Key News from Last Night and This Morning (October 9–October 10)

CPC Central Committee and State Council: Fully implement the "AI+" initiative and make forward-looking plans for future industries

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces." The opinions mention fully implementing the "AI+" initiative. Advance AI-driven transformation of traditional industries, and accelerate the application of next-generation intelligent terminal scenarios such as intelligent connected new energy vehicles, AI phones and computers, and humanoid robots. Accelerate innovation in digital-intelligent technologies such as AI, make breakthroughs in basic theory and core technologies, and strengthen the efficient supply of computing power, algorithms, and data. Tailor measures to local conditions and adopt industry-specific policies to lay out national AI industry application pilot bases and high-value application scenarios, and vigorously promote the application of AI across industries. Build systems for technology monitoring, risk early warning, and emergency response to ensure AI is safe, reliable, and controllable. The opinions also mention making forward-looking plans for future industries. Explore diverse technology routes, typical application scenarios, viable business models, and market regulatory rules, and promote the development of future industries such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communications, accelerating the formation of a relatively complete industrial ecosystem. Establish mechanisms for investment growth and risk sharing in future industries, make full use of existing fiscal policies to support the development of future industries, and guide social capital to continue increasing investment.

UK sanctions three crypto exchanges, accusing them of helping Russia evade sanctions

The UK Foreign Office announced new sanctions on 38 entities, including three crypto exchanges and multiple payment platforms, accusing the related networks of helping Russia evade Western financial sanctions. The named entities include Canada-registered company Xeltox Enterprises (which operates Cryptomus, Heleket, and Certa Payments), as well as Kyrgyzstan-based TokenSpot, payment platform Processing KG (which operates VexPay), Tsunami Payments, and Processing KG director Ulan Bukabaev. The UK said two of these firms had processed transactions involving the Kremlin-backed A7 network, which issues the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 and last year claimed fund flows exceeding $90 billion. The sanctions freeze the related entities' assets in the UK, and also cover Russian oil producers, 12 shadow fleet tankers, and missile and drone production suppliers.

Bithumb to list XDP token on the KRW market

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb will list the XDP token on the KRW market, with trading expected to open at 21:00 local time.

Network School raises funding led by Polychain at a $2 billion valuation

Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee announced during a live broadcast of the Network State conference that Polychain is leading a new funding round for Network School at a $2 billion valuation, with participation from a16z, Coinbase, and Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan, among others. The funding amount was not disclosed. Related reading: Visiting Network School: A Web3 utopia built in an unfinished Country Garden building in Malaysia.

ESMA consults on the use of tokenized collateral by central clearing counterparties

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a consultation paper seeking views on whether and under what conditions EU central counterparties (CCPs) can safely and effectively use tokenized collateral, covering "digital twins" of traditional assets, natively issued on-chain assets, and hybrid models, and focusing on issues such as the ability to liquidate tokenized collateral when clearing members default, segregation of client assets, and settlement finality. The consultation runs until January 15, 2027, and ESMA will assess feedback in Q1 2027 and decide on next steps.

Zcash development team plans to introduce quantum-resistant signature opcodes next January

Roman Akhtariev, an engineer at Zakura, the Zcash node software development team, said the team plans to introduce post-quantum signature opcodes for Zcash next January, enabling the network to verify hash-based signatures resistant to quantum attacks. The plan covers transparent transactions, which account for about 70% of issued ZEC; shielded transactions require separate protection. This follows Justin Drake's call for the industry to plan a "bunker mode." ZEC has fallen about 11% over the past week.

Wall Street's five major banks' Q3 equities trading revenue expected to approach $19 billion

Wall Street's largest banks are expected to disclose combined third-quarter equities trading revenue of nearly $19 billion when they report earnings next week. However, as capital market activity begins to cool, performance gaps between banks are gradually emerging, with some banks starting to clearly outperform competitors. This contrasts sharply with the first half of this year, when nearly all of the five major US banks benefited from a trading boom, with both equities and fixed-income trading desks staying busy. According to analyst forecasts compiled as of Thursday's New York market close, Goldman Sachs, which reports earnings next Tuesday, is expected to lead major banks with $5.1 billion in third-quarter equities trading revenue. Morgan Stanley is expected to follow closely with $4.9 billion; JPMorgan is expected at $4.5 billion; and Bank of America's equities trading desk is expected to generate $2.6 billion in revenue.

Blockchain.com applies for CFTC licenses, plans to enter prediction markets and derivatives

Crypto platform Blockchain.com has applied to the US CFTC for designated contract market (DCM) and futures commission merchant (FCM) licenses, and upon approval will offer event contracts (prediction markets) and crypto derivatives trading to US users. Blockchain.com currently offers prediction markets to some overseas users through Polymarket and supports perpetual contract trading through Hyperliquid.

