The proposal comes amid intense competition among AI developers, including US companies Anthropic and OpenAI, the SCMP said. Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek has revealed a design to increase the autonomy of AI coding assistants so they can perform multiple tasks with less human intervention. The aim is to reduce human input in coordinating and monitoring multiple AI agents, according to a paper published by the company’s DeepSeek Harness team and reported by Singapore’s South China Morning Post on Sunday. Managing multiple agents demands human attention, the team said, noting that “single-task limits depend on model capabilities, while multitask limits depend on human attention.”
A new 1kx report finds that public companies are capturing a larger share of blockchain revenue, driven by institutional adoption and real-world applications. Publicly traded companies accounted for 16% of blockchain industry revenue in 2026, more than double their 7% share in 2022, according to a new report from crypto investment firm 1kx. The increase comes as overall blockchain revenue is projected to decline 28% year over year to roughly $100 billion in 2026. The report analyzed data from more than 2,600 protocols and earnings reports from 104 publicly traded companies through the third quarter. The researchers attributed the growing share of public companies partly to new stock market listings, including stablecoin issuer Circle, which went public in 2025, and revenue growth among exi…
The breach impacted its in-house mobile system, used by employees for work and information sharing. South Korea’s crypto exchange Bithumb is investigating the extent of a data leak caused by a hack of its internal mobile system earlier this week, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. Bithumb discovered the breach of its in-house mobile system — the platform used by employees to communicate internally — on Tuesday and notified the Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission that day, according to Yonhap, which cited industry sources. The exchange is investigating the scope of the attack, including whether member data was leaked.
As of Friday, 22 companies had filed objections as part of the joint venture’s proposed tokenized stock platform under the SEC’s innovation exemption. Six more companies have reportedly filed objections to having their stocks listed in tokenized form on the proposed platform as part of a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). According to a Friday Reuters report, the proposed stock platform, called OKXICE, had 22 companies total objecting to having their US stock listings tokenized. Among the most recent objections reportedly included Wells Fargo, Arm Holdings and Intuit, adding their names to Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet in the last week. Notably, 16 of the companies were li…
Coinbase reports growing adoption by banks and businesses, even as stablecoin market capitalization remains largely unchanged over the past year. Stablecoins moved more than $400 million an hour in adjusted transfer volume during the third quarter of 2026, as quarterly activity reached $891 billion, more than quadrupling since early 2023, according to a new report commissioned by Coinbase. The report found that 73% of screened stablecoin transfer volume occurred outside US banking hours, including nights, weekends and holidays. Distribution of stablecoin transfer volume by time of day. Source: Coinbase and The Block Research, via Dune Analytics
JPMorgan is reportedly expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, allowing institutional clients to make payments and settle tokenized asset transactions. JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest bank by market capitalization, is expanding its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum, Bloomberg reported on Monday. JPM Coin represents US dollar deposits held at JPMorgan and lets eligible clients transfer funds within seconds, around the clock. Emma Landriault, global head of Kinexys Labs, said crypto companies could use the token for blockchain payments, while financial institutions could use it to settle trades and post collateral.
Markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East see increasing demand for stablecoins. Stablecoin issuer Circle is seeking to enter about 40 developing markets, according to the company’s CEO and chairman, Jeremy Allaire. “We’re kind of going through an inflection point...a transition right now, and that transition is essentially moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase,” Allaire told Reuters, speaking Friday on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. Markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are experiencing increasing demand for stablecoins as businesses and individuals seek to enter the internet-based economic system, Allaire reportedly said.
Germany’s largest bank reportedly plans to expand its digital asset custody services to Asian financial centers due to the growth of the digital asset economy. Deutsche Bank reportedly intends to debut its crypto custody services in Germany and plans to expand them across Asian financial centers in 2027. The rapid growth of the digital asset economy, including hundreds of billions of dollars held in stablecoins, is driving the bank’s plans, Gerald Podobnik, co-head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate bank, told Reuters in a Friday report. Podobnik added that the move is part of Deutsche Bank’s goals to achieve compound annual growth of 8% in corporate banking by 2028.
The crypto exchange was reportedly looking to use the additional funding to regain market share following Binance’s 2023 settlement with US authorities. Binance.US is reportedly seeking to raise up to $100 million in a funding round that could value the cryptocurrency exchange at $1 billion. According to a Thursday Bloomberg report, the US-based crypto exchange is pursuing private investment as it looks to expand its business. The potential $1 billion valuation would be well below the $4.5 billion pre-money valuation it secured in 2022, when it raised $200 million in seed funding. Binance.US reportedly informed World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform co-founded by US President Donald Trump and his sons, about the funding round, but the company will not be participating. Last year, Bin…
Jeonbuk Bank reportedly began offering Bitcoin-backed loans to corporate customers, with a third-party custodian holding the cryptocurrency used as collateral. South Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank, a subsidiary of JB Financial Group, reportedly started issuing Bitcoin-backed loans to its corporate customers. Local outlet EDaily reported Monday that Jeonbuk Bank became the country’s first commercial bank to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as collateral for won-denominated lending. The bank is reportedly limiting the service to businesses seeking operational capital, while a specialized custodian holds the BTC used as collateral. The lending arrangement follows amendments to South Korea’s Civil Enforcement Rules that took effect on Oct. 1. According to the Supreme Court, the rules establish procedures for seizi…
There are global concerns following incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic, and fears have arisen that rogue AI agents may venture beyond human control. European Union rules on AI use are more than capable of dealing with rogue agents, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said. There are global concerns following incidents at OpenAI and Anthropic, and fears have arisen that rogue AI agents may venture beyond human control. “We see that the safety and security of very capable models is a very hot topic internationally and we in Europe are well equipped for that,” Virkkunen said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.
