Through Taproot Assets, Lightning Labs is bringing stablecoins to Bitcoin and Bitcoinizing traditional assets including the dollar.

Bitcoin layer-2 infrastructure firm Lightning Labs has officially launched the mainnet of Taproot Assets, a protocol that supports the issuance of stablecoins and real-world assets on the Bitcoin and Lightning networks.
According to an official announcement, the mainnet release will support functionality on the Bitcoin blockchain, with support for Lightning expected soon. Lightning Labs adds that Taproot Assets v0.3 will give builders all they need to make Bitcoin a “multi-asset network”. It will do this while paying close attention to scalability, and without losing Bitcoin’s core values. The release states:

“We believe this new era for Bitcoin will

Bitcoin is enjoying price spikes and increased trading volumes as Fidelity and others amend proposals while the market awaits an approval.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) hit $28,817 today in response to amendments to spot Bitcoin ETF applications submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
However, as of this writing, Bitcoin has fallen to $28,379 according to data from CoinMarketCap, a 4.3% increase over the last 7 days. The initial increase put Bitcoin at a new two-month record and a 7% weekly gain.

Fidelity Amended its spot Bitcoin ETF Proposal
On Tuesday, asset management giant Fidelity Investments submitted an amendment to its previous application for the Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust. The amendment includes details on protecting Bitcoin in customers’

The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt is optimistic that inflation would ease.

UK inflation came in for September at 6.7%, higher than expectations set by analysts. Also, inflation in the UK remained unchanged from August.
While inflation remained unaltered, the UK’s headline consumer price index (CPI) met expectations from economists polled by Reuters. The economists predicted a monthly increase of 0.5% and an annual 6.6%. For core CPI, the UK’s figure fell to 6.1% year-on-year (YoY), higher than the 6% expected but lower than the 6.2% in August. Core CPI excludes the prices of food, energy, alcohol, and tobacco.

UK Inflation and Interest Rates in September and Before
The UK’s general CPI, which came down to 6.7%,  was below expectations, which likely encouraged the

A new report notes that AI has brought trillions in good fortune to tech giants in the United States, like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.

The ongoing AI explosion has benefited several tech companies in the US, adding trillions to their market capitalizations in a year. According to a venture capital firm Accel report, AI has helped US tech giants increase their valuations by $2.4 trillion.
Tech Giants Enjoy AI Boom
Accel published its annual Euroscape Report, noting the benefits tech companies derived from AI use. According to the report, several major companies, including Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA), and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) rose 36% in the past year, adding $2.4 trillion. The report also highlights Nvidia’s

Depending on current BC Technology discussions with potential buyers, the company might conclude a sale of all or parts of its OSL exchange.

BC Technology Group, the parent company and owner of Hong Kong crypto exchange OSL is looking to sell the exchange. According to a Bloomberg article referencing people familiar with the matter, BC hopes to complete the OSL sale at a HK$1 billion ($128 million) price tag.
Pleading anonymity, the people familiar with the matter said BC has started conversing with a few prospective buyers. However, they warned that there is no guarantee that the conversations will end in a deal.

BC Considers OSL Sale Despite the Exchange’s Position as Cash Cow
In addition to exchange services, OSL also offers custody services and prime brokerage. Furthermore, the

The DMCC said it onboarded the Solana Foundation as one of its ecosystem partners for technical support and to build a robust ecosystem.

The Solana Foundation has joined the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) as an ecosystem partner. The DMCC, a free economic zone in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will receive technical support and business development aid from the Solana Foundation.
An official announcement states that Solana Foundation’s support would be provided to the DMCC Crypto Centre, an ecosystem comprising Web3 and blockchain technology companies. The DMCC Crypto Centre provides for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to launch and scale their businesses.

The Solana and DMCC Partnership
The partnership will increase the DMCC’s existing offerings helping members to

JPMorgan figures for Q3 2023 exceeded expectations like it did in Q2. However, figures like revenue and EPS were higher last quarter.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) has published an earnings report for the year’s third quarter. The reported figures show that JPMorgan scaled analysts expectations for profit in Q3 2023.
JPMorgan Q3 2023
JPMorgan reported earnings per share (EPS) at $4.33 for the quarter, higher than the estimated $3.86. The bank also said its profit jumped to $13.15 billion, 35% higher than figures reported the year before. Company revenue also hit $40.69 billion, higher than the $39.63 estimate from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

In addition, JPMorgan also beat estimates for total deposits, at $2.38 trillion over $2.37 trillion, in addition to an 18% return

Data released by the Labor Department show that CPI for September increased higher than expected, with several prices up from August.

