin, founder and CEO of ERA. “The Software Wallet doesn’t change what secures your assets. It changes how easy it is to actually use that security every day.”
What’s in the ERA Software WalletThe app gives users a single interface to manage assets across 14 networks – Bitcoin (SegWit, Taproot, and Legacy address types), Ethereum, Solana, Tron, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Gnosis, zkSync, Kaia, and Aurora – while every transaction is still confirmed and signed on the ERA hardware device via QR or NFC.
Inside the app, users can:
View portfolio balances across all supported networks, with each token clearly tagged by network
Send and receive assets, with a network guard that prevents funds from being sent to the wrong chain
Buy and sell crypto through integrated providers, with automatic KYC/country detection and side-by-side rate comparison
Swap and bridge across chains in a single flow, powered by Rango’s routing, with a full quote shown before signing
Connect to dApps via WalletConnect, with sessions still requiring hardware-signed approval
Get proactive protection: warnings on unused token approvals, a spam-token filter, alerts on pending or stuck transactions, and full transaction history
App-level security includes PIN and biometric unlock (Face ID / Touch ID / fingerprint), auto-lock when the app is backgrounded, and screen-privacy protections that hide app content from the system app switcher and block screenshots and screen recording.
Backed by an Independent Security AuditAhead of launch, ERA commissioned a full white-box security audit from Cure53, a cybersecurity firm with an established track record auditing wallets and crypto infrastructure. Cure53 was given access to source code, builds, documentation, and internal components, and tested the mobile app, API, transaction construction, and QR/BC-UR signing flows. Every finding was fixed by ERA’s team and then retested by Cure53 to confirm the fix held.
The summary and full technical reports are public:
Summary report (PDF)
Full pentest report (PDF)
The Headline Device Update: ERA Lens’s New Scam-Warning SystemThe main update on the device side is to ERA Lens, ERA’s built-in transaction-decoding layer, which translates what a transaction actually does into plain language before signing rather than showing raw hex data.
This release adds a new scam-warning display, expands coverage to more DeFi and bridging protocols (including Rango, imToken, Rabby, MetaMask Portfolio Bridge, Mayan, Squid, LayerSwap, Stargate V2, GasZip, and Magpie), and can now decode newer, harder-to-read transaction formats such as EIP-7702, ERC-7821, and Safe multicalls — flagging unlimited approvals to unfamiliar addresses automatically.
The team also added 37 real transactions drawn from known incidents – including Bybit, WazirX, Radiant, Inferno Drainer, and PREMINT – to its automated test suite, so every new firmware release is checked against these attack patterns before shipping.
Extended Protection, Built Into the AppOn the mobile side, the Software Wallet adds extended protection aimed at scams that target wallet users directly rather than the underlying blockchain. The home screen now surfaces a plain-language warning for unused token approvals, with a dedicated screen showing exactly which contract can spend how much of which token, in which network, revocable in one confirmation.
The app also guards against address poisoning — fake transaction records designed to trick users into copying a lookalike address from their own history. Between July 2 and August 1, 2026, ERA tracked 66 such fake entries across 24 poisoned addresses, spanning 8 wallets and 8 networks; if a recipient address is a near-identical copy of one of a user’s own addresses, sending is blocked outright, with no override.
Also New: Progressive Security on the Hardware DeviceAlongside the software wallet launch, ERA is rolling out further capabilities to the hardware device itself, continuing its “wallet you never outgrow” model — meaning users can move to more advanced security setups without switching devices.
Bitcoin multisig support – the ERA device can act as one cosigner in a Bitcoin multisig setup, for example holding one key in a 2-of-3 arrangement, removing any single point of failure.
On-device two-factor authentication – TOTP authentication codes can now be stored directly on the ERA hardware device, adding a second layer of digital security on the same hardware that protects private keys.
Device authenticity verification – separately from how transactions are signed, the ERA device can prove it is a genuine, unmodified unit by signing a one-time challenge with a factory-burned key, a check that takes under a minute.
About ERAERA (HWLT FZE) is a Dubai-based digital security company building the ERA Wallet ecosystem: an air-gapped hardware wallet, a companion multichain software wallet, and a built-in transaction-protection layer, ERA Lens.
Disclaimer
This third-party press release is published substantially as received and does not reflect BeInCrypto's editorial views. BeInCrypto has not independently verified its claims or assessed the suitability, legality or appropriateness of any referenced asset, product or service; publication is not an endorsement. The content is general information, not investment research, financial, investment, legal or tax advice, a personal recommendation, offer or solicitation. Verify all information and seek professional advice where appropriate before acting. Crypto-assets may result in total loss.
This is a general announcement and marketing communication. Products and services referred to here may not be available in your region. Fellow Binancians, Binance will support the USDT contract swap on the Optimism network. General Deposits and WithdrawalsAt 2026-09-17 02:00 (UTC), deposits and withdrawals of the USDT token via the Optimism network will be suspended. Users should ensure they leave sufficient time for the aforementioned token’s deposits to be fully processed prior to this time. Binance will make a separate announcement to inform users after we resume deposits and withdrawals of the aforementioned token.After the event is complete, old USDT token via the Optimism network will assume the ticker of OPUSDTE respectively.Spot, Margin, Futures trading and Binance Earn services will not be impacted during the contract swap.Binance will handle all technical requirements for users who are involved in this event. Contract Swap This contract swap will be conducted at a ratio of 1:1. New USDT token via Optimism network - USDT0:New Optimism USDTOld USDT token via previous Optimism network - OPUSDTE:Old Optimism USDT Note: There may be discrepancies between this original content in English and any translated versions. Please refer to the original English version for the most accurate information, in case any discrepancies arise. Thank you for your support! Binance Team 2026-09-14
Not financial or tax advice. PANews content is strictly educational and informational and is not investment advice, financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any digital asset, security, or financial product. Do your own research and consult qualified advisers.
