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Morgan Stanley's Chief Equity Strategist Mike Wilson stated that despite the cooling enthusiasm for artificial intelligence trading and recent pressure on U.S. stocks, he maintains his forecast for the S&P 500 index to close at 8000 points by the end of the year. Morgan Stanley has set a tactical downside target for the S&P 500 at 7100 to 7200 points, slightly below the 200-day moving average, while the basic year-end target remains at 8000 points. Wilson noted that several upcoming clearing events, including the midterm elections, should mark the end of the current stock market adjustment.Wilson is relatively cautious about the semiconductor sector, believing that support levels may be significantly lower than current levels, but selling pressure may ease next month. The strategy team stated that as the market questions the timing and scale of revenue realization related to artificial intelligence, the semiconductor and other capital expenditure beneficiary sectors have become the epicenter of financing concerns; there are new doubts about the cost of capital for some participants and whether the credit market can provide sufficient funds to support related expenditures, as governments and non-AI-related capital expenditures are also competing for funds. The team indicated that given the possibility of more financing plans in the future, it is normal for the market to focus on the supply side, but this concern will persist until financing is completed.The five-year credit default swaps of the highly leveraged new cloud service provider CoreWeave closed above 1100 basis points last week, implying a default probability of about 50% on its debt within five years. Wilson's team believes that the adjustment in the semiconductor sector has entered its final stage, expecting this round of adjustment to end by mid-November; however, based on technical analysis and comparisons with the once-hot silver market, the sector may decline another 10% to 15% from current levels, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index potentially dipping to around 9500 points. Last week, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell a cumulative 0.7%, with a total decline of over 5% in the past two weeks; on Monday, Anthropic's public IPO prospectus boosted the AI sector, leading chip stocks to rise, and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 0.82%, closing at 26169.38 points.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has finalized the implementation rules for the GENIUS Act, applicable to licensed stablecoin issuers, foreign issuers under OCC jurisdiction, and certain custodial activities of regulated entities, covering reserve support, redemption, and risk management. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the legislation as a "watershed moment for the U.S. financial industry," comparing it to the National Currency Act of 1863.The final rules do not include provisions for the Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering, and OFAC sanctions, which will be addressed through subsequent rules coordinated with the Treasury Department. The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, and regulators failed to establish rules by the deadline of July 18, 2026; the Federal Reserve proposed two related rules in September 2026. Both the GENIUS Act and the OCC final rules are set to take effect on January 18, 2027, and the OCC has not yet announced the timeline for accepting issuer applications and exemption requests.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Franklin Templeton, with assets under management of $1.7 trillion, has completed the final regulatory procedure before listing two ETFs that convert stock dividends into Bitcoin.On October 22, the company submitted Form 8-A to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to register shares of the Franklin US Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF and the Franklin US Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF for trading on NASDAQ. The prospectus submitted on the same day indicates an effective date of October 27. These two funds were first filed in June of this year, with codes and fees not disclosed at that time.The stock fund code is FBEQ, which tracks the VettaFi US Large-Cap 500 Bitcoin DRIP Index. This index holds the 500 largest companies in the U.S. by market capitalization, weighted by free float. As of September 30, it actually held 499 stocks, with a concentration in the information technology sector. The fund's initial allocation is 95% stocks and 5% Bitcoin, with regular or special dividends distributed by companies being used to purchase Bitcoin at the opening of the next trading day after the ex-dividend date, increasing the Bitcoin allocation with each dividend payment.During quarterly rebalancing, any Bitcoin allocation exceeding 5% will be reduced to 4.5%; if the Bitcoin allocation exceeds 20% between two rebalancing periods, it will be brought down to 4.5% within two trading days, with the funds flowing back into stocks. The fund does not directly hold on-chain Bitcoin but gains exposure through Bitcoin exchange-traded products (including its own spot fund), futures and options, or depository receipts, with some achieved through a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. The FBEQ fee is 0.09%, with no 12b-1 fees, managed by Franklin Advisory Services, and Franklin Templeton Institutional serves as a sub-advisor. The innovation fund employs the same mechanism, tracking the VettaFi US Innovation 100 Bitcoin DRIP Index, with components from the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on NASDAQ.Franklin Templeton had previously filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF in September 2023 and launched it in January 2024 under the code EZBC; in April of this year, it acquired 250 Digital and established an institutional digital asset department, Franklin Crypto. These two DRIP funds extend the strategy to investors who will not purchase Bitcoin on their own.