According to figures published by the Labor Department, the prices of goods and services increased quicker than expected in September. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.4% in September and 3.7% compared with the same period last year. This was higher than expected, as Dow Jones estimated increases of 0.3% and 3.6%, respectively.
September CPI Report Shows Multiple Increases
The Labor Department’s figures show that core CPI, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, increased by 0.3% for September and 4.1% over the last twelve months. The report also notes that energy prices climbed 1.5%, compared to a 5.6% increase in August. Gasoline rose

Users subscribed to Character.AI’s $10 plan can now access the group chat for feedback and improvements, before public release.

Chatbot startup Character.AI is launching a new group chat feature for subscribers. The firm, backed by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has introduced a group chat where the app’s users and friends can simultaneously converse with multiple AI characters.
Character Group Chat Helps Users Collaborate with AI
Character.AI is a chatbot platform that allows users to customize AI companions with specific personalities. The new Character Group Chat lets users start group chats with select AI characters or introduce humans if preferred. Character.AI hopes that the group chat will simplify the process of collaborating, creating, and conversing with

The tool will use AI to provide users with information on goods around them through the Klarna app by simply pointing their phones at items.

Swedish fintech startup Klarna has launched an image recognition tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Using AI, Klarna wants to help people identify goods they would like to purchase.
The new AI feature on the Klarna app allows users to point their phones at products to find information about similar items via the Klarna app. Klarna launched the feature on Wednesday.

Speaking to CNBC, Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom said the company wants to help people find more uses for AI. Sandstrom said:
“We see AI as a huge opportunity for Klarna and the way we are approaching it is to provide everyone at Klarna with the tools and

WOO co-founder Jack Tan said the repurchase allows the company to move on “without further distractions from the 3AC fallout”.

WOO Network has announced its decision to repurchase shares and tokens it sold to defunct Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) back in 2021. The Taiwan-based trading platform and liquidity provider said in a press release that it has reached an agreement with Teneo, 3AC’s liquidator.
The press release states that WOO has agreed to cancel the shares 3AC bought during a Series A funding round. It will also repurchase 20 million WOO tokens, currently worth about $3.4 million. Reportedly, the tokens have now been sent to a burn address. WOO did not reveal the total value of all the tokens and shares. Also, while WOO raised $30 million in its Series A

Treasury yields fell in the US as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, with several thousand dead and wounded.

Treasury yields fell in the US on Tuesday as investors consider the economic and geopolitical effects of the ongoing war between Israel and Palestinian militant movement Hamas. Early Tuesday morning, the 10-year Treasury fell over 12 basis points to 4.6571%. The 2-year Treasury yield also fell, hitting 4.9843% after losing nine basis points.
Economists and investors are currently monitoring the Israel-Hamas conflict and considering the possibility that it would cause a ripple effect in the world’s financial markets. According to a CBS News report, the death toll on both sides has crossed 1,500. Hamas launched air attacks into Israel early Saturday morning at the end of

Predictions for the upcoming Bitcoin halving are still pouring it, with most of them bullish on Bitcoin’s chance of a parabolic rise.

The upcoming Bitcoin halving expected next year is already creating quite a bit of buzz as the market anticipates a reduction in Bitcoin block rewards. With a little over six months left till the halving, analysts are now offering predictions about Bitcoin’s chances.
While the specific count might not be the same across analysts, Rekt Capital posted on X that the halving is 189 days from Monday. Rekt Capital has offered an analysis of Bitcoin’s price behavior during the 189 days before the second halving in July 2016.

The analyst noted that Bitcoin fell 25% about 189 days before the second halving, in a re-accumulated range that lasted until two

Tesla has cut prices after it announced a slowdown in deliveries. The company said the decline was caused by factory upgrades.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has reduced US prices of its Model Y and Model 3 cars following third-quarter delivery figures that did not meet expectations. 
According to the company’s website, the starting price for the Model 3 is $38,990, lower than the previous $40,240 listing. The long-range version dropped from $45,990 to $47,240, while the Model 3 was reduced from $53,240 to $50,990. Tesla also reduced its Model Y sports utility vehicle (SUV) from $54,490 to $52,490.

On Monday, Tesla published a report for the third quarter of 2023, highlighting production and delivery figures. For Models 3 and Y, Tesla said it produced 416,800 in the quarter and delivered

Alstom highlighted reasons for the free cash flow reduction for H1 of the fiscal year, and predicted a reduced figure for the full year.

Shares in French train manufacturer Alstom crashed by more than 35% following a reduction in the company’s forecast for free cash flow. As of this writing, Alstom shares are selling at €13.76, a 35.88% plunge from its previous close at €21.46.
Alstom published a press release containing preliminary financial information for the first half of fiscal 2023/24. The first half ending September 30, saw the company’s free cash flow falling from negative €45 million from last year, to the current level at negative €1.15 billion. Alstom then added that it expects the full-year free cash flow to be in the range of €500 – €750 million. This is a disappointing

Doosan Robotics had an impressive IPO with shares jumping more than 100%, making it South Korea’s biggest trading debut so far this year.

