News linked to both this project and an event.
According to BeInCrypto, Chainalysis data shows that over the year ending June 2026, the South African crypto economy expanded by 52% to $39.3 billion, with increases across all tracked activity categories. Commercial payments, including those from South African merchants and P2P traders, reached $8.34 billion, outpacing institutional activity ($1.29 billion in inflows); stablecoin inflows through Sub-Saharan African P2P channels totaled $14.6 billion, on par with Bitcoin. A draft regulatory framework for crypto asset management released by the South African Treasury and Reserve Bank (SARB) on August 3 would stipulate that individuals may only transfer crypto assets abroad through authorized local service providers within existing foreign exchange limits, while businesses are prohibited from cross-border transfers of crypto assets. As of March 31, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) had issued licenses to 310 crypto asset service providers, though these entities must still secure separate authorization from the SARB. On October 21, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated that after receiving thousands of public submissions, the Treasury will aim to release a revised second draft, with no timeline currently announced.
According to Fortune, the Dubai government agency Digital Dubai is driving government transformation by integrating cross-departmental data and AI. In April this year, the agency launched an AI Integration Matrix framework, leveraging it to guide the deployment of over 100 AI systems to reduce redundancy. Its Dubai Population Now platform integrates multi-source data from sectors including residency, transportation, and healthcare to estimate the population in real time. By the end of 2025, Dubai’s resident population stood at 4.58 million, with an average daytime peak of 6.39 million; this surplus of 1.81 million people accounts for approximately 40% of the resident population. In August, Dubai ranked second out of 61 cities in the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Smart Cities Index, taking the top spot for the adoption of AI technologies and smart city solutions. The Dubai government has also stated that AI-driven governance initiatives are expected to drive over 10 billion dirhams (approximately $2.72 billion) in GDP growth within two years of implementation.
Odaily reports: USAT is independently issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., with Tether providing technology and supporting branding, strategy, and distribution. Anchorage's disclosure states that Tether is not the issuer of USAT and has no obligation to redeem or guarantee the token; USAT and USDT are different products with different issuers and legal arrangements.Anchorage's terms only allow approved customers to directly mint or redeem USAT, while other holders typically need to trade through exchanges or the secondary market. Its August 31, 2026 reserve report shows approximately 175.7 million redeemable USAT in circulation, corresponding to approximately $176.4 million in reserve assets.The GENIUS Act took effect on July 18, 2025, with its main issuance framework set to be implemented on January 18, 2027. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published the main implementing rules on October 21, 2026; as of October 27, the OCC had not yet initiated the application process, and public materials do not indicate that USAT has obtained issuance approval under the Act. (Bitcoin.com News)
Bitcoin Core has adjusted its security vulnerability disclosure policy, defining easily discoverable vulnerabilities as those that can be found through simple large language model prompts, and will release fixes as soon as possible across all major versions still under maintenance, while publishing security advisories.Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot stated that in the past, vulnerabilities were typically kept confidential during a longer disclosure embargo period to allow users to upgrade, but large language models have lowered the threshold for rediscovering certain vulnerabilities, limiting the protective value of delayed fixes.Low-severity vulnerabilities will be disclosed two weeks after the major version containing the fix is released; medium- and high-severity vulnerabilities will be disclosed two weeks after the affected version reaches end of life, typically about one year after the fix enters a new version. Critical vulnerabilities are not subject to the standard policy and will be handled through ad hoc procedures.In August, the volunteer organization Bitcoin Red Team reported nearly 5,000 potential issues across 390 projects, with about one-fifth having been reproduced at the time. Core Lightning developers that same month asked node operators to upgrade or take nodes offline, and delayed disclosure of technical details for two weeks. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily — Gate has released its "Q3 2026 Report," showing continued growth in its trading business and a significant expansion of its multi-asset trading product matrix in Q3 2026. According to CoinDesk data, Gate's derivatives trading volume reached $396 billion in September, up 38.2% quarter-over-quarter, ranking among the global top three centralized derivatives exchanges with market share rising to 10.1%. Over the same period, spot trading volume reached $48.8 billion, up 21.9% quarter-over-quarter, while its RWA perpetual contract market share reached 9.1%, ranking third globally.On the TradFi side, Gate's stock and ETF coverage increased to over 12,800 instruments, spanning U.S., Hong Kong, Korean, and Japanese equities, providing users with a rich selection of global asset allocation options. Its tokenized stock business gStocks continued to expand its tradable instruments, with monthly trading volume exceeding 2.5 billion USDT in August, and its comprehensive competitiveness in stock spot trading ranking among the global top two. Gate ETF quarterly trading volume approached 60 billion USDT, with ETF trading pairs supported by the platform increasing to 424; options quarterly trading volume grew 23.8% quarter-over-quarter, and the number of new trading users rose 52.1%, as U.S. stock options continue to broaden traditional financial asset trading scenarios. The launch of stock copy trading further connects stock and ETF trading across multiple markets, enriching the ways users can participate in global financial markets.From crypto asset trading to global stocks, ETFs, CFDs, and multi-asset derivatives, Gate continues to broaden its product coverage and trading scenarios, driving the accelerated integration of digital assets and traditional financial markets while refining its one-stop multi-asset trading service system.
