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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 CNN, a letter shows that the U.S. Department of Defense's oversight agency rejected a bipartisan request to investigate the slowdown of SpaceX's military-grade Starlink system operations in Ukraine.

Michael Selig, the Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, stated at the CFTC's inaugural Frontier Forum in Washington that imagining a refrigerator autonomously purchasing groceries with funds from staked ETH, or even issuing its own Memecoin, "is no longer science fiction." He believes that when AI agents can hold assets and execute trades autonomously, regulators must make adjustments.Selig pointed out that the CFTC's regulatory framework is built around executing specific financial functions concerning "identifiable market participants," but autonomous software is raising questions about how these rules apply. He proposed that if AI agents identify trading opportunities and execute trades for users, their developers may need to register, who is responsible when the agent goes out of control, how regulators know for whom the agent is trading, and whether a new type of "Know Your Agent" rule, referred to as KYA, is necessary.Selig also mentioned that AI could provide smaller traders and businesses with risk management capabilities that were previously only available to large institutions, but greater autonomy also brings new risks: agents may react unexpectedly to market conditions, agents using similar models may exhibit correlated trading behaviors, and the speed of autonomous trading could complicate market regulation and risk management. Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu recently expressed similar concerns to Cointelegraph; Coinbase launched Agentic Wallets in February, and Binance introduced AI Agent Skills in March, allowing agents to trade within user-defined parameters or provide spot order tools.

On the evening of October 27, Li Liang, Vice President of Douyin Group, responded on Weibo to media person and financial observer Qin Shuo's statement about "the Byte Time of China's Internet," calling it "extremely unrigorous and purely nonsense." Li Liang stated that no company can become the "xx time of China's Internet"; instant messaging has a relatively stable moat due to relationship chains, while short dramas and short videos belong to a fully competitive market with rapidly changing dynamics. He also mentioned that Tencent's growth rate in short dramas and short videos far exceeds that of Douyin and Hongguo, and that instant messaging, gaming, e-commerce, and music occupy a significant amount of user time. He later posted that Qin Shuo's analysis contains several fundamental common sense errors.On the 26th, Qin Shuo published an article on his public account "Qin Shuo's Circle of Friends," citing QuestMobile data from a Nomura Securities report, stating that in July 2026, Douyin surpassed WeChat for the first time among the top 50 apps in China by mobile internet usage time, accounting for 19.4%, while WeChat accounted for 18.8%; the share of Byte's apps was 40.9%, and Tencent's was 29.1%. He questioned whether, despite WeChat's daily active users still exceeding Douyin's, China's Internet is shifting from Tencent time to Byte time, and from WeChat time to "Douyin + Hongguo time." This morning, Qin Shuo posted on social media that in the relevant rankings for August 2026, Byte's share was 41.8% and Tencent's was 28.6%, a difference of 13.2 percentage points. He believes that "Byte time" is a summary of Byte's total usage time share exceeding 40%, which is "a very realistic fact," while emphasizing that the share of user time does not equate to the share of user value.On the same day, Hongguo Short Drama, a platform under ByteDance, issued a statement saying that the claims circulating online about "annual revenue approaching 40 billion yuan" and "this year's revenue reaching 42 to 45 billion yuan" are inaccurate, and that the related comparisons, calculations, and extended interpretations lack factual basis. They stated that most of the current revenue continues to be used for content creator revenue sharing, copyright guarantees, and support for high-quality content. Data from third-party institutions shows that as of July 2026, Hongguo Short Drama had 168 million daily active users, a year-on-year increase of 107%. On October 19, Liu Xing, head of public relations at Doubao, responded to the claim that "over half of the domestic computing power is used to create feel-good dramas," stating that the data is unreliable, and that for Byte, only about 10% of the company's total computing power is used for training and inference of video generation models.

The prediction market platform Myriad announced that due to the administrator wallet being compromised, 10 prediction markets have been voided. According to the official statement, the holders on both sides of the affected markets will receive automatic refunds calculated at the price before the attack, but bonuses already received will be deducted.Myriad is a prediction market platform that allows users to bet on the outcomes of real-world events. After the administrator wallet was compromised, the platform decided to void the related markets and promised automatic refunds to the holders. The refunds will be calculated based on the price before the attack, and bonuses already received will be deducted from the refunds.

According to NPR, the prediction market platform Polymarket has launched an investigation into dozens of bets related to the U.S. midterm elections on November 3, focusing on potential insider trading and market manipulation. Sources say that at least two cases have been submitted to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).Shana Bautista, Polymarket's Global Intelligence and Investigations Director, stated that the company has formed a 16-person team and deployed a new election trading monitoring system that generates hundreds of risk alerts daily. The monitoring scope includes U.S. compliant platforms that require identity verification, as well as international platforms that allow anonymous cryptocurrency trading.The system integrates analysis of social media, data from the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC), cryptocurrency trading records, information from banking partners, and statistical models to identify abnormal accounts and trading patterns.