Shares in South Korean collaborative robot (cobot) Doosan Robotics jumped significantly from their initial public offering (IPO) price upon their trading debut on Thursday. Doosan Robotics shares began trading at 59,100 won, an increase of more than 127% from the initial IPO price of 26,000 won. At its highest point, Doosan shares climbed to 67,000 won but eventually closed at 51,400 won.
Founded in 2015, Doosan Robotics manufactures collaborative robots that work with humans to perform several tasks. The company’s products can help with tasks like loading, assembling, welding, or pouring coffee. Doosan raised 421.2 billion won ($317 million) in what

SAS will leave exchanges as part of its restructuring deal, in addition to splitting equity and debt among members of a takeover consortium.

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) stock fell on Wednesday morning after the company announced a restructuring deal. As markets opened, SAS stock crashed 95% in reaction to an official release stating a restructuring deal that will take the airline off commercial exchanges.
SAS has regained a tiny bit of its losses as of writing time and is trading over 86% less than its previous kr.0.21 close.

SAS published a statement on the news, explaining a few details of the restructuring deal. The Tuesday press release notes:
“All of SAS AB’s common shares and listed commercial hybrid bonds are expected to be canceled, redeemed and delisted (currently expected

Euro zone inflation has reduced to its lowest point in nearly 2 years after the European Central Bank hiked rates for the 10th time.

The euro zone annual inflation level fell to its lowest this month, since October 2021. Annual inflation fell to 4.3%, down from 5.2% in August. Also, core inflation fell from 5.3% in August to 4.5% in September. Core inflation excludes energy, food, alcohol, and tobacco.
The reduction in inflation comes after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to increase its main interest rate for the 10th consecutive time. The increases have now pushed Europe’s interest rate to a record 4%. Fortunately, observers suggest the ECB would likely pause hikes for a while.

The European Central Bank projects that the average inflation for the euro zone would be about

Officially, the valuation as of the end of May is correct and Celsius will pay creditors $2 billion in Bitcoin and Ether tokens.

A mathematician working for Celsius Network’s valuation advisor Stout Risius Ross LLC has confirmed that the fair value of some debtors’ assets and liabilities as of May 31, 2023, is correct.
Joel E. Cohen, in a declaration at the New York bankruptcy court, detailed the methods used to analyze the valuation and arrive at the conclusion. Cohen noted in the declaration:

“Based on my work performed and the information and methodologies considered, I believe the Valuation Report accurately reflects the fair value of certain of the Debtors’ assets and liabilities as of May 31, 2023.”
The results of a vote from Celsius creditors came in on Monday in agreement

Participants at the Meta Connect conference expect details of the company’s investment in the metaverse at the 2-day event.

The CEO of Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) is expected to provide information on the company’s investment in the long-awaited Meta metaverse development at the Meta Connect conference today and tomorrow.
Participants at Meta Connect expect to hear details about Meta’s plan to attract investment in artificial intelligence powered by virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. Many participants and observers are waiting on the details Zuckerberg will announce, especially since Meta has heavily funded its metaverse endeavors since the initial announcement. Speaking on the upcoming conference, Creative Strategies president Carolina Milanesi said:

Guyana was the world’s fastest growing economy for 2022 and is expected to retain the title until 2025 as oil production increases.

According to a recent GDP forecast from the International Monetary Fund, Guyana is expected to grow at impressive rates over the next few years. Currently the world’s fastest-growing economy, the South American country is likely to record more than 100% growth by 2028.
Most of Guyana’s income comes from oil production and export. Among other factors, this forms the basis of the IMF’s projection as recorded in a recent IMF Concluding Statement. The IMF posits that oil production in the country will expand, especially as three new fields are expected to come onstream between 2024 and 2028. A sixth one is also expected sometime in the first half of 2028. For

The new MoneyGram non-custodial wallet will provide a more flexible way for users to handle funds and make transactions cheaper.

International peer-to-peer payments and money transfer giant MoneyGram International has announced its intention to launch a non-custodial wallet to bridge crypto and fiat. According to MoneyGram, users will be able to exchange funds between fiat currency and the USDC stablecoin.
The MoneyGram wallet confirms the payment company’s interest in crypto. According to CEO Alex Holmes, the new wallet is MoneyGram’s way of looking into using blockchain technology to help people move funds around the world. Holmes said the plan is to support fiat transfers via blockchain technology without forcing people to end up with cryptocurrencies.

MoneyGram’s current service

Threads has lost nearly all of its initial momentum as the app is now struggling to attract new users and keep existing ones on the platform.