The reported cuts come as Anchorage expands its institutional footprint, including stablecoin issuance and a $100 million investment from Tether. Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered US digital asset bank valued at $4.2 billion earlier this year, has reportedly cut 17% of its workforce, suggesting that the prolonged crypto market downturn is weighing on the company even as it expands its institutional footprint. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Information reported Friday that CEO Nathan McCauley informed employees of the cuts this week. Anchorage had about 400 employees globally as of February, according to McCauley’s congressional testimony at the time, meaning a 17% reduction would amount to roughly 68 jobs if its headcount remained around that level. Cointelegraph reache…
EU regulators are reportedly examining Binance’s use of a MiCA exemption to serve customers as ESMA seeks stronger enforcement powers. European regulators are reportedly scrutinizing Binance’s use of a legal exemption to continue serving customers in the European Union without authorization under the bloc’s crypto rules. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and regulators in France, Germany and Greece are examining Binance’s use of reverse solicitation under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the Financial Times reported on Thursday. Binance withdrew its Greek MiCA application in June and said it would seek authorization in another EU member state.
OpenAI is reportedly seeking another $30 billion from investors as the ChatGPT developer pushes its long-awaited public market debut into 2027. ChatGPT developer OpenAI is reportedly eyeing another $30 billion raise that could value it at $1.4 trillion, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies even before it goes public. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Tuesday that OpenAI is in the early stages of discussions for the new funding round, with investor demand driving the talks. The proposed valuation would be roughly 64% higher than OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation in March, when it raised $122 billion.
The crypto company is seeking a valuation of up to $6 billion, well below its 2022 peak, as recently listed crypto stocks struggle to hold their gains. Blockchain.com, a crypto exchange and wallet provider, is reportedly looking to raise about $500 million in an initial public offering (IPO) this year, more than four years after the company reached a $14 billion valuation at the height of the previous crypto boom. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Monday that Blockchain.com was seeking an IPO valuation of between $4 billion and $6 billion. The company was also open to a smaller offering if needed to complete a public listing. As Cointelegraph reported, Blockchain.com confidentially filed draft registration documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in…
A rogue OpenAI research agent bypassed blocks on the Australian government health-data portal, accessing non-public files in June. The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic have reportedly been summoned to appear at an Australian Senate inquiry into AI, just days after news broke that a rogue OpenAI bot had hacked the country’s health data. The Australian Medicare breach is one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the US, according to a Sunday Business World report. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei were asked to appear at the inquiry in Canberra on Thursday, the report said.
US President Donald Trump previously tapped David Sacks as his AI and crypto czar before Sacks stepped down from the role earlier this year after reaching his service limit as a special government employee. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly being considered as US President Donald Trump’s next artificial intelligence czar, days after Trump announced plans for an “AI Force” amid mounting concerns about the technology’s risks. Bessent is a frontrunner for the position, three sources familiar with the matter told Semafor. Other candidates include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, a former managing partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and National Cyber Directo…
The five-year digital bond reportedly shortened settlement from three to five business days to the same day using Euroclear’s blockchain infrastructure. South Korea’s Hana Bank has reportedly issued a five-year, $100 million digital bond using Euroclear’s blockchain-based platform. On Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported that the bank used Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure to issue the foreign-currency bond. The report described the transaction as the first digital bond issuance in South Korea to directly use Euroclear’s blockchain infrastructure. According to Yonhap, the bond’s issuance, registration and settlement were processed on a distributed ledger network. Using the technology for bond allocation and payment settlement reportedly shortened the process from three t…
Former banking official gets four years in prison over false letters of credit and accepting $470,000 in cryptocurrency bribes. A former bank official in Hong Kong who falsely authenticated letters of credit for more than $1.6 billion was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to make restitution of more than $470,000 he received in cryptocurrency bribes. Lam Chun-yin, 32, who was a customer relationship manager at China Construction Bank (Asia), had previously pleaded guilty in District Court, The Standard reported on Saturday. Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung said deterrent sentences are necessary even for first-time offenders, especially in light of the grave nature of the crime and its impact on society. HashKey begins beta distribution of Hong Kong-regulated HKDAP stablecoin
South Korean police reportedly referred 18 Polymarket users to prosecutors in a gambling probe involving 26 people and $12.7 million in bets. South Korean police have reportedly referred 18 Polymarket users to prosecutors in an illegal gambling investigation involving 26 people who collectively wagered about 17.6 billion won (worth $12.7 million). According to Asia Economy, data submitted by the National Police Agency to the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Kun-young showed that the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency had placed 26 people under investigation as of Tuesday and sent 18 of them to prosecutors. The report said the largest amount wagered by a single user was about 5.7 billion won ($4.1 million). Police identified users by analyzing publicly available blockchain transactio…
