development

a16z partner Noah Levine posted on the X platform, stating that a previous Bloomberg article cited data from x402.org claiming that AI agents completed $24 million in payments within 30 days, but Allium Labs data shows that the actual transaction volume for AI agents during the same period was about $3 million, and after excluding wash trading, it was approximately $1.6 million.Levine noted that current AI payment activities are mainly concentrated in the developer tools sector, including web scraping platform Firecrawl, AI browser Browserbase, and AI image platform Freepik. Companies like Stripe, Cloudflare, and Vercel have integrated the payment standard x402 developed by Coinbase, and Google has also embedded this system into its agent payment protocol. Levine stated that the $1.6 million transaction volume is not large, but the scale of the infrastructure built around it is considerable, as these companies are betting on the market prospects after AI agents become the default buyers.Additionally, Coinbase announced that its x402 Facilitator has added support for Polygon, allowing developers to accept USDC payments on Polygon, Base, and Solana. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that the transaction volume of AI agents will soon surpass that of humans.

According to Bloomberg, Bridge Data Centres (BDC) plans to invest up to SGD 5 billion (approximately USD 3.9 billion) in its home market of Singapore for the development of artificial intelligence technologies, aiming to accelerate its business growth in Asia.BDC CEO Eric Fan stated that the private company will invest in research projects and facilities, focusing on advanced power architecture, next-generation cooling systems, AI-driven operations, and energy optimization for high-density computing environments.

The main development branch of the Bitcoin client Bitcoin Core has merged the Cluster Mempool update (PR #34616), which is expected to be included in the upcoming Bitcoin Core 31 release.This upgrade will redesign the way nodes manage pending transactions (mempool) by grouping related transactions for processing, aiming to improve block packing efficiency and optimize fee calculations for RBF and CPFP transactions. Bitcoin Core 31 is expected to be released in the second half of 2026.

The two major financial regulatory agencies in the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), committing to enhance collaboration in the regulation of crypto assets and the launch of new digital asset products to support legitimate innovation and protect investors.According to the statements from both parties, the MOU aims to "guide coordination and cooperation between the two agencies," focusing on supporting legitimate innovation, maintaining market integrity, and ensuring investor and customer protection. The two agencies also plan to jointly promote the development of a federal-level policy framework to establish a "fit-for-purpose regulatory framework" for emerging technologies such as crypto assets. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that the long-standing disputes over regulatory authority, redundant registration requirements, and differing regulatory rules between the SEC and CFTC have somewhat stifled innovation and prompted some market participants to turn to other jurisdictions.Under the MOU, the two agencies will also coordinate to address regulatory barriers that hinder the legitimate launch of new financial products, including those related to crypto assets. While MOUs typically do not have legal binding force, the market generally views the formal commitment of the SEC and CFTC to enhance policy coordination as a positive signal for the digital asset industry. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stated that the reason the U.S. financial markets lead globally is their ability to continuously adapt to investor needs, and the regulatory system must evolve in tandem to achieve more unified and comprehensive market oversight.

a16z partner Andrew Chen pointed out that AI code generation will fundamentally replace spreadsheets—spreadsheets are essentially "business logic trapped in a grid," lacking version control, testing, and modularity.AI code generation will compress the marginal cost from "spreadsheets" to "software" to nearly zero, and approximately 1 billion spreadsheet users worldwide are expected to migrate to real software applications.

Hangzhou Xiaoshan District issued the "Several Measures to Support the Development of OpenClaw & OPC-STC in Hangzhou Xiaoshan District (Draft for Comments)." It encourages the establishment of market-oriented and professional innovation platform carriers to set up "OpenClaw-like Intelligent Agent Service Areas," providing free deployment of OpenClaw-like intelligent agents and offering one-stop services such as technical guidance and market promotion. Certain subsidies will be granted to eligible innovation platform carriers.For eligible OPC-STC enterprises, a subsidy of 30% will be provided for the actual model invocation fees paid for using OpenClaw-like intelligent agents to call domestic multimodal large models for AIGC creation and production, with a maximum annual subsidy of 100,000 yuan per enterprise.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon is returning to the bond market with a massive cross-border issuance, which has intensified the corporate borrowing wave driven by the AI boom.Insiders revealed that the company plans to issue up to 11 tranches in the form of U.S. investment-grade bonds, with maturities ranging from 2 to 50 years. The sources added that preliminary pricing discussions for the longest bond (maturing in 2076) indicate a premium of about 1.55 percentage points over U.S. Treasuries. The individuals requested anonymity due to the private nature of the information.HSBC Holdings, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan will be responsible for underwriting this bond issuance. This is the latest in a series of large bond issuances by major cloud computing companies, which are preparing to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in building AI infrastructure. So far, investor demand remains strong, with recent bond offerings being oversubscribed multiple times.