Disclosure. PANews may publish sponsored content, partner content, advertisements, affiliate links, event promotions, and market commentary involving Web3 projects, service providers, or financial products. PANews personnel, contributors, or affiliates may hold digital assets or other interests related to covered topics. See our Terms of Service.
Three major AI giants have collectively called for a slowdown in AI development, but Trump directly rejected the call, stating: "Whoever wins AI will win"
Breaking news from Beating AI Insight: After Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk successively called for slowing down frontier AI development, Donald Trump has explicitly rejected such appeals. He acknowledged that safety guardrails could be added to AI, but argued that many catastrophic predictions will never come to pass. Trump stated that the U.S. is currently ahead of China in AI and hopes to maintain that lead. "Whoever wins the AI race wins everything," he said. He also criticized that many "negative forces" are hyping things that will never happen.
59 minutes ago
Alleged Gen Z trader 0xRay518 has been steadily adding to short positions in PONS and SNDK recently, and trimmed his Bitcoin short position this morning to lock in profits.
According to monitoring by TradingBeats (formerly Hyperinsight), 0xRay518, a prominent post-2000s crypto trader, added short positions in PONS and SNDK over the weekend. As of press time, the address holds $13.46 million worth of 10x SNDK shorts and $3.62 million worth of 3x PONS shorts, making it the second-largest short position holder on Hyperliquid. Separately, 0xRay518 cut his Bitcoin short position by 49.12 BTC this morning, and still holds $81.52 million worth of 20x Bitcoin shorts. Public records show 0xRay518 launched his investment career at 14 in 2020, trading shipping stocks with $3,000 in New Year’s lucky money, peaking at roughly $300,000 in profits before nearly blowing his account due to high leverage. Between 2021 and 2022, he pivoted to NFTs and crypto airdrops, earning his first substantial fortune from the Arbitrum airdrop. In 2025, he abandoned his mid-year high school senior exam halfway, went all-in with $1 million on TRUMP coin on the side, and exited with a 3x to 4x profit.
59 minutes ago
Doubao Mobile Assistant Officially Launches: GUI Operation App Remains, App Can Reject AI Operations
Beating AI News: Doubao Officially Launches Consumer Version of Its Mobile Assistant. It remains an AI assistant software that operates in collaboration with mobile manufacturers at the system level. The first mass-produced device, nubia NaviX Ultra, was previously announced and is set to launch and go on sale on September 16. The "phone operation" feature, which sparked the most controversy earlier, has not been scrapped and remains in Beta form. Doubao also launched the SAEP (Screen Automation Operation Declaration Protocol), allowing third-party apps to set their own rules on whether the AI can perform screen reading, tapping, and operations within their apps; if an app explicitly refuses, Doubao will not proceed with automated operations. In July, LatePost reported that the new generation of Doubao mobile assistant would no longer directly operate super apps like Alibaba and Tencent via GUI. Only when these apps proactively open MCP services can Doubao call their relevant data and functions. MCP refers to interfaces that apps proactively open for Doubao, while SAEP governs the scope of operations developers allow Doubao to perform when interacting with apps via screen reading and simulated taps. Both mechanisms are now in place simultaneously.
59 minutes ago
Bonk Guy’s shilling of the Arc Chain Launchpad platform has sparked criticism, with the platform facing accusations of holding rug pull privileges.
Well-known crypto KOL Bonk Guy posted early this morning that he has purchased LONG, the native token of Arc’s main Launchpad, as well as the platform’s top three meme coins, citing short-term trading opportunities on the Arc blockchain. Driven by the news, LONG’s market cap surged 27-fold in a short period. On-chain analytics show that multiple new addresses accumulated LONG at low levels yesterday, and the pump pushed their positions to unrealized gains of hundreds of thousands of US dollars. Additionally, crypto KOL 0xShawn, who previously arbitraged $230,000 by minting BNC4 at off-exchange prices via Four.meme, stated that the long.supply platform holds rug pull privileges and can mint fake USDT at any time. The platform built a cross-chain bridge for Robinhood-chain stock tokens via its own custom cross-chain infrastructure; the stock tokens on the Arc chain are not issued by the official, but by the platform itself. Moreover, the cross-chain bridge’s underlying protocol is not a reliable one like Wormhole or LayerZero (L0). This means: "The project team can shut down the cross-chain bridge at any time and siphon off the locked funds from the Robinhood chain. You are essentially exchanging your real USDT for fake USDT on the Arc chain, similar to the eUSD platform before its launch, which was eventually shut down after an emergency investigation by authorities." BlockBeats reminds users that celebrity shilling may involve conflicts of interest, and users should carefully vet the security of related projects and invest cautiously.
59 minutes ago
Long.xyz Founder: This Week to Roll Out Contract and Synthetic Asset Design Updates, Integrating Them with the Platform’s Top Trading Pairs
Long.xyz, a meme coin issuance platform built on Robinhood’s blockchain, founder Nate stated in a post that this week, perpetual contracts and synthetic assets will have great design scope, and they will be integrated with the platform’s top trading pairs. Last week, Long.xyz launched a 1x long position pool supporting tokenized positions of OpenAI and Anthropic, a product that was once widely hyped in the market.
59 minutes ago
JPMorgan Chase raises its forecast for the number of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve this year.
JPMorgan Chase expects the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by 25 basis points each in September and December 2026, revising its earlier forecast of a single rate hike in December.