According to CoinDesk, Ben Edgington, the coordinator of the Ethereum rapid finality research direction, along with several researchers, submitted a draft proposing to reduce the transaction finality waiting time from about 16 minutes to about 4 minutes, improving it by approximately four times.The current goal is to push this draft into the formal upgrade proposal process. The core idea of the draft is to separate the original "block selection" and "finality confirmation" mechanisms of validators, allowing finality to progress at a faster pace and facilitating future adoption of quantum-resistant signatures.Faster finality is expected to reduce the costs incurred by cross-chain transfer services due to capital occupation. The Ethereum Foundation's research provides an example: if a service advances about 1 million dollars per hour, under a 16-minute delay, approximately 267,000 dollars would be pending recovery, which could be reduced to about 67,000 dollars after shortening to 4 minutes.

According to information from GitHub, a core protocol draft named "Decoupled Consensus" has appeared in the Ethereum EIP repository. It proposes to separate the beacon chain's head voting from the finality proof voting to enhance fork choice security, shorten finality time, and lay the groundwork for a subsequent transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQ).The proposal is co-authored by Francesco D'Amato, Roberto Saltini, Yann Vonlanthen, Mikhail Kalinin, and Ben Edgington, and is currently still in the early draft stage, with multiple details yet to be determined. The submitters primarily hope to obtain an EIP number at this stage. The proposal is pending further review and has not yet been merged.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, Lee Won-ik, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, stated during a comprehensive inspection at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee regarding the taxation of virtual assets to be implemented next year, "Various circumstances need to be fully considered." On the same day, People Power Party member Song Yeon-sik questioned whether to abolish or postpone the taxation, stating that the nature of digital assets and policy direction have not yet been determined, and that the "Basic Law on Digital Assets" should be prioritized. Lee Won-ik responded that the relevant legislation on digital assets is in the final negotiation stage and discussions will be promoted as soon as possible; regarding taxation, opinions from various parties are diverse, and collection of opinions is still ongoing.The taxation of virtual assets in South Korea was introduced in 2020 through amendments to the Income Tax Act, having been postponed three times previously. The government is currently advancing administrative procedures according to the timeline for implementation in January next year, but some in the industry and even within the ruling party believe that due to unclear standards and insufficient infrastructure, the timing for implementation is not yet mature.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Becerra stated that the "GENIUS Act" is a watershed moment in the U.S. financial sector, further solidifying the United States' position as a global cryptocurrency hub.He pointed out that just as President Lincoln's National Currency Act of 1863 established a national framework for banks to issue currency, the "GENIUS Act" establishes a federal framework for payment stablecoins in the digital age.Becerra noted that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) final rule advances the implementation of this landmark legislation, providing a clear and pragmatic foundation for private sector innovation, competition, and the United States' leadership in the digital asset space.

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.

The Liquid Network officially announced the progress of the phased recovery, stating that the network recovery work has entered the final stage, focusing on strengthening security mechanisms, conducting independent audits, and gradually restoring the redeeming function of pegged assets.In terms of functional recovery, the network will first gradually open semi-automated BTC and LBTC exchange services, coordinating with participating exchange service providers to implement this service, which itself does not impose transaction volume limits at the protocol layer.In the next phase, the Liquid Network will restore the 1:1 Bitcoin reserve support for the network, and then gradually reopen the Federation redeeming function to authorized PAK key holders, but the full restoration of related functions still depends on the completion of remaining security checks and operational requirements.