According to The Defiant, the NBA announced Kalshi as its preferred prediction market exchange.This partnership will provide Kalshi with official league data and NBA brand licensing, while Polymarket also received the same preferred designation.

According to disclosures from the U.S. SEC, Bitcoin Treasury Company Strive has signed a sales agreement with seven institutions including Cantor Fitzgerald, Barclays, Clear Street, StoneX, B. Riley Securities, Maxim Group, and H.C. Wainwright, planning to periodically sell up to 15% of Series A perpetual preferred stock with a total issuance price of up to $1 billion through ATM (at-the-market) offerings, with the stock ticker SATS.The document shows that the annual dividend yield for the preferred stock issued this time is 15%, with a set amount of $100 per share. Strive may issue shares based on market conditions through existing trading markets such as Nasdaq or other legal means, with the relevant institutions acting as sales agents, with a commission of up to 2% of the total proceeds from each sale.This issuance is considered an additional offering and does not include the previously issued 7 million shares of SATS preferred stock. The document states that Strive may issue shares periodically based on market conditions, and the actual issuance scale and timing will depend on the company's arrangements and market conditions.

According to Bloomberg, the Dutch government plans to promote reforms aimed at improving efficiency through measures such as artificial intelligence, reducing approximately 25,000 civil service positions over the next few years. The Dutch cabinet is expected to announce specific plans for utilizing AI to enhance work efficiency early next year.The government's goal is to save 900 million euros annually by 2027 and to increase the annual savings target to 3.5 billion euros (approximately 3.9 billion dollars) starting in 2035. The number of civil servants in the Dutch government is expected to reach about 160,000 by the end of 2025, an increase of 41% compared to 2018.

Strategy, Strive, and other Bitcoin treasury companies support the purchase of 135,979 Bitcoins through preferred stock financing, accounting for over 0.5% of the maximum Bitcoin supply; the related preferred stock market size is approximately $12 billion. Perpetual preferred stock has no fixed maturity date, which can alleviate refinancing pressure and attract income-oriented investors who are unwilling to hold Bitcoin directly; however, an increase in issuance size will also raise dividend expenses.Continuous financing for Bitcoin purchases relies on preferred stock trading at or near par value. If the price falls below par, the attractiveness of new issuances may decline, and the company may also turn to buybacks. CoinShares Research Director James Butterfill stated that Strategy's latest weekly report shows the company spent $193 million to repurchase STRC, while simultaneously buying 267 Bitcoins and increasing the preferred stock buyback authorization limit to $3 billion. Buybacks can reduce future dividend costs but may also compete for funds with Bitcoin purchases.Bitwise Research Director Ryan Rasmussen expects that ETFs will remain a larger source of Bitcoin demand in the long term, while perpetual preferred stock covers different groups of income-oriented investors, providing another source of demand support for the market. Butterfill believes that preferred stock may amplify market cycles: when financing conditions are favorable, it supports Bitcoin purchases, but when market sentiment weakens, this support may diminish.

According to a report by Forbes on Friday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is preparing to reform its voluntary disclosure program, planning to reduce penalties and expedite the processing of tax violation cases, including those involving cryptocurrency.Jarod Koopman, head of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, stated that the agency aims to launch the revised program before December and to close cases within 120 days after taxpayers complete the required submission process. He noted that the new plan will not establish a separate disclosure channel for digital assets but will apply the same voluntary disclosure procedures to other forms of tax noncompliance. Koopman also mentioned that the penalties under the revised program will be significantly lower than current levels, although he did not provide specific amounts. The IRS is considering allowing taxpayers to settle debts through installment payments or settlement offers.According to Forbes, the current program often takes a year or longer to complete and primarily targets taxpayers who intentionally fail to comply with tax laws and may face criminal prosecution, rather than those who make reporting errors due to negligence. Meanwhile, legislative efforts are advancing another voluntary disclosure program aimed at cryptocurrency taxpayers. Section 502 of the Digital Asset Taxation Certainty Act will establish a correction process with clear penalty standards for past violations, and the bill was passed by the House Ways and Means Committee in September.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X that Strategy spent $22.1 million to purchase Bitcoin last week and spent $193.1 million to repurchase its own STRC preferred shares.From October 12 to 18, Strategy added 267 Bitcoins, with an average purchase price of $82,900; this round of funding came from the sale of 140,872 common shares, increasing its Bitcoin holdings to 848,517 coins. The Strategy board also raised the authorized amount for digital credit repurchases from $2 billion to $3 billion.

