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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.

Microsoft expects its Azure cloud business revenue to grow by 49% to 50% in the second fiscal quarter, with total revenue reaching between 96 billion and 97.1 billion dollars.Revenue from the Intelligent Cloud and Infrastructure segment is expected to be between 80.1 billion and 80.7 billion dollars, while revenue from the Devices and Consumer segment is projected to be between 15.9 billion and 16.4 billion dollars. Microsoft also anticipates that capital expenditures in the second fiscal quarter will exceed 50 billion dollars.

According to the latest data from Polymarket Builders, the Gate event market has a cumulative trading volume of approximately $909 million, ranking second among all access channels on Polymarket and consistently remaining at the forefront of major trading entrances.The Gate event market has launched a quarterly earnings prediction challenge, setting a total reward of 90,000 USDT around the earnings events of popular companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. Activities include new trader transactions, inviting friends, and profit rankings, with the top of the leaderboard eligible for a reward of up to 5,000 USDT.Gate is the first to layout the event market, creating a one-stop trading experience for global hot events. Users can participate in trading directly through the Gate App, placing orders using USDT from their spot accounts without the need for on-chain operations. The platform has launched the Combo prediction feature and introduced a macro market topic page related to the U.S. midterm elections, focusing on displaying market probabilities and trading data for key macro topics such as Federal Reserve interest rate decisions, inflation, employment, and economic growth. At the same time, it continues to improve features such as intelligent monitoring, AI analysis, profit and loss analysis, and quick trading, enriching the trading scenarios and information service capabilities of the event market.

The Hong Kong Investor and Financial Education Committee issued a notice highlighting the risks of trading tokenized funds in the secondary market, including price discrepancies and trading risks, liquidity risks, price fragmentation risks, and reliance on market makers risks. The Committee stated that tokenized funds traded on virtual asset trading platforms may experience significant premiums or discounts compared to their net asset value.The Committee pointed out that investors should understand the investment objectives, strategies, characteristics, operations, and related investment risks of the underlying funds, as well as the tokenization arrangements, including whether transactions are ultimately settled on-chain or off-chain and the associated risks. Investors should also pay attention to trading channel information, market maker arrangements, applicable fees, potential trading suspensions, secondary market trading risks, and the options and related impacts of purchasing or redeeming tokenized fund units at net asset value.

During the third quarter earnings call of Pop Mart (09992.HK), the company's management stated that the group's gross profit margin for the second half of the year is expected to decline compared to the first half, with a decrease of no more than two percentage points.The management mentioned that the reasons include a projected decrease in the proportion of overseas revenue compared to the first half, as well as the company's proactive adjustment of pricing for certain products in some overseas markets to enhance competitiveness. In terms of expenses, the group plans to open a significant number of new stores in core overseas markets in the second half, leading to an increase in fixed costs such as labor, rent, property, and renovation amortization, with an overall expense ratio expected to be higher than in the first half.

Coinbase Institutional Co-CEO Brett Tejpaul stated in an interview that the "second wave" of institutional funds for Bitcoin has arrived. He revealed that the seven largest banks in the world are currently operating on Coinbase's infrastructure and are experiencing their own "Kodak moment," as these banks begin to move funds from traditional accounts to on-chain settlements.Tejpaul indicated that the core driver of institutional adoption has shifted from Bitcoin ETFs to stablecoin payments. Funds can now be transferred from Citibank accounts to USDC, cross-chain in a second, and then enter corporate accounts on the other side. He disclosed that the scale of stablecoin settlements has reached $400 million per hour, but relative to the overall payment market, it is still just "a speck of dust," with payment service providers adopting it on a large scale ahead of banks. Additionally, Coinbase is connecting U.S. funds to Deribit, which holds 85% of the options market share.When discussing Bitcoin, Tejpaul believes the macro environment is good, but the price performance is disappointing, and institutions currently view it as a tech-related trade. He also mentioned that stablecoins and agency-style commerce have arrived almost simultaneously, and Coinbase is advancing a transformation from "Amazon to AWS" to activate infrastructure across the United States, disclosing that it holds about 90% of the market share in Bitcoin ETF custody.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has approved the world's first tokenized funds for public offering to be traded on licensed virtual asset trading platforms in the secondary market. Two existing tokenized money market funds have begun offering round-the-clock trading. The Securities and Futures Commission will closely monitor trading activities and consider expanding the range of products.