Recently, with the launch of Sui ETF ($SUIS) on Nasdaq and the release of the USDsui stablecoin, the financial infrastructure of the Sui public chain is continuously improving. The traditional funding channels and the on-chain liquidity system are being enhanced in tandem, leading to a sustained increase in ecological activity. Meanwhile, the Sui DeFi sector has also seen frequent new developments, such as the NAVI Protocol and other core protocols continuously driving the growth of lending and liquidity markets, further enhancing the efficiency of ecological funds. Against this backdrop, the Premium Exchange (PRE DEX), incubated by the NAVI Protocol Foundation, is also steadily advancing its ecological layout. As the Sui financial system gradually takes shape, DeFi projects like PRE DEX are expected to play a more significant role in ecological trading and value discovery.

According to official news, the Zcash Open Development Lab, founded by former Electric Coin Company CEO Josh Swihart, has completed over $25 million in funding. This round of financing was participated in by Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, Chapter One, Balaji Srinivasan, David Friedberg, Haseeb Qureshi, James Nicholas, and others.ECC launched its flagship Zcash wallet Zodl in 2024, setting a new standard for Zcash usability. Earlier this year, the original ECC team, including the wallet product team, joined ZODL as a whole to continue building the main user interface for Zcash, aiming to create Zodl as an open self-custody privacy financial platform, expanding ecosystem interoperability through collaboration, and driving privacy ZEC transactions into the global mainstream.The development of the Zcash protocol remains a core focus for ZODL. Engineers who previously designed, built, and maintained key systems for Zcash at ECC have joined ZODL, continuing to advance the protocol evolution with the same commitment and integrity, ensuring that technological advancements support real needs and drive Zcash's product-market fit.At the heart of the Zcash Open Development Lab is the development of an open, self-custodied private financial platform, aimed at expanding ecosystem interoperability through collaboration and pushing protected ZEC transactions into the global mainstream market.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Becerra posted on the X platform that he met with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele at the "Americas Shield" summit held in Doral, Florida.He expressed his pleasure in hearing about Nayib Bukele's efforts to advance pro-market reforms and to make El Salvador a digital asset hub, while emphasizing that both sides will continue to work together to strengthen strategic cooperation in the Americas region.

According to market news, Solana Treasury Company DeFi Development, listed on Nasdaq, announced plans to launch a dividend-bearing stablecoin after strategically investing in the stablecoin protocol development project Apyx, aiming to introduce transparent yields to the stablecoin market. It is reported that both parties also discussed token economics, valuation frameworks, development roadmaps, and how to utilize Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) dividend preferred shares.

GoPlus announced a long-term strategic partnership with Custos. The teams from both sides will engage in deep cooperation around the token locking business, exploring new possibilities for on-chain asset management, and elevating token locking from a basic tool to a protocol-level capital strategic infrastructure.Both parties will maintain clear boundaries and distinct roles, achieving strategic synergy while developing independently. Custos will focus on innovation at the asset management protocol layer, driving the token locking business to a higher level. GoPlus will continue to build secure infrastructure while providing strategic support for Custos's development.

Eric Trump, the second son of Donald Trump, stated on social media, "Those so-called 'big banks'—institutions that have long monopolized the market and exploited customers, paying almost no interest on retail money market accounts for years while charging high fees on low-balance accounts—are now doing everything they can to obstruct the crypto industry from providing real benefits, privileges, and rewards on their platforms.They are in a state of collective panic because they know they are losing the competition in digital finance."