According to Cointelegraph, the PHP Foundation admitted that a critical security vulnerability discovered as early as 2024 has yet to be patched due to flawed decision-making processes and understaffing within the security team, calling the delay a structural failure. The vulnerability could allow unauthenticated attackers to remotely execute code on affected servers. On August 11, security firm Calif and OpenAI independently reported the same issue, with Calif also demonstrating unconditional remote code execution, prompting the matter to be elevated to the highest security priority. PHP released emergency patches for two related critical vulnerabilities on Wednesday. Around the time of the patch release, government websites or services in the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, and Australia were temporarily taken offline, with the Netherlands shutting down its digital identity service. The Wikimedia Foundation also took some supporting services offline, causing disruptions to certain Wikipedia features. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called on website operators to install the patches as soon as possible. In the crypto sector, monitoring by SlowMist's MistEye service found that out of 1,488 evaluated domains, 793 showed direct PHP fingerprints. Cardano governance organization Intersect temporarily took its member portal offline. Both Coinbase and BitGo stated that their platforms were unaffected. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao advised users to exercise extreme caution when visiting websites over the next few days. PHP security team
Odaily reports: The PHP Foundation has stated that due to hesitant decision-making and insufficient resources, remediation work for a critical security vulnerability first discovered in 2024 stalled and restarted multiple times, and it characterized the delay as a "structural failure." PHP is a programming language widely used for websites and web applications.PHP has released emergency patches for two related critical vulnerabilities. Unauthenticated attackers could exploit the flaws to execute code on affected servers without logging in. Some government websites or online services in the Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, and Australia were temporarily taken offline to prepare for patch installation.Security firm Calif and OpenAI separately reported the same underlying issue on August 11, and Calif also demonstrated unconditional remote code execution. Blockchain security firm SlowMist investigated PHP usage in the crypto industry and found direct PHP fingerprints on 793 of the 1,488 domains it assessed.Intersect has temporarily closed its Members Area, Coinbase said it has not found any affected PHP instances, and digital asset infrastructure company BitGo said its platform was not affected. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao reminded users to exercise heightened caution when visiting websites recently, and OpenAI has released a Codex skill for checking for vulnerable PHP versions. (Cointelegraph)
According to Consultation Paper GC26/7 published by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the FCA launched a consultation on 21 October regarding non-Handbook guidance for decentralized finance (DeFi). The comment period closes on 18 November, with the final version planned for release in the first quarter of 2027. This guidance does not establish new regulatory requirements. It aims to clarify how existing rules under SYSC 15A (Operational Resilience), SYSC 6 (Compliance and Financial Crime), and the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) apply to regulated firms that use or access DeFi. The FCA stresses that regardless of whether an entity describes itself as "decentralized," authorization or exemption is required if it carries out regulated activities in the UK. The document reveals that from January to August 2026, decentralized exchanges accounted for approximately 14% to 19% of global crypto spot trading volume. In 2025, approximately 8% of UK crypto users acquired crypto assets through decentralized exchanges. According to industry data, cumulative losses from DeFi and cross-chain bridge hacks since 2016 have exceeded $12 billion.
According to Yonhap News Agency, 17-year-old researcher Chen Guangyu, who previously contributed to the development of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model, has departed. A social media account tracking U.S. AI talent mobility, named "Aper Grok," reported that he has joined Discovery Loop. Chen himself has not publicly confirmed his next destination, while Discovery Loop declined to comment on personal matters. Starting in November 2025, Chen served as a machine learning researcher on the Kimi team, deeply involved in the research and development of the Kimi K3's underlying architecture. On social media, he thanked the company for hiring him at age 16 and stated that he would relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area. Rumors had suggested he might join Anthropic, but he has denied them. Established in August of this year by Jeff Dean and three other former Google researchers, Discovery Loop is dedicated to automating scientific research with AI and has yet to launch any products.
