launch

Coinbase announced that it will hold the first global trading competition, the Coinbase Champions Cup, from November 4 to 25, with a total prize pool of up to 2 million USD, and registration is now open.Participants also have the chance to win a trader seat at Coinbase's next offline event. This competition is provided by Coinbase Bermuda Ltd. and is only open to eligible users within designated jurisdictions, with a minimum trading volume requirement of 100 USDC.

The Binance Futures platform will launch the EWZSUSDT perpetual contract priced in USDT at 18:05 on October 29, followed by SMRUSDT at 18:10, OXYUSDT at 18:15, AMGNUSDT at 18:20, PFEUSDT at 18:25, and MELIUSDT at 18:30, with a maximum leverage of 20 times.

Japan Tax Free, a Japanese duty-free service provider, announced that it will officially launch the yen stablecoin JPYC tax refund service in collaboration with UPBOND on November 1, providing an on-chain tax refund channel for foreign tourists visiting Japan.According to the new duty-free system implemented in Japan on the same day, tourists must first purchase goods at tax-included prices and then receive the tax refund after customs confirmation upon departure. The new service will issue JPYC to tourists using the wallet infrastructure provided by UPBOND, utilizing the Avalanche C-Chain.

According to Cointelegraph, Stellar has launched Project Thruput, a new execution model that has gone live on FutureNet. Early benchmarks show that the model achieves 7.02 million payments per second by scaling across multiple machines.

On October 29, Sony Group announced the launch of the global Sony Onchain Entertainment Incubation Program, aimed at global creators and startups, supporting the development of entertainment-related products and services based on Sony's blockchain Soneium, and exploring new forms of interaction, community building, and value creation between creators and fans.Selected projects will receive support from Soneium's technological infrastructure, opportunities for collaboration with Sony Group companies, as well as support for business expansion, marketing, community operations, and financing. Sony stated that since 2024, the company has selected and supported 43 projects from around the world through the previous two rounds of incubation programs, and the new plan will further focus on on-chain entertainment, promoting projects from technical validation to commercial application.The application period is from October to December 2026, with project selection expected to continue until March 2027. Applicants must have launched or plan to launch on Soneium, and evaluation criteria include the originality of the entertainment experience, intellectual property applications, community building, business expansion capabilities, and market competition conditions, among others.

BNB Chain announced on platform X that the Jenner hard fork upgrade has been launched on the BSC testnet. The upgrade includes Payment Lane, which reserves 5% of the block gas for eligible payments by default; provides millisecond-level block timestamps for smart contracts; and introduces a new compliance asset standard CAS20.Payment Lane and CAS20 will only be fully enabled after governance, with more details to be announced later.

The Solana-based token issuance platform Pump.fun announced on X that it has partnered with the on-chain perpetual contract protocol Hyperliquid to launch perpetual contract features within the Pump.fun application.Pump.fun stated that users can directly use their USDC balance within the app to go long or short on cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities without the need for cross-chain bridging. This feature is powered by Hyperliquid's on-chain perpetual contract engine for trading.

Bitget launches a U.S. stock earnings report guessing event, which will run from October 28 to November 30. During the event, users can complete stock spot (rToken) or stock perpetual contract trading tasks to obtain guessing tickets and participate in the U.S. stock earnings report rise and fall guessing. The guessing results will be determined by comparing the "closing price on the first trading day after the earnings report is released" with the "closing price on the last trading day before the earnings report is released."The event will gradually open different guessing sessions based on the release time of U.S. stock earnings reports, with the first batch covering Amazon and Apple. The total prize pool for each session is 10,000 USDT, with the winning and losing prize pools split at a ratio of 70% to 30%.

According to an official report from Cointelegraph, the competition among cryptocurrency exchanges is undergoing transformation, with the industry's focus gradually shifting from trading data to users' broader daily financial needs. During TOKEN2049, Gate officially launched a one-stop financial service application, Gate Money, to lead this new competitive landscape.Dr. Han, the founder and CEO of Gate, pointed out that Gate Money aims to break down the barriers between traditional investments and daily consumption. It integrates users' named bank accounts, fiat currencies, cryptocurrency assets, and traditional financial holdings such as stocks and gold into the same account system, combined with the Gate Card that supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as a Visa co-branded card, granting assets instant consumption capabilities. It also integrates various fiat currency deposits and withdrawals, on-chain transfers, instant exchanges, and up to 3.6% annualized wealth management, achieving a one-stop experience for asset management, appreciation, and payments.While expanding its business, Gate always places compliance and transparency at its core. Currently, the platform has obtained compliance qualifications in Malta, Dubai, Australia, and the United States; the platform's total reserves amount to $8.688 billion, with a comprehensive reserve ratio of 118.49%. The launch of Gate Money marks Gate's acceleration towards upgrading into a comprehensive financial ecosystem that encompasses daily payments and comprehensive asset management.

Decentralized exchange UXUY announced the launch of the stock tokenization service platform uStock, primarily targeting small and medium-sized listed companies in the US and Hong Kong stock markets. The platform plans to provide share issuance, on-chain investor distribution, and post-issuance liquidity services, connecting listed companies with global on-chain investors, using stablecoins such as UUSD as tools for subscription, pricing, and settlement.According to the proposed product mechanism, each uToken corresponds to the economic rights of one share of the underlying stock, covering price changes, cash dividends, and corporate actions such as stock splits and mergers. The underlying stocks are intended to be custodied by licensed brokerages, trusts, and other institutions, isolated through independent asset holding entities. The platform plans to disclose stock custody, token issuance, and asset coverage through a Proof of Underlying asset verification mechanism.uStock will establish an initial liquidity pool for uToken/UUSD using part of the raised funds according to the issuance documents and will introduce on-chain market makers. As the spot market and infrastructure advance, the platform intends to gradually support round-the-clock on-chain trading and explore integration with UXUY's self-developed Perp DEX to expand on-chain perpetual contract trading for corresponding uToken assets.UXUY founder 0xKevin stated, "We are bringing stablecoins into more real asset scenarios, allowing US and Hong Kong listed companies to connect with global investors and capital. In the future, we will continuously improve issuance, trading, and liquidity services around real stock rights, establishing a more long-term connection between corporate growth and global on-chain capital."