Trump Media & Technology Group has stated that it is considering spinning off its flagship social media platform, Truth Social, into a publicly traded company, a move that may prioritize its ambitions in the cryptocurrency space.The company announced on Friday that it is in discussions with energy fusion startup TAE Technologies and Texas Ventures Acquisition III regarding a potential deal that would control the Truth social media platform. This discussion builds on the merger agreement reached between Trump Media and TAE Technologies last December, which was valued at over $6 billion.Once the merger is completed, Truth Social may be spun off into a new publicly traded company called SpinCo, which would then merge with Texas Ventures III. Shares of SpinCo would also be distributed to shareholders of Trump Media. Trump Media & Technology Group is entering the cryptocurrency space in 2025, launching a fintech brand, Truth.Fi, to support its cryptocurrency products and services, and has also established a Bitcoin treasury in late September, holding over 11,500 Bitcoins.

UniSat officially stated on social media that the team has noticed recent changes in the Bitcoin ecosystem (Magic Eden will close its Bitcoin and EVM markets). However, for UniSat, it will continue to firmly support the development of the Bitcoin mainnet ecosystem and will keep investing in the infrastructure for Ordinals, Runes, and brc-20.The following phased adjustments and upgrades will be implemented in the future: UniSat Marketplace: gradually lowering the market participation threshold. Starting from March 1, 2026, UniSat Marketplace will implement a 90-day zero service fee policy across the platform. UniHexa: expanding the current invitation round. Next week, the early access invitation scope for UniHexa will be expanded. UniHexa is a unified on-chain exchange service for brc-20 and Runes. brc-20: a technical discussion on single-step transfers will soon begin. The team will soon share detailed technical discussions on implementing brc-20 single-step transfers on the Bitcoin mainnet. For developers: UniSat API upgrade. The UniSat API is expected to be upgraded to a fully functional MCP soon, capable of providing commercial-grade Bitcoin on-chain data. Long-term participation in the Fractal standard indexing service. UniSat will gradually purchase FB from the market to participate in the Fractal standard indexing service, which is planned to launch in Q2. The initial phase will purchase no less than 500,000 FB, and the first phase deployment will start and complete within 15 days. These FB will be used for long-term participation in index staking.

According to the DeFi Education Fund, U.S. Representatives Scott Fitzgerald, Ben Cline, and Zoe Lofgren jointly proposed the "2026 Blockchain Development Innovation Act," aimed at clarifying the applicability of Section 1960 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code regarding "unlicensed money transmission businesses."The bill seeks to clarify that Section 1960 applies only to entities that control customer assets and conduct fund transfers on behalf of customers, and should not extend to blockchain software developers who do not hold user funds. The related proposal states that this move is consistent with the original legislative intent of Congress and the long-standing regulatory interpretation of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, aiming to reduce the risk of improper criminal charges faced by developers.

According to market news, Solana Treasury Company DeFi Development, listed on Nasdaq, announced a strategic investment in the stablecoin protocol Apyx, with the specific investment amount not disclosed, aiming to establish an early layout in the emerging Dividend Supported Stablecoin (DBS) category.The Apyx model can convert dividend flows into on-chain yields, providing scarce yield opportunities for the over $300 billion stablecoin market, while aligning with the trend of digital asset treasury companies accumulating digital assets through preferred shares.

The co-founder and CTO of the Web3 development tool platform thirdweb, Jake Loo, announced his resignation.Jake Loo stated, "At thirdweb, we have built and deployed multiple AI agents that cover our products and organizational structure. I have witnessed AI evolve from being a 'nice-to-have' to a key technology that fundamentally changes the way we work. This experience has transformed my way of thinking. I believe there is nothing more important than AI right now. This is not hype; it has brought about real changes in how software is built and used, how teams operate, and how the entire industry is reshaped. So I have decided to go all in."

The Ethereum Foundation announced the establishment of a dedicated DeFi support team, setting up a DeFi unit under the App Relations department to promote the development of decentralized finance protocols and strengthen its "DeFipunk" philosophy.The new team appointed former DELV CEO and MakerDAO governance architect Charles St. Louis as DeFi Protocol Specialist, and Gearbox Protocol co-founder Ivan (ivangbi) as DeFi Coordinator, with Jason Chaskin leading the overall App Relations work.The Ethereum Foundation stated that its ideal DeFi should possess characteristics such as permissionless, censorship-resistant, privacy-first, self-custodial, and open-source, emphasizing support for projects that truly align with these principles. Charles St. Louis stated, "DeFipunk" represents a core philosophy that DeFi should not just be an improved version of traditional finance, but rather a financial system that can only exist on Ethereum.