Cross-chain trading application Fomo recently announced the official public launch of its self-built internal cross-chain bridge (Fomo Bridge) and router. Official data shows that after integrating the self-built system, its cross-chain transaction confirmation time is less than 1 second, and the transaction execution speed is 50% faster than existing market solutions.Fomo stated that its internal router can average optimize execution prices by 0.5% and optimize the worst-performing 10% of transactions by over 2%. Currently, Fomo's cross-chain trading volume is more than 10 times that of other trading applications. As a large cross-chain trading application that possesses both a cross-chain bridge and routing system, Fomo has thus gained control over the entire trading stack, including pricing, indexing, bridging, and routing, ensuring that users can still achieve a fast and low-cost trading experience even in extreme market conditions.

The blockchain infrastructure layer Espresso announced the completion of its mainnet upgrade. Benchmark tests show that its data throughput reaches 181 MB/s, which translates to approximately 1 million stablecoin transfers per second, based on an average of 180 bytes per transaction.The average final confirmation time for transactions is 337 milliseconds, and under peak load of 1 million transactions per second, it is 778 milliseconds.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, the predicted market on Polymarket for the event "Inter Milan vs. Shakhtar Donetsk," the "Over" option for the sub-market "More than 0.5 goals in the second half" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in winning probability, dropping from 87.5% an hour ago to the current 70% (a fluctuation of 17.5%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

Galaxy Research Research Director Alex Thorn stated that since the second half of October, Bitcoin returns have been primarily driven by the Asian trading session, while the European trading session has dragged down overall performance.The chart he shared shows that as of October 20, calculated from October 1, the cumulative return of Bitcoin during the Asian trading session was 3.9%, 1.1% during the U.S. trading session, and -5.5% during the European trading session; the return for buying and holding all day during the same period was -0.7%.

Solana's largest network upgrade since 2020, Alpenglow, officially launched on Wednesday. This upgrade moves validator voting from on-chain to off-chain, packaging votes into certificates that can lock transactions within one to two rounds, aiming to reduce the final confirmation time for transactions from about 6 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds, speeding it up by about 40 times. If this goal is achieved on the mainnet, Solana's transaction settlement speed will be faster than the blink of an eye, bringing it closer to the trading and payment experience of centralized exchanges.Currently, a 6-second confirmation time means that prices may change before the transaction is locked, causing exchanges and payment applications to wait before considering deposits as complete. In comparison, Ethereum takes about 13 minutes to achieve full final confirmation. At the same time, validator costs are expected to decrease by about 60%: currently, validators spend about 2 SOL daily on voting fees, which doubled after Solana recently reduced block time to about 200 milliseconds; Alpenglow eliminates voting fees, replacing them with a fixed validator entry fee of 0.8 SOL per epoch (approximately 24 hours).The upgrade launch process was not smooth. The testnet has been cleared and restarted from scratch six times since its launch in early May, with one migration failing across the entire network and having to be rolled back. According to an article published by Galaxy Digital, one of about 100 validator operators on the testnet, a subsequent migration was successfully completed, clearing the way for Wednesday's launch. Since these events occurred on a network built specifically for testing, there was no risk to real funds. The upgrade was scheduled to switch at the start of epoch 1064 on Wednesday, with actual changes occurring at slot 459,653,000 after a transition of 5,000 slots.

According to CCTV News, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department stated on the 20th that the United States has revoked over 300,000 visas during Donald Trump's second presidential term.U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott announced the latest data on social media that the number and speed of visa revocations by the Trump administration exceeded that of previous U.S. administrations, and adopted a zero-tolerance attitude towards visa holders who violate laws, commit fraud, or threaten U.S. national security.