Analyst: Multiple Ledger users' wallets reportedly drained, losses exceed $86 million

On-chain analyst Specter posted on X that multiple reports of Ledger users' wallets being drained have appeared on X and Reddit. After tracking the theft addresses, Specter found inflows from hundreds of victim wallets across multiple main chains including Ethereum, TRON, and Bitcoin, with total losses exceeding $86 million. On-chain data shows that three BTC theft addresses received more than 211 BTC combined between October 8 and 9, which has not yet been moved out. The cause of the theft remains unclear, and Ledger has not yet responded.

Circle mints 250 million new USDC on the Solana network

At 20:44 Beijing time, USDC Treasury minted an additional 250 million USDC on the Solana network.

Jev developer TypeSafe AI raises $870 million at a $7.5 billion valuation, led by a16z

AI startup TypeSafe AI completed a funding round of about $870 million, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), at a company valuation of $7.5 billion. TypeSafe AI's AI model Jev reportedly went viral within weeks of its release. Co-founder Diogo Almeida said that after the launch video went viral, the company gained significant attention from corporate executives, developers, and investors, and is now used by about one-third of Fortune 500 companies, surpassing 1 million users within days.

Tongyi Qianwen open-sources Qwen-Image-2.1-Turbo, generating images in 8 steps

Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen team posted on X that it has open-sourced the image generation model Qwen-Image-2.1-Turbo, which can generate and edit images with just 8 denoising steps. The model is accelerated from Qwen-Image-2.1's 7-billion-parameter architecture, can generate 2K images, and supports continuous natural-language editing. The weights are available on Hugging Face and ModelScope, and the Pro and Turbo APIs are also live.

Two addresses belonging to the same whale have gone long nearly $50 million in BTC and ETH combined

Two addresses belonging to the same whale are together going long about $50 million in BTC and ETH. Among them, diamondbull.eth opened a 25x long position of 11,500 ETH during the rebound, worth $28.72 million, ranking seventh among Hyperliquid ETH long positions, currently with an unrealized loss of $109,000. Its funding source address samurai.eth separately holds long positions of 200 BTC and 2,000 ETH, worth $21.58 million, currently with an unrealized profit of $753,000.

79thVault attacker returns 15,000 BNB (about $11 million)

79thVault was previously exploited by an attacker, with 10K $79AU tokens stolen and swapped for 16,249 BNB (about $12.51 million). During this period, the attacker deposited 30 BNB into KuCoin. The attacker subsequently returned 15,000 BNB (about $11 million) to a wallet address designated by the project team.

Ledger responds to user fund theft: involves Southeast Asian distributor CryptoBillis

Ledger Support posted on X that it is investigating reports of fund theft from users in Southeast Asia who purchased devices from distributor CryptoBillis, and has asked it to suspend all Ledger device sales and shipments. Ledger advises users who purchased devices from this distributor in the past 90 days not to set them up if not yet initialized; if already set up, they should transfer assets to a new device using a new seed phrase. Earlier, analyst Specter said related losses could exceed $86 million.

New York State permanently bans former Celsius CEO from the crypto industry; settlement involves up to $35 million in conditional payments

Celsius co-founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky reached a settlement with the office and will be permanently banned from participating in the securities, commodities, and cryptocurrency industries. The settlement involves up to $35 million in conditional payments: if he fails to forfeit $10 million in ill-gotten gains to the federal government as agreed, he must pay $25 million to New York State; if he fails to serve the full 12-year sentence, he must also pay $10 million. The case involves more than 26,000 New York State investors.

Trump establishes a committee to investigate Fed Governor Cook

US President Trump has established a committee to investigate mortgage fraud allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, intensifying efforts to remove her from office. The White House released a memorandum signed by Trump dated Wednesday announcing the establishment of the committee.

Telegram rolls out the Gram wallet Money to all users

The Gram wallet, previously available only to some users, has been renamed Money and is being rolled out to all Telegram users. Money can be used to store and send Gram, as well as to purchase gifts and collectible usernames. Trading and investing are conducted through Walt, which supports more than 300 assets, including tokenized stocks, precious metals, perpetual contracts, and Earn wealth-management products. Users can top up Money from Walt with one click, with instant transfers and no network fees.

Tether has begun freezing USDT related to the Ledger theft case, with losses rising to nearly $90 million

MistTrack, under SlowMist, posted on X that Tether has frozen a large amount of USDT on addresses related to the Ledger user fund theft incident. According to its current tracking, losses from the incident have approached $90 million, and some affected users have contacted it for assistance, with the team following up. Earlier, Ledger said it is investigating the fund theft incident involving users related to Southeast Asian distributor CryptoBillis.