Odaily reports: Blockchain security research firm Asymmetric Research has disclosed that Solana's on-chain governance program svmgov previously had a vulnerability: when validators did not participate in voting, independent votes submitted in advance by their delegators might not be counted in the final results. The vulnerability was reported to the Solana Foundation on July 10 and was fixed on mainnet on August 3, earlier than the governance vote on August 24. Based on on-chain data calculations, Asymmetric Research estimates that if the vulnerability had not been fixed, the approval rate of the SGP-0002 proposal, which aims to accelerate the decline in SOL inflation, could have dropped from the actual 67.00% to 66.65%, below the 66.67% passage threshold. The vulnerability was fixed before the vote and did not actually change the proposal's outcome.
Odaily reports: Solana has gone two consecutive years without reporting a mainnet outage. A report from Fidelity's Applied Technology Center (FCAT) notes that its network health has made progress across resilience, economic security, and performance metrics.The report notes that higher staking participation and incentive mechanisms rewarding validator performance underpin Solana's economic security, while low latency, improved scalability, and low-cost transactions also support its adoption at scale.The report also states that staking concentration among a small number of validator identities and operators, as well as concentration in custody and client software, still require continued observation. Jacob Creech, VP of Technology at the Solana Foundation, said that Solana reduced slot times to 350 milliseconds on August 21; the foundation announced plans in June to further reduce this to 200 milliseconds, with three additional 50-millisecond adjustments to follow. (Cointelegraph)
According to a statement from Avon and Somerset Police in the UK, Terroll Paul, 31, Mohamed Samagassi, 37, and Pierre Madzou, 30, broke into a man's residence in Bristol in the early hours of May 15, assaulted the victim and demanded he hand over a large amount of cryptocurrency, but were unsuccessful. On October 15, the trio was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court for aggravated burglary, with Paul receiving six years, Madzou five and a half years, and Samagassi five years. The victim sustained severe head injuries requiring hospital treatment. His underage sister successfully raised the alarm, prompting the immediate arrest of the three suspects at the scene. They subsequently pleaded guilty when they appeared in court in August.
Odaily News: French hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger received multiple reports of malicious implants months before its latest security crisis occurred. Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès stated that at least two people had contacted Ledger since December 2025 to report tampered devices, but no public warning was found to have been issued.Security researcher Joe Grand stated that on March 4, 2026, he reported a malicious implant to Ledger. The implant was found in a Nano X purchased through Lazada in Thailand in August 2025. Ledger confirmed the findings and said it would launch an internal investigation, but did not proactively alert customers.Mark Karpelès believes that the increase in the number of reports and the growing sophistication of the techniques used should prompt Ledger to take action and at least remind customers to remain cautious. Ledger declined to comment on how it handled Joe Grand's disclosure, only directing people to view its public statement on X.The Ledger security crisis became public on October 9, involving the loss of crypto assets from wallets sold by Southeast Asian authorized reseller CryptoBilis; Ledger confirmed that one affected device contained an unauthorized implant. Trezor had also previously received reports involving devices tampered with by unauthorized sellers. (Cointelegraph)
According to CoinShares' market report, the US September CPI rose 0.6% month-over-month and 3.7% year-over-year, exceeding the 3.6% market expectation. Gasoline prices surged 9.1% during the month, accounting for roughly half of the overall increase. Core CPI rose 0.3% month-over-month and 2.6% year-over-year. In the same period, US September retail sales increased 0.8% month-over-month, beating the ~0.3% forecast, while August data was revised up to 1.3%. However, retail sales excluding gasoline only grew by 0.2%, down from 1.0% in August. The report pointed out that inflation remains elevated and economic demand continues to show resilience, driving a hawkish repricing of Federal Reserve policy that weighed on Bitcoin and the broader digital asset market. Data showed that market sentiment notably weakened following the CPI release, with global digital asset investment products recording $434 million in outflows so far this week. Regarding interest rate expectations, as of October 15, Polymarket data indicated a roughly 75% probability that the Fed would hold rates unchanged at its October meeting and about a 25% probability of a 25-basis-point hike. Following the CPI release, futures markets shifted markedly toward a hawkish stance, with expectations of another rate hike within the year rising significantly.