Solana ecosystem R&D company Anza announced that the Alpenglow mainnet test version will be activated on October 21, 2026, at 14:50 (UTC). After the upgrade is completed, transaction finality is expected to shorten from approximately 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds.Alpenglow will replace the existing TowerBFT voting mechanism with Votor, allowing validators to not write every vote to the chain but instead confirm consensus through direct communication and summarizing into smaller records. The network is expected to maintain the existing system for about 18 minutes, switching to Votor after staking SOL reaches 82% of the validator set. Another component of Alpenglow, Rotor, will adjust the distribution method of new blocks among validators, but the activation date has not yet been announced. This upgrade only includes Votor, and Solana will temporarily focus on the replacement of the consensus mechanism.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that Jonathan Gould, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), stated that the final rules for implementing the GENIUS Act are expected to be released soon, by the end of October.Gould made this statement at the "Building the New Digital Economy" event hosted by the Milken Institute, which coincided with DC Fintech Week.

Arthur Hayes stated on the X platform that he is uncertain whether AI-related assets will experience a significant drop and is unwilling to bet on their direction of rise or fall.He prefers to trade around the expected eventual multi-trillion dollar bailout and expresses a bullish stance on BTC and ETH.

According to CoinDesk, Solana plans to implement the Alpenglow upgrade on October 21. This upgrade aims to reduce the transaction finality time to about 150 milliseconds and replace the existing voting system of the network with a faster certificate-based consensus mechanism.

According to foreign media reports, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Council is expected to decide on the specific arrangements for the release of emergency reserves of diesel and crude oil announced by the Group of Seven (G7) during the meeting on October 14 to 15. G7 member countries agreed to release a total of 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil and committed not to impose energy export restrictions.

The WEEX AI Trading Hackathon "AI Wars II: The Algorithm Era" Round 5 competition has officially begun, with the competition period from October 5 to 9. Participants can choose to join Team AI or Team Human, and both sides will compete in trading in a real market environment, vying for rankings and a prize pool of 30,000 USDT based on PnL%.The real-time battle status on the WEEX official website shows that in the first four rounds, humans and AI are tied 2:2, with both sides in a very close competition. After the conclusion of Round 5, WEEX will hold an awards ceremony on October 12.Additionally, during this week's TOKEN2049 Singapore, the WEEX Alpha Suite will showcase the real-time trading capabilities of WEEX AI, allowing users to experience AI trading tools and explore the WEEX Mini Trading House.

According to CoinDesk, the Solana consensus upgrade Alpenglow has completed the switch to Testnet and Devnet on September 24 and 25, respectively, and is currently running on the two major public test networks, allowing application teams to test compatibility before launching on the mainnet. Alpenglow aims to reduce the final confirmation time from about 12.8 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds by allowing validators to exchange votes directly instead of writing votes as transactions into blocks, enabling consensus to be reached within one to two rounds of voting.The Solana Foundation reminds that the transaction statistics containing validator votes may decrease after the upgrade, but user payments and transaction volume may not necessarily decline; applications that simply send transactions and read account balances do not need to migrate. The 150 milliseconds is a simulated target and has not yet been validated in a real mainnet environment, and wallet processing and exchange deposit confirmations may still increase waiting times. The exact date for the mainnet launch has not yet been announced.

The Alpenglow upgrade of the blockchain network Solana has entered the public testnet, where developers will test reducing transaction finality from about 13 seconds to 0.15 seconds, or 150 milliseconds. This upgrade will replace Solana's existing TowerBFT consensus system with Votor, allowing validators to confirm blocks through one to two rounds of direct voting, but the way users send funds will not change.The first testnet migration requires using Agave 4.3 and does not currently support Firedancer or Frankendancer. The mainnet update on September 28 is still a tentative arrangement and not a confirmed launch date for Alpenglow.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in his opening speech at the 2026 Shanghai Blockchain Week that cryptographic technologies such as Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), obfuscation techniques, and iO, which were previously considered far from practical, are making rapid progress. Blockchain will also transition from primarily solving "who can send what assets" to an era where it can programmatically determine "who can see what information."Vitalik cited FOCIL (EIP-7805) as an example, stating that the plan involves 16 validators jointly providing a list of included transactions, reducing the ability of a single block builder to censor or delay transactions. He mentioned that in the next five years, more computations will be performed in parallel on user devices, memory pools, and block building stages, and Ethereum will continue to push for the final confirmation time to be significantly reduced from the current approximately 16 minutes to 8-32 seconds.