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AI startup Tavus released a new model called Griffin on October 1, referring to it as the first "human interaction model" that can understand and generate face-to-face conversations, paying attention not only to wording but also to expressions and pauses. Tavus stated that in tests, after a one-minute video call with Griffin-Lite, 26 out of 54 participants (48%) believed the other party was a real person; its previous generation system only convinced 1 out of 41 participants.Participants were told they would have a one-minute video call with another person to discuss things they were looking forward to this year, and only at the end of the call were they asked if they suspected the other party was not a real person. Tavus noted that those who became suspicious typically noticed within 20 seconds. This result comes from Tavus's own research page, where participants were recruited through a channel they call an independent research platform. Community comments on X pointed out that these results have not been independently verified and do not meet standard protocols.In the NVIDIA VideoFDB benchmark, Tavus claimed Griffin-Lite ranked first, with a generation dimension score of 3.83, the next best system scoring 2.8, and human reference scoring 3.92; the perception dimension score was 3.73, with the strongest baseline at 3.44 and human reference at 4.2. Tavus stated that NVIDIA independently conducted this evaluation. Griffin supports full duplex, allowing it to listen, see, and speak simultaneously, with an average audio-video delay of 0.43 seconds on the NVIDIA H100 chip. Tavus completed a $40 million Series B funding round led by CRV in November 2025.

Synthra Finance posted on X that it has directly repurchased nearly 2 million POLL from the market and completed the destruction.Synthra Finance stated that after this operation, the total amount destroyed is close to 7% of the total supply of POLL, and mentioned that the related repurchase comes from protocol revenue, marking another round of repurchase and destruction.

BitBT Ventures posted on platform X that it has provided $5 million in early financing to the social finance platform KIVO. KIVO is building a social finance ecosystem that connects social, trading, payment, digital assets, and emerging financial products through a single consumer-grade application.BitBT Ventures stated that it supports KIVO in building a social layer and a full-stack SocialFi infrastructure for the next generation of users. The related content was published by its social media account and mentioned KIVO account KivoSocialLayer.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov expressed disappointment on the X platform regarding the responses from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) to the MiCA consultation. He stated that both institutions not only advocate for banning stablecoin payment yields but also propose restrictions on crypto asset service providers (CASP) offering users access to DeFi, including services involving non-MiCA authorized stablecoin yield protocols.Kulechov indicated that the relevant opinions also involve restricting DeFi services to specific user groups through "suitability tests" and potentially establishing a certification system for DeFi lending protocols. He believes that if regulators decide which protocols are suitable for European users, it could lead to more closed ecosystems, weakening the liquidity and network effects of open DeFi, and limiting opportunities for European users to participate in on-chain finance.

According to The Block, Lloyds Bank's tenth annual financial institution sentiment survey shows that 71% of senior executives at large financial institutions in the UK expect tokenization to reshape the financial services industry.The survey indicates that faster payment and settlement speeds are the most frequently mentioned advantages of tokenization by respondents, followed by collateral and liquidity management.

The SEC recently made public the comments submitted by Stove Finance regarding the exemption for tokenized stocks.The comments focus on the infrastructure issues after tokenized stocks enter the on-chain market, including asset conversion between traditional securities systems and on-chain ledgers, inventory replenishment, reconciliation, and how corporate actions such as dividends and stock splits maintain consistency across different systems.Stove suggested in the comments that registered broker-dealers be allowed to further participate in the construction of on-chain securities record, reconciliation, and delivery infrastructure, and that a unified standard for asset conversion, settlement status, and corporate actions be established collaboratively by broker-dealers, custodians, transfer agents, and on-chain trading venues.As tokenized stocks gradually enter DeFi scenarios such as AMM and liquidity pools, settlement, asset services, and cross-system interoperability beyond trading are becoming the next issues that the industry needs to address.

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 data, during the trading session, NEAR Financial Company SVRN fell over 20%, currently reported at 39.19 USD.Earlier, ChainCatcher reported that NEAR Intents confirmed it was attacked, with involved funds exceeding 3.8 million USD.

According to Finbold, the AI perpetual trading platform PERPTools developed by DEXTools has raised a total of 8 million dollars through two rounds of token financing, including 3 million dollars in the pre-seed round and 5 million dollars in the seed round. Investors include BigBrain Holdings, NEAR, Animoca Brands, Sfermion, and Shima Capital.The platform plans to conduct its Token Generation Event (TGE) in the fourth quarter of 2026.

According to Law360, the cryptocurrency asset theft case involving Uranium Finance has begun trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.Prosecutors allege that Maryland cybersecurity consultant Jonathan Spalletta exploited a vulnerability in the protocol's smart contract to launch an attack in 2021, during which approximately $53.3 million was transferred from 26 liquidity pools in a second attack, leading to the protocol ceasing operations. The statements related to this are allegations by the prosecution and not a conclusion of guilt.

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.

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has announced a draft amendment to the regulations related to the institutionalization of Token Securities, planning to expand the range of securities that can be tokenized to include traditional securities such as stocks, bonds, and funds.According to the draft amendment, traditional securities can also be tokenized, except for fragmented investment securities (non-monetary trust beneficiary securities, investment contract securities).The relevant electronic securities regulations will also clarify the requirements for distributed ledgers, stipulating that participants must include electronic registration institutions and at least two account management institutions, and prohibit the use of distributed ledgers for direct payment of electronic registration purposes.