Blackstone Group President Jon Gray refuted billionaire Ken Griffin's claim a few days ago that there is a bubble in artificial intelligence (AI). Gray stated on Thursday, "When you think of a bubble, you think of building capacity first and then hoping for demand to appear.But in the AI field, you are building capacity while hoping to keep up with demand." He said this is a "completely different situation" compared to phenomena like the telecom bubble of the 1990s. He mentioned the AI consulting company Ode, which Blackstone co-founded with Anthropic. "We simply cannot keep up with customer demand," he said. "Demand is growing almost parabolically."

According to TheEnergyMag, AI cloud service provider Nebius Group N.V. has secured a $3.5 billion Senior Secured Financing Facility from Citibank, which will be used to support its global AI cloud computing expansion.

The National Development and Reform Commission has released a new version of the "Regulations on Foreign Investment Management," which better ensures the development and security of foreign investment from an institutional perspective. The regulations consist of 76 articles, divided into six chapters: General Principles, Guidance and Services for Foreign Investment, Supervision of Foreign Investment, Protection of Foreign Investment, Legal Responsibilities, and Supplementary Provisions.The regulations will take effect on December 1, 2026, at which point the "Regulations on Overseas Investment Management" issued in 2017 will be simultaneously abolished. The state supports investors in conducting foreign investment activities based on market principles and actively participating in international cooperation and competition. Investors enjoy the autonomy of foreign investment according to the law, making independent decisions, bearing risks independently, and being responsible for their own profits and losses.

According to FXNewsGroup, Robinhood Ventures Fund I (NYSE: RVI) announced that it has invested $30 million to purchase preferred shares of Erebor Bank, National Association in the United States. Erebor is a nationally chartered bank in the United States focused on the innovation economy, serving sectors including defense, robotics, artificial intelligence, and hard technology.The bank obtained its national bank charter and federal deposit insurance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in February 2026, and its deposit scale has exceeded $7 billion.Erebor was founded in 2025, co-founded by Palmer Luckey and others, and supported by institutions such as Valor Equity Partners, Lux Capital, and 8VC. RVI is the first fund under Robinhood Ventures, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2026, primarily providing investors with private equity exposure through investments in private companies.

NVIDIA (NVDA.O) launched the OpenShell reference architecture, aimed at ensuring the secure operation of artificial intelligence agents.

According to CoinPost, Japan's Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Toshiaki Inoue, stated in the House of Representatives' Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Committee that he will study the introduction of stablecoins into the consumption tax exemption system for foreign tourists visiting Japan, and mentioned a "refund method" for tax refunds after departure confirmation, stating that he will promote responses from the user's perspective.According to the Japan Tourism Agency, the country's tax exemption system will change to a refund method starting from purchases made on November 1: Tourists will purchase goods at tax-included prices, and within 90 days from the date of purchase, upon departure confirmation by customs, they can then receive the consumption tax refund, which will be handled by the duty-free shop or an entrusted refund agency.

Anthropic recently submitted a draft AI safety bill to U.S. lawmakers, which has been questioned by U.S. AI safety advocates. The draft sets a high threshold for the government to urgently halt dangerous models, requiring that risks involve scenarios such as biological weapons, cyberattacks, or AI going out of control, and potentially causing more than 50 deaths or serious injuries, or losses exceeding $1 billion; some provisions may also limit state government regulatory authority.Nathan Calvin, the strategic head of the AI safety organization Encode, subsequently compiled Anthropic's decisions over the past year. In February of this year, the company modified its previously strict safety policy: it had previously committed to pausing training or releases if safety measures did not keep pace with model capabilities, but the new policy no longer requires the company to independently halt R&D at higher risk stages, citing that competitors might take advantage of the opportunity. During the same period, the company invested heavily in computing power, formed a chip team, and allowed Claude to take on more AI R&D tasks.On October 21, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei posted a lengthy rebuttal on X. He acknowledged that the company had made some mistakes but insisted that competing for cutting-edge AI capabilities did not violate its safety mission, stating that the company adheres to a race-to-the-top approach, believing that only by staying at the forefront of technology can it drive the industry to raise safety standards. He listed nine safety decisions that had cost the company commercially, including restricting the Mythos-level model's open access for months and strictly limiting biology-related requests. The safety roadmap updated by the company on October 19 states that existing policies mainly target the deployment of dangerous models, and in the future, it may be necessary to directly limit the speed of R&D, with plans to propose relevant policy options by January 15, 2027, or explain why none were proposed.