📚 Grokipedia, Stablecoins, MetaMask Expands, & France Eyes Bitcoin

Good Afternoon,

Happy Tuesday! In today’s headlines Elon Musk has introduced "Grokipedia," an AI-powered alternative to Wikipedia, while Venezuela embraces stablecoins to navigate economic turmoil. MetaMask rolls out multichain accounts, France eyes a national Bitcoin reserve, and A16z backs a major push to bring stablecoins to Pakistan’s unbanked population.

More details and news below!

News Roundup

Artificial Intelligence

• Elon Musk Unveils ‘Grokipedia,’ AI Rival to Wikipedia (Cointelegraph)

• OpenAI Becomes Public Benefit Corporation, Microsoft Takes 27% Stake (Cointelegraph)

• PayPal, OpenAI Partner for ChatGPT ‘Instant Checkout’ (TechCrunch)

• DSperse Brings Verifiable AI to Bittensor’s TAO Network (TAO Daily)

• OceanPal Raises $120M to Launch SovereignAI and NEAR-Powered DAT (The Block)

• NVIDIA Invests $1B in Nokia, Forms AI-RAN Partnership (Globe Newswire)

• Cardano Integrates AI Payments via Coinbase’s x402 Standard (DL News)

Decentralized, Centralized, & Traditional Finance

• tZero Eyes 2026 IPO Amid U.S. Tokenization Boom (Cointelegraph)

• Ark Invest Buys $31 Million in Block Inc. Shares (The Block)

• Lighter Tops Aster, Hyperliquid in Volume but Lags in Open Interest (Artemis)

• UK Staking Firm KR1 to List on London Exchange (Cointelegraph)

• Venezuela Turns to Stablecoins Amid Inflation, War, and Sanctions (Cointelegraph)

• Metaplanet Launches $500M Share Buyback to Lift Market Value (The Block)

• SoFi to Launch Crypto Trading in 2025, Stablecoin in 2026 (Bitcoin Magazine)

• Bank of Korea Warns of Stablecoin Depeg, Urges Bank Issuance (Decrypt)

• Coinbase Prime and Figment Expand Institutional Staking to Solana, Cardano, Sui, and More (The Block)

• Japan’s $2T Payments Giant TIS Launches Multi-Token Platform With Avalanche (CoinDesk)

• Coinbase Reinvents BTC-Backed Lending Through DeFi Integration (Decrypt)

• SharpLink Deploys $200M in ETH on Linea for DeFi Yields (Decrypt)

• BlackRock-Backed Securitize Plans $1.25B Nasdaq Debut via SPAC (Decrypt)

• 61% of HK, China Investors to Double Tokenized Fund Holdings (Aptos Labs)

• Tether Confirms Full Gold Backing as XAUT Market Value Tops $2B (The Block)

• Western Union to Launch USDPT Stablecoin on Solana in 2026 (Decrypt)

• Central Banks Eye Tokenization as Gold Slides Below $4K (Cointelegraph)

Exchanges

• dYdX Proposes $462K Payout After Eight-Hour Outage(Cointelegraph)

• Upbit Lists KERNEL Token on KRW Market, Trading Begins October 28 (Upbit)

• Gate Transforms from Exchange to ‘Full Web3 Operating System’ (Decrypt)

Exchange-Traded Funds

• Canary Capital to Launch First U.S. Litecoin and HBAR ETFs on Nasdaq Tuesday (The Block)

• Bitwise’s Spot Solana ETF ‘BSOL’ to Launch on NYSE Tuesday (The Block)

• On October 27, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $149 million in net inflows.

• U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs attracted $134 million in inflows on October 27.

Infrastructure

• F2Pool’s Chun Wang Rejects BIP-444, Criticizes Bitcoin Soft Fork Plan (Chun)

• MetaMask Unveils Multichain Accounts With EVM, Solana, and Upcoming Bitcoin Support (The Block)

• Bitget Wallet Adds HyperEVM, Expands Into Hyperliquid DeFi (The Block)

• Circle Launches Arc Testnet With BlackRock, HSBC, Visa, AWS (CoinDesk)

Markets

• TRUMP and MELANIA Memecoins Surge as President Predicts U.S.-China Trade Deal (The Block)

• S&P 500 Passes 6,800 as Dow and Nasdaq Hit Record Highs (Yahoo Finance)

• Lighter Explains HYPE Market Price Spike, Blames Runaway Bot (Lighter)

• Bitcoin Leverage Climbs Toward $40B as Traders Brace for Fed Rate Cut Decision (Decrypt)

• XRP Whales Add $560M Amid ETF Approval Freeze and Government Shutdown (DL News)

• Solana ETF Launch Sparks $220M Trading Surge (DL News)

Metaverse

• Metaverse ‘Otherside’ to Debut November 12 With Amazon NFTs (Decrypt)

Mining

• TeraWulf Soars 25% on $9.5B Google-Backed AI Data Center Venture (The Block)

Politics & Regulation

• Fortress Collapse Exposes $11M Gap and Sparks Scrutiny Over Regulatory Oversight (DL News)

• Trump Expected to Name Fed Chair Nominee by Year-End (WSJ)

• Sen. Thom Tillis Warns Congress Has Only Months Left to Pass U.S. Crypto Legislation (Cointelegraph)

• Ohio Moves to Ban AI Marriages, Declare Bots Nonsentient (Decrypt)

• Rep. Ro Khanna Introduces Bill to Ban Trump and Lawmakers from Trading Cryptocurrency (Yahoo)

• France Proposes National Bitcoin Reserve, Aiming to Buy 2% of Global BTC Supply (Bitcoin Magazine)

• Maxine Waters Blasts Trump for CZ Pardon (FSC)

Prediction Markets

• Kalshi Files Federal Lawsuit Against New York to Defend Sports Prediction Markets (Decrypt)

• Trump’s Truth Social Partners With Crypto.com to Launch ‘Truth Predict’ Platform (Cointelegraph)

• Myriad Expands to BNB Chain, Launches Automated Prediction Markets (Decrypt)

Token Generation Events

• Pump.fun Soothes Padre Holders With PUMP Token Airdrop (DL News)

Treasuries

• S&P Assigns ‘B-’ Rating to Strategy Inc., Citing Bitcoin Exposure and Liquidity Risks (S&P Global)

• ETHZilla Sells $40M in Ether to Fund $250M Stock Buyback Program (ETHZilla)

• Bitcoin and Ether Treasuries Halt Accumulation After Market Crash, Coinbase Says (Cointelegraph)

• Prenetics Global Raises $48M to Boost Bitcoin Treasury and Expand Beckham-Backed Brand (The Block)

• Ripple-Backed Evernorth Nears $1B XRP Treasury Launch on