According to the Digital Currency Research Society, on October 27, Beijing Bank released a public tender announcement for the procurement project of firewall equipment for digital currency business in 2026 through the official centralized procurement management system. Along with the previously announced procurement projects for IPS, encryption machines, WAF, SSL, signature devices, etc., the bank has officially launched a centralized upgrade of the full-chain security infrastructure for digital renminbi business, covering core security nodes such as intrusion defense, encrypted transmission, web application protection, and identity signing.In April of this year, Beijing Bank became a newly added operational institution for digital renminbi business and connected to the central bank's digital renminbi system. In August, the central bank added 8 more operational institutions, expanding the total to 30. Previously, several newly added operational institutions, such as Huishang Bank, Hangzhou Bank, and Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank, had initiated tenders for core digital currency systems worth tens of millions. The report pointed out that Beijing Bank's inclusion of various security devices such as firewalls and encryption machines in centralized procurement is a proactive security layout to adapt to the new features of digital renminbi, such as high-concurrency transactions and programmable smart contracts.

On October 29, WEEX Exchange announced that the GRAM trading airdrop is ongoing, with a total prize pool of 50,000 USDT. During the event, new users who net deposit ≥ 100 U and complete their first GRAM spot trading (no limit on trading volume) will receive a reward of 10 USDT; if the first GRAM spot trading results in a loss, a platform compensation of up to 50 USDT can be obtained; if the cumulative spot trading volume of GRAM reaches ≥ 500 USDT, users can unlock a lucky blind box worth 5-50 USDT; inviting friends to participate in the event can earn up to 1,000 USDT in rewards.

The decentralized liquidity staking protocol Diva Staking announced on social media that it will shut down the project and will not launch the mainnet. The official statement said that this decision was made after thorough discussion and apologized to the early stakers who had pre-deposited in the vault, stating that related deposits can be withdrawn through Enzyme without further waiting.The official statement mentioned that the team has been operating for about two and a half years without income or salary since the funds were exhausted in mid-2024, with three members pushing the project forward. Diva went live on the Hoodi testnet earlier this summer and has been running stably for about four months without any issues, but failed to gain support from large institutions for the mainnet launch. The three-member team also could not bear the costs of a new round of audits and mainnet operations, thus choosing to wind down rather than risk launching.The announcement also stated that the demand structure for LST has changed after the Shanghai upgrade. As of the end of June this year, BitMine, Coinbase, and Binance together accounted for about 30% of the total staked ETH, with approximately 11.5%, 10.9%, and 7.9% respectively, which is comparable to the concentration when the market was concerned about Lido's share being close to one-third. The official also congratulated Lido for advancing Simple DVT and opening up to independent stakers.

According to CoinDesk, APX Lending, a lending institution in Toronto, Canada, announced on Wednesday that it plans to launch Bitcoin-backed mortgages in the first quarter of 2027, allowing homebuyers to raise down payments or full home payments without selling their Bitcoin.The company has opened a waiting list and claims it will become Canada's first regulated Bitcoin mortgage provider, but has not yet disclosed mortgage rates, repayment terms, loan-to-value ratio limits, or the trigger conditions for additional collateral or liquidation.

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated that the new AI model Carbon is being launched first to cybersecurity partners.

Google (GOOG.O) launched the Gemini 4 Carbon cutting-edge model.

Pump.fun announced on October 28 that it will launch Elysium trading in its app on November 9, adding support for this network focused on Hyperliquid to its multi-chain trading business. Pump.fun posted on its official X account stating "Pumpfun App x @Enter_Elysium," and added "Trading starts November 9," with Kinetiq also announcing Pump.fun's entry into Elysium.Elysium is a Layer 2 built by Kinetiq based on Arbitrum Orbit, with transaction settlements occurring in the Hyperliquid smart contract environment HyperEVM, and network fees paid in HYPE. Its mainnet is scheduled to launch on November 9, 2026, coinciding with Pump.fun's trading start date; the chain will be rolled out in phases, with native HyperCore market data access and fast order submission paths expected to be provided in an upgrade approximately four weeks after the mainnet launch. The announcement only mentioned the Pump.fun app and did not disclose plans to migrate the company's Solana Meme coin issuance platform or its liquidity to Elysium.This plan is independent of another Hyperliquid integration announced earlier on the same day. Pump.fun stated that perpetual contract trading is now live within the app, allowing users to go long or short on cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities using USDC balances without cross-chain transactions; the service charges a fee of 0.05% per transaction, reduced to 0.04% with a referral code, plus standard Hyperliquid fees. The Elysium announcement did not specify its funding channels and trading fee terms.

The DeFi lending protocol Kamino announced the launch of a USDC loan service using Backpack tokenized stocks as collateral. Borrowers can receive up to 40% of the collateral's value.The market will maintain its last stock price outside of U.S. trading hours, which means that during U.S. stock market closures, the collateral valuation of the tokenized stocks will be based on their last transaction price, allowing borrowers to continue lending operations during non-trading hours.

According to the official announcement, Robinhood Chain has added 8 new stock tokens, namely JP Morgan, Visa, PayPal, BMNR, McDonald's, Disney, Uber, and VanEck Gold Miners ETF.