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According to CoinDesk, informed sources revealed that the custody bank giant BNY is in talks with Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, for a broad collaboration covering digital assets and financial market infrastructure. The potential agreement may involve areas such as crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments, and infrastructure, with related services provided through Payward Services, which targets banks, exchanges, and asset management institutions.One source indicated that part of the proposed collaboration may be similar to the infrastructure component of the recent agreement Payward reached with Nasdaq. Negotiations are still ongoing, and there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached; both Payward and BNY declined to comment. BNY, formerly known as Bank of New York Mellon, provides custody, asset services, clearing, and wealth management services to institutional clients and has been developing tokenized deposits to support near real-time on-chain settlements among institutional market participants.Reaching an agreement with BNY would further promote Payward's efforts to connect digital asset businesses with traditional financial institutions. Last month, Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in Payward at a valuation of $21 billion, expanding the collaboration between the two parties in tokenized stocks. Under the agreement, both parties will continue to develop the operational and commercial infrastructure for Nasdaq stock tokens, and Payward will also adopt Nasdaq's market surveillance technology in its cryptocurrency, stock, tokenized stock, futures, and options trading venues, with both parties expecting to launch Nasdaq stock tokens in the second quarter of 2027.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction on Polymarket for the event "Counter-Strike: FaZe vs. Astralis," the "FaZe" option in the sub-market "Match Winner" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in win rate, dropping from 52.5% an hour ago to the current 13.5% (a fluctuation of 39%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to a report by Businesswire, BNB Plus Corp. (OTCQB: BNBX) announced a strategic transformation, shifting from a digital asset treasury company focused on the BNB Chain ecosystem to an operational company providing open network infrastructure such as blockchain and Agentic AI for financial institutions and enterprises.In the future, the company will still participate in ecosystems like BNB Chain, with a strategic focus shifting from passive holding of digital assets to infrastructure, integration, and deployment services. BNB Plus, formerly known as Applied DNA Sciences, previously transitioned from a biotechnology business to a BNB treasury strategy, holding approximately 18,830 BNB as of July 30.

Global payment infrastructure company Walapay announced the completion of a $4.6 million seed round financing, led by Gen Venture Capital, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Polygon, AAF Management, Verda Ventures, NGC Ventures, FGV Capital, JSquare, Reflexive, Big Brain VC, and others. Walapay stated that the funds will be used to acquire more licenses, expand banking partnerships, and grow the team.According to Walapay, the company is building a global payment infrastructure from the ground up, allowing users to open accounts, receive payments, exchange currencies, and make payments globally with a single integration. The underlying infrastructure includes licenses, banking partnerships, and local payment channels. The company claims that this capability is primarily aimed at cross-border capital flows in emerging markets, covering Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, with default support for global payments and extending to the local last mile.

According to market news, venture capital giant DIG Ventures announced the completion of a $120 million fundraising for its third fund. This fund has received support from institutions such as Horsley Bridge, Sofina, Granite, and a donation fund from a top university in the United States, and will invest in AI-native enterprise software and cloud infrastructure startups at the Pre-seed and seed stages.Investment directions include infrastructure areas such as data, identity verification, compliance, and orchestration that support the development of AI-native enterprise software. The fund plans to lead the majority of investment rounds and has already begun deploying capital.

According to Bloomberg, global alternative asset management company Apollo Global Management will provide financing support for a $15 billion AI infrastructure project in Japan, further expanding its investment layout in the field of artificial intelligence.Apollo will act as a strategic investment and financing partner, participating in the project jointly promoted by UK developer RHAELM Holdings, Japan's largest power company Jera, and Dell Technologies. The project is located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and aims to build infrastructure to support AI computing needs.

From September 29 to October 1, the stablecoin infrastructure platform Interlace made its debut at the 2026 Korea Blockchain Week (KBW), deeply participating in events such as The Next Onchain Economy and HSC Conference Seoul, engaging with global Web3 partners and financial industry practitioners to discuss stablecoin payments and next-generation financial infrastructure.Cat Lucci, the business leader of Interlace, stated that the key to the implementation of stablecoin payments lies in the deep integration of stablecoin channels with bank cards and local clearing systems. Interlace provides efficient and secure capital flow experiences for exchanges, wallets, and B2B trade scenarios through modular capabilities such as cards, accounts, and clearing.During KBW, Interlace also set up a product experience session where attendees could receive Stablecoin Card gift cards to experience the convenient payment of on-chain assets in real-world consumption scenarios, attracting the attention and engagement of many participants.It is reported that Interlace's next stop will be at TOKEN2049 in Singapore, participating in events such as Stablecoin Happy Hour and AI & Emerging Onchain Assets, continuing to share innovative achievements in on-chain financial infrastructure on the core stage of Web3.