A user had all 80 BTC stolen after purchasing a Ledger from CryptoBillis

A user bought 80 BTC (about $5.2 million) four months ago at an average price of about $65,000, and at one point had an unrealized profit of $1.38 million. About a week ago, the user purchased a Ledger device from distributor CryptoBillis and deposited all 80 BTC into it, all of which has now been stolen. On-chain data shows the BTC was deposited on September 29 and transferred on October 9 to a theft address previously flagged by analysts.

CFTC plans to explicitly include sports, political, and other event contracts in the swap definition

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to further define the term "swap," explicitly including event contracts based on sports, political, cultural, and weather events. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said such products are commodity derivatives under the Commodity Exchange Act and fall under the CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction. The proposal will be open for public comment for 30 days. The CFTC also issued an interim final rule the same day clarifying that casino-type gambling products such as sports betting and casino games are not swaps.

Bloomberg: US DOJ is reviewing whether Binance is complying with its 2023 settlement agreement

The US Department of Justice is reviewing whether Binance is complying with its 2023 settlement agreement with US authorities, focusing on transactions after the settlement that may have violated US sanctions on Iran, including whether Binance knowingly allowed transactions that its systems should have blocked. The review is led by the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office and the DOJ's Criminal Division, and involves a Hong Kong entity accused of helping transfer proceeds from Iranian oil sales. Binance responded that it has zero tolerance for sanctions violations. Binance previously pleaded guilty in 2023 and agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion in penalties and forfeitures, while accepting compliance monitoring.

SlowMist's 23pds: A module implanted in Ledger may steal seed phrases displayed on screen

Former Mt.Gox CEO Mark Karpelès posted that a Ledger device he purchased from Malaysia contained a spy module with a SIM card chip hidden in the screen padding area, with the outer packaging intact. SlowMist Chief Information Security Officer 23pds analyzed that the attack flow may involve a malicious module connected to the screen data line, recording the words displayed when the seed phrase is generated, and then sending them to the attacker via LTE/eSIM; the secure element can only protect the private key from being read, but cannot prevent screen content from being captured.

Ledger distributor CryptoBilis suspends sales and shipments, reminds users to move assets

As Ledger investigates the asset loss incident involving users who purchased devices through this distributor, CryptoBilis has suspended all Ledger device sales and shipments. Users who have not yet activated their devices should stop setup, and those who have activated them should transfer assets to a new device using a brand-new seed phrase. CryptoBilis reminds users never to disclose their seed phrase or PIN, and users who have suffered losses should keep their devices and transaction records and report to the police.

CryptoBilis expands the sales suspension, halting all hardware wallet brands across three Southeast Asian countries

The company has suspended sales and shipments of all hardware wallet brands across all stores and online channels in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, with physical stores temporarily closed. The move aims to protect customers during the Ledger security incident investigation and an independent expert review of internal processes. Undelivered orders will be handled proactively by customer service, and users who have purchased Ledger devices should follow the security guidance. The company expects to announce further progress within three business days.

The involved Ledger distributor CryptoBillis was secretly sold this spring, with the deal carrying a confidentiality agreement

X user exsiway posted that the involved Malaysian authorized Ledger distributor CryptoBillis was sold by its original founders this spring, with the deal carrying a confidentiality agreement requiring non-disclosure until October 19, but the store and the "Ledger authorized" label have been retained to this day. Former CryptoBillis team members previously also said that new management has taken over, and the original team is required to keep confidentiality until October 19. There is currently no official evidence directly linking the new owners to the tampered devices.

Aerodrome and Velodrome merger set to launch on October 21, with token conversion ratios announced

Aero, the merger project of decentralized exchanges Aerodrome and Velodrome, announced token conversion terms and deadlines. The merger will launch at 8:00 PM ET on October 21, at which point token emissions from the two old platforms will stop. Existing AERO will be converted to new AERO at a 1:1 ratio, and each VELO will be converted to about 0.044 AERO, with the same ratio applying to both liquid and locked tokens. In the new token supply, Aerodrome holders will receive 94.5% and Velodrome holders 5.5%. As of October 9, the two exchanges had a combined total value locked of about $422 million. Existing veAERO and veVELO locks will be converted to the new sAERO, with remaining lock durations carried over, but migration must be completed manually through the official portal, and self-custodied assets will not be automatically converted. The merger was announced by Dromos Labs in November 2025.

Hacker suspected of moving Tornado Cash laundered funds into Hyperliquid, shorting BTC with 40x leverage

A wallet received 263 ETH from Tornado Cash yesterday, then sold it for 643,000 USDC and deposited it into Hyperliquid. The address opened a 305.5 BTC short position at $83,068 with maximum 40x leverage across its entire account, with a position size of about $25.38 million and a liquidation price of $84,088, currently with an unrealized profit of about $160,000.