Threads, the Twitter rival launched by Meta Platforms Inc, is going through its fair share of struggles as new users are no longer joining the platform.
According to a Tuesday publication from Insider Intelligence, Threads is the only app above Tumblr on a ranking of the most popular social media services according to the number of users in the US. Insider Intelligence also says that Threads will have a total of 23.7 million users in the US. This is less than half of rival platform X’s 56.1 million. Other forecasts include TikTok at 102.3 million, Instagram at 135.2 million, and Facebook at 177.9 million.

The publication also specified that

Prices of cobalt are may remain low for a while as demand from EV and consumer electronics makers are likely to remain lower than supplies.

Cobalt hydroxide prices have dropped in response to an increase in supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Cobalt, used commonly to make batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), is produced in Congo as a byproduct of copper.
The prices of cobalt hydroxide are calculated as a percentage of the benchmark metal price agreed between sellers and buyers, known as payables. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI), payables fell to 46% of the cobalt metal price in August, some distance from the 90% recorded in late 2021 and early 2022. At the time, a metric ton of cobalt traded for $60,000, compared to current prices around $32,000.

Evergrande has informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it intends to delay a restructuring meeting because things are not going as planned.

Shares of Chinese real estate company Evergrande Group fell up to 22% on Monday after the firm announced it would delay a debt restructuring meeting due today. According to data from MarketWatch, Evergrande shares are trading at HK$0.430, a 21.82% drop from its previous close at HK$0.550.
In March, Evergrande announced plans for debt restructuring following heavy defaults. However, the company submitted a filing to the Hong Kong Exchange on Friday stating that the sales had not gone as expected. Evergrande added in the filing:

“Based on the Company’s current situation and consultations with its advisors and creditors, the Company considers it

Toshiba believes that going private may help give the company renewed focus to tackle all of its teeming problems.

Japanese multinational electronics company Toshiba Corporation is set to go private after a successful acquisition by a group of buyers led by Japan Industrial Partners. The deal, worth ¥2 trillion ($13.5 billion) will reverse Toshiba’s status as a publicly-listed company.
Toshiba has officially announced that the JIP-led group now holds 78.65% of the company’s outstanding shares. For the takeover, the group needed to purchase more than two-thirds of the company. The bid began on the 8th of August and saw the group paying ¥4,620 ($31.26) per share.

Founded in July 1875, the multinational company is 148 years old and has been publicly listed for 74 years. However, the

Walmart has broadened the shopping experience for its customers in the metaverse as it merges purchases in the physical and virtual worlds.

American multinational retail corporation Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) plans to expand its metaverse strategy by allowing its customers to buy physical versions of items available for virtual home purchases.
Users can now purchase the items for their physical homes as they would for their virtual homes in House Flip, a game where players can renovate and sell virtual houses. In addition, customers can purchase virtual clothing in Zepeto, a mobile world where people create and customize avatars as preferred.

Speaking to VentureBeat, the Vice President and General Manager of Metaverse Commerce at Walmart’s incubation division – Store No. 8 – said

The price of Bitcoin is still above $27k as investors and stakeholders await monetary policy announcements from regulators worldwide.

The price of Bitcoin stayed above $27,000 on Wednesday as most of the largest cryptocurrencies remained barely changed for the most part. The crypto market is likely reacting to investors holding out for official monetary policy announcements from central banks around the world.
Earlier, BTC was unable to scale its 50-day moving average as it met with stiff resistance at $27,400. However, data from CoinMarketCap put the king coin at about $27,035, after falling 0.31% in the last 24 hours but rising over 3.5% over the past week. Ethereum has also increased 1.91% in the past week, while BNB climbed 1.99%. Of the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market cap, XRP has

Although hundreds of billions away, Microsoft’s valuation is gradually closing in on that of Apple, racing to become the world’s largest.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is making progress with its valuation and seems ready to give Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) a run for its money. The company’s valuation is now moving closer to Apple’s as it races to overtake the iPhone maker as the world’s largest company by market cap.
According to Marketwatch data as of writing time, Apple shares have climbed 0.42% this month, lower than Microsoft’s 2.05%. In addition, the year-to-date (YTD) performance for Apple and Microsoft are 36.97% and 37.12%, respectively. Although Microsoft’s valuation at $2.44 trillion is still some way from Apple’s $2.78 trillion, the gap seems to be closing. Microsoft is

Zodia Custody will now offer yield on digital assets to institutional clients in addition to providing its custody services.

Zodia Custody, a leading crypto custody platform owned by banking giant Standard Chartered, will start providing yield on crypto holdings owned by its institutional clients.
To bring this to fruition, Zodia Custody has partnered with OpenEden, a Singapore-based startup that brings real-world assets to the blockchain. Zodia Custody will use this partnership to connect digital assets held in custody by institutional clients to yield opportunities in the real world. Zodia has also said that the yield for institutional investors will include access to crypto staking.

By providing yield, Zodia Custody is exposing its clients to services that bring returns in a