According to a report by Sina Finance, Bank of England Governor Bailey warned that artificial intelligence could trigger shocks in financial markets, and the UK needs to be prepared for this. The Bank of England is "watching very closely" the massive investments being made in the AI sector.When asked if he thinks an AI bubble might burst, Bailey stated, "At some point in the future, asset prices may experience a certain degree of correction." He believes this technology "has enormous potential to enhance our economic growth, but it also comes with significant risks, so we must fully understand both aspects at the same time." Bailey remarked, "Currently, every company is seen as a winner in pricing, but not everyone is a winner." However, Bailey noted that a significant potential benefit of AI is its ability to "accelerate the work that supports the Monetary Policy Committee," adding, "It won't make decisions for us, but it is a tool in the hands of policymakers, which is a good thing."

AI native cloud platform GMI Cloud announced the completion of a new round of financing totaling $668 million, including $223 million in Series B equity financing and $445 million in credit financing, led by the investment company ARCHIV, with participation from NVIDIA.The company stated that its inference platform processes approximately 40 trillion tokens per week, with clients including Fireworks, Nous Research, OpenRouter, Trend Micro, and others.

According to The Block, Solana Treasury Company HSDT announced the completion of a $15 million stock issuance plan, with an issuance price at a 5% premium to the company's net asset value (NAV), accompanied by warrants.The company is currently the fourth largest publicly listed Solana reserve company, holding approximately 2.3 million SOL, valued at about $273.5 million. The funds raised from this financing will be used for further purchases of SOL or to repurchase the company's stock.

According to financing data statistics from RootData, there were a total of 47 financing events disclosed in the crypto primary market in September, of which 34 disclosed amounts that can be accurately counted, with a total financing amount of approximately $1.114 billion. This represents an 85.0% increase compared to about $602 million in August, and a 9.0% increase compared to about $1.022 billion in September 2025; the number of financing events decreased by 4.1% compared to 49 in August, and decreased by 25.4% compared to 63 in the same period last year.From the perspective of sectors, infrastructure had the most financing events in September, with a total of 14 financings completed, disclosing an amount of approximately $263 million; both CeFi and DeFi completed 11 financings, disclosing amounts of approximately $394 million and $369 million, respectively. The three major sectors of CeFi, DeFi, and infrastructure accounted for about 92.0% of the disclosed financing amount this month.The three highest financing amounts in September were Polymarket ($300 million), Félix ($200 million), and Jeeves ($110 million), totaling $610 million, which accounted for about 54.8% of the total financing amount this month; Kraken also received a $100 million investment from Nasdaq. The financing amount this month showed a significant rebound, mainly driven by a few large financings, while the overall number of financing events in the market did not increase correspondingly.In September, a total of 8 RWA-related financing events were disclosed, of which 6 disclosed specific amounts, totaling approximately $52.75 million, accounting for about 17.0% and 4.7% of the number of financing events and total financing amount this month, respectively. Compared to 2 events and $14 million in August, the number of events increased by 300%, and the financing amount increased by approximately 276.8%. The top three projects by amount were OpenReserve ($25 million), Tare ($13.25 million), and CatchBack ($8 million), which together accounted for approximately 87.7% of the disclosed amount in the RWA sector.Additionally, 11 merger and acquisition events were disclosed in September, an increase of 57.1% compared to 7 in August, and a decrease of 42.1% compared to 19 in the same period last year. Among them, the tools and information services sector had a total of 4 events, making it the most active sector for mergers and acquisitions. Representative transactions include MoonPay acquiring North Capital, CoinMarketCap acquiring CoinGlass, Circle acquiring Tazapay, and S&P acquiring OpenZeppelin.In terms of investment institutions, Coinbase Ventures participated in 6 financings, making it the most active institution this month; a16z and Maven11 each participated in 3. Overall, in September, funds mainly flowed towards payments, prediction markets, trading and data infrastructure, CeFi, and RWA, among other directions.

Micron Technology will announce its earnings report after the US stock market closes.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has submitted two rules for review to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). One rule aims to include event contracts within the regulatory definition of swaps, while the other is a "temporary final rule" that seeks to exclude "casino-style gambling products" from the scope of swaps.These two rules were received by the OMB this week, with the document dated September 28. OMB review is typically the last step before rules are submitted for public comment, and the temporary final rule will take effect immediately while allowing for subsequent public input and revisions.This move comes as the CFTC engages in a tug-of-war with multiple states over the nature of prediction markets. Event contracts are typically binary yes-or-no bets on measurable outcomes such as sports events and elections. Last week, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kalshi's sports contracts do not fall under swaps and should be governed by state gambling regulations, while the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals made a similar ruling; however, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals previously determined that the CFTC has jurisdiction over prediction markets, creating a legal divergence at the federal level. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig believes that the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets.If event contracts are classified as swaps and not as gambling products, it could weaken the positions of various states in multiple lawsuits against prediction market platforms like Kalshi. The CFTC is legally required to consist of five commissioners, but President Trump has yet to nominate additional commissioners, leaving Selig as the sole commissioner, who is unilaterally advancing regulatory and policy decisions. Additionally, information disclosed by the OMB indicates that the CFTC recently submitted a "pre-rule" focusing on cryptocurrency regulation to the White House.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on the X platform that Coinbase is building financial accounts for superintelligence, covering services such as trading, payments, and lending.These accounts can help users accumulate wealth and manage personal finances, and can also provide independent accounts for AI Agent teams, allowing them to handle more tasks on behalf of users.