The liquidity staking protocol Lido announced that MetaMask Staking (formerly Consensys Staking) has taken precautionary measures to protect customer assets related to its Ethereum validators after investigating an infrastructure breach incident. The related measures include withdrawing its Ethereum validators from the Lido protocol, which may result in some loss of rewards. If the validators go offline recently to reduce potential network slashing risks, it may also incur downtime penalties.Lido stated that the related validators have begun to withdraw, with the last batch expected to complete the withdrawal by October 7, 2026, but full withdrawals may not be completed by then. stETH holders do not need to take any action. The ETH withdrawn from the validators operated by MetaMask Staking is expected to gradually return to the protocol during the cycle of the validators completing the withdrawal, withdrawing, and re-entering, with the estimated maximum duration of this process being about 45 days due to extended queuing times.Lido reminds that staking operations are non-custodial, and MetaMask does not manage withdrawal keys on behalf of customers. The diversified node operators of the Lido protocol and other security mechanisms, including a temporary reserve of over 6,750 stETH, are designed to control and mitigate disruptions to the normal operation of the protocol. A comprehensive investigation is ongoing, and further updates will be announced separately.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction event "Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros" on Polymarket, the "Chicago White Sox" option in the sub-market "Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros" has experienced significant fluctuations in winning probability, soaring from 41.5% an hour ago to the current 64.5% (a fluctuation of 23%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

According to Techcrunch, durable workflow infrastructure startup Restate announced the completion of a $20 million Series A funding round, led by Singular, with participation from Redpoint Ventures and Capital One Ventures.Restate was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Berlin, focusing on building multi-step workflow execution engines that can withstand crashes and network interruptions, leveraging self-developed storage, replication, and redundancy layers, with advantages of high speed and lightweight architecture. Recently, it has signed six-figure to seven-figure contracts with multiple clients, including the vibe programming platform Replit and several Fortune 500 companies in the financial sector. This round of funding will be used to build a marketing team, expand the engineering team, and grow its office in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Charles Wu, the Head of Client Strategy for Alternative Investments at JPMorgan Chase in Asia Pacific, stated that foreign investors are providing funding for the development of artificial intelligence computing infrastructure in North America.Institutional investors such as foreign banks, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies from Asia and the Gulf region play a significant role in the expansion of this sector. Currently, capital expenditures in the AI industry are approaching $1 trillion.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the Polymarket event "Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros," the sub-market "Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros" option "Chicago White Sox" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 50.5% an hour ago to the current 88.5% (a fluctuation of 38%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

OpenAI has launched the GPT-6.1 Sol model, whose performance is close to Astra, but the standard token price is only one-fifth of Astra.

According to Gate Europe CEO Dr. Giovanni Cunti's latest LinkedIn post, global business relies on efficient cross-border capital flows, but traditional international payments still face challenges such as multiple intermediaries, currency exchange, and limited operational efficiency.Dr. Giovanni Cunti emphasized, "Digital assets are opening up new possibilities for businesses in cross-market payments and value flows." He pointed out that stablecoins and blockchain-based payment networks can provide faster settlement speeds, higher transparency, and more flexible cross-border transaction capabilities. Beyond everyday payments, their application scenarios are rapidly expanding to areas such as vendor settlements, multinational payroll distribution, treasury management, and global value transfer.As this ecosystem continues to grow, a clear and defined regulatory framework is crucial. Europe is leading this transformation through MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation), which provides a unified standard for crypto asset services across the EU region. Dr. Giovanni Cunti further noted that in the long run, the value of digital assets will transcend asset trading itself, further deeply integrating into the real economy and the daily operations of global enterprises. Relying on the compliance foundation of the MiCA and Payment Institution (PI) dual licensing system, Gate Europe is deeply integrating digital asset services with traditional payment capabilities, continuously exploring a new paradigm of a highly efficient and closely connected global economy empowered by digital assets.

HashKey, a digital asset financial services group, is evaluating more acquisition targets, strategic investment opportunities, and potential collaborations in Asia and the Middle East.Eric Zhu, Chief Financial Officer of HashKey, stated in an interview with Mergermarket that capital deployment over the next 12 to 24 months will focus on transactions and liquidity, custody, clearing and settlement, payments, and tokenization, with priority markets including Singapore and Southeast Asia, Japan, and the Middle East. HashKey is evolving from a single trading platform into a comprehensive provider of digital asset and financial services infrastructure.

AI startup Firmus announced a partnership with Meta Platforms to reach an artificial intelligence infrastructure agreement regarding GPU computing capabilities for the Firmus AI factory in Southeast Asia.

Google announced plans to invest at least $15.2 billion in Finland's digital infrastructure over the next two years, making it one of the largest technology investments in Finland's history.Finnish President Alexander Stubb stated that this investment reflects Finland's advantages in clean energy, a secure operating environment, and the expansion of the technology industry.

According to CoinDesk, Kraken's parent company Payward has invested billions of dollars over the past two years, expanding into futures and derivatives, tokenized stocks, and banking through acquisitions and self-built businesses, aiming to integrate trading, payments, asset management, and institutional services into a unified financial infrastructure.Payward's co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that the company is not a holding company, but "a set of platforms, a balance sheet, a regulatory framework," with the core being to facilitate the flow of funds and assets between different businesses through "a single ledger."Payward has currently enhanced the U.S. futures and derivatives infrastructure through acquisitions such as NinjaTrader and Bitnomial, and plans to acquire a bank in Europe; its B2B infrastructure division Payward Services currently has at least 25 companies using its API, including Hyperliquid. In the second quarter of 2026, Payward's adjusted revenue was $508 million, a year-on-year increase of 17%.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the predicted market event "Houston Astros vs. Athletics" on Polymarket, the "Over" option in the sub-market "O/U 8.5" has experienced a dramatic fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 31% an hour ago to the current 64% (a fluctuation of 33%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.