According to a report by the Korean Economic Daily on October 21, Elice Group, an AI infrastructure company providing AI cloud and educational and office software, saw a significant rebound the day after its listing on the KOSDAQ. As of 9:15 AM that morning, Elice was priced at 79,900 Korean won, an increase of 18,400 Korean won from the previous trading day, a rise of 29.92%. The previous trading day's closing price was 61,600 Korean won, down 28,900 Korean won from the issue price of 90,500 Korean won, a decline of 31.93%. The report stated that even if the price reached the limit increase for the day, the stock price would still be below the issue price.Bloomberg reported on October 20 that Elice fell about 32% on its first day of trading, becoming a case of weakened confidence in so-called new cloud companies, and noted that it was at the center of the debate regarding AI company valuations and their ability to realize those valuations. Reuters stated that the sharp drop again raised market concerns about the sustainability of large investments in AI infrastructure and the investment recovery cycle. CNBC reported that the impact of the listing performance has spread to U.S. data center-related stocks. The scale of this public offering was $150 million, and the company plans to use the listing funds for the construction of modular data centers and related infrastructure.

The asset management company Bitwise Asset Management and the Hyperliquid Policy Center submitted a comment letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), requesting modifications to the proposed cryptocurrency rules to clarify token classification, airdrops, and secondary market trading rules. The SEC's proposed Regulation Crypto Assets would establish exemptions for eligible cryptocurrency financing and provide a conditional safe harbor for tokens related to investment contracts.Bitwise requested clarification on the standards for investment managers to determine whether tokens are subject to securities laws. The Hyperliquid Policy Center called for an expansion of the safe harbor scope and clarification of the rules for airdrops and token buybacks that reward network participants. The organization also requested that the SEC clarify whether unregistered intermediaries can facilitate token trading and whether tokens can be freely traded through on-chain protocols. Former SEC enforcement official John Reed Stark and Duke University finance scholar Lee Reiners called for the proposal to be withdrawn, arguing that it exceeds the SEC's statutory authority and undermines investor protection. The SEC will decide to amend, adopt, or withdraw the rules after the public comment period ends, and the final rules must be voted on by the commission before taking effect.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction event "Ningbo Open: Ostapenko vs. Bencic" on Polymarket, the "Over" option for the sub-market "Ningbo Open: Ostapenko vs. Bencic Total Games in Second Set O/U 8.5" experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 34.5% an hour ago to the current 50% (a fluctuation of 15.5%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

According to Bloomberg, citing informed sources, AI cloud computing company Nscale, supported by Nvidia, is in talks with Anthropic to sell computing power, with a deal value potentially around 45 billion dollars.According to the plan, Nscale will build a second facility at its Monarch data center campus located in West Virginia, USA, providing 460 megawatts of computing power, using Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips. Anthropic also holds a priority purchase right for a third facility. Informed sources said the deal could be finalized in the coming days, but details may still change. According to Nscale's IPO application documents, Anthropic had previously signed an infrastructure agreement worth approximately 44.6 billion dollars with them.

The website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission shows that CITIC Securities released the "Report on the Progress of the Guidance Work for the Initial Public Offering and Listing of MiniMax Group Inc. (Phase II)" on October 15. This phase of guidance started on July 10, 2026, and lasted for more than three months. CITIC Securities, together with Tongshang Law Firm and Ernst & Young, continuously monitors the company's operational performance and compliance in accordance with regulatory requirements and the guidance agreement, and conducts guidance through on-site training and communication on specific issues.The report states that the guidance target has established an internal governance structure and relevant company management systems, but there is still room for optimization in execution. CITIC Securities will collaborate with intermediary institutions, combine due diligence, continuously refine and improve corporate governance and standardized operations, propose rectification suggestions, and supervise the implementation of internal controls. In the next phase, work will continue with Tongshang Law Firm and Ernst & Young, focusing on enhancing standardized operational levels and preparing for guidance acceptance.On May 29, 2026, CITIC Securities signed a guidance agreement with MiniMax and submitted a guidance filing application to the Shanghai Regulatory Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission on the same day, which was accepted, marking MiniMax's official entry into the guidance period. The large model company MiniMax (00100.HK) was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on January 9, 2026, approximately four years from establishment to listing, and has focused on the research and development of full-modal models since its inception.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the event "Japan Women's Open: Caty McNally vs Sinja Kraus," the sub-market "Japan Women's Open: Caty McNally vs Sinja Kraus Second Set Winner" saw the winning probability for the option "Caty McNally" experience significant fluctuations, rising from 22% an hour ago to the current 50% (a fluctuation of 28%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.