Odaily reports: The U.S. September Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 6.3% year-over-year and 1.3% month-over-month, with the year-over-year growth rate reaching its highest since December 2022 and the month-over-month increase being the largest since March 2022. Energy costs accelerated, with gasoline producer prices rising 20.3% month-over-month.According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, final demand goods prices rose 2.6% month-over-month, with final demand energy prices up 10.8%; final demand services prices rose 0.8%, with transportation and warehousing costs up 3.4%. During the same period, U.S. September retail sales grew 0.8% month-over-month, below August's 1.3%.Polymarket data shows that traders estimate a 72% probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged at its October meeting, and a 28% probability of a 25 basis point rate hike, with related market trading volume approaching $41.5 million. In September, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%.After the report was released, Bitcoin's price briefly fell below $81,000 and touched an intraday low of $80,154 on Bitstamp; it fell 3.4% on the day and 4% over the past two weeks. (Bitcoin.com News)
Odaily report: Payment services company Mastercard and fintech company BVNK announced the launch of Global Money Platform on October 15, connecting stablecoin balances to hundreds of millions of merchant locations worldwide and supporting the issuance of payment cards in over 130 countries.The platform integrates fiat accounts, stablecoin conversion, payment cards, and international payments through a single API, enabling banks, fintech companies, and enterprises to offer accounts that hold both fiat and stablecoins simultaneously. Nuvei, Marqeta, Ontop, Beem, and Almond FinTech have already integrated.Mastercard Move can connect to over 17 billion payment terminals and convert stablecoin balances into local currency for direct payment to bank accounts. The platform's coverage is planned to expand to over 200 countries and regions and more than 40 currencies by 2027; Mastercard acquired BVNK in August, with the deal valued at up to $1.8 billion. (Bitcoin.com News)
According to an official Mastercard announcement, Mastercard and stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK officially launched the Mastercard Global Money Platform on October 15, 2026. This marks the first major integration rollout following Mastercard's completion of its acquisition of BVNK in August 2026. The platform delivers a full-stack modular financial infrastructure through a single API, supporting multi-currency accounts (including fiat and stablecoins), real-time conversion, stablecoin-linked cards, and local bank payments. It covers over 200 countries and regions, more than 40 currencies, and enables card issuance in over 130 countries. Banks, fintech companies, and enterprises can integrate these capabilities into their own products or use them directly to manage their own funds, payments, and settlement operations.
on October 14, Tempo announced that payroll platform Deel has become the first customer to use its Zones privacy system in a production environment, with contractor balances and payment histories no longer publicly visible. Funds deposited into a Zone by Deel's treasury department remain visible on the public network, but contractors' recipients, payment amounts, and asset holdings remain private; contractors can view their own balances, while Deel retains access for reconciliation and auditing purposes.Each Zone maintains a private ledger and connects to the Tempo public network through a portal that holds endorsed assets. Deposits and withdrawals still leave records on the public network, including token amounts and public network addresses. Operators can read the private ledger, restrict participants and supported assets, and enforce token issuers' transfer policies. This integration adds privacy features to Deel's existing wallet, which was opened to eligible contractors in over 80 countries in August; embedded wallet service provider Privy supports Zones through its API.
Odaily News: The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has released a report on "debanking," stating that some banks have used public and non-public policies to restrict financial services for multiple industries, including crude oil, natural gas, tobacco, firearms, and digital assets. The report notes that some institutions restricted digital asset businesses, including issuers, exchanges, and managers, often citing financial crime concerns as the reason.The OCC stated that the report was prepared in accordance with an executive order signed by Donald Trump in August 2025, which aims to prevent what it calls "illegal debanking." The report reviewed 9 major banks but did not list specific cases related to digital asset businesses, nor did it comprehensively quantify the scope of debanking or related allegations.OCC head Jonathan Gould said that some debanking decisions related to coal and firearms were not based on financial risk, with banks citing reputational risks from negative news, public protests, and support for related industries. In November 2024, more than 30 tech and crypto industry executives said they were unable to access banking services. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily News: According to monitoring by Bitcoin News, well-known hardware security researcher and computer engineer Joe Grand (social media account @joegrand, also known as "Kingpin") stated that in August 2025, a man in Thailand contacted him, claiming to have discovered a compromised Ledger Nano X. The man had previously purchased a cheap Ledger device online to replace the battery in his existing device. After taking the device apart, he found that it contained a smaller battery, unauthorized circuitry, extra wiring, and an antenna. After the man posted his findings on Reddit, he reportedly did not receive much attention from local police, and subsequently contacted Grand to launch an investigation. This discovery came more than a year before the Ledger supply chain attack sparked major public controversy this week; according to reports, nearly $100 million in cryptocurrency was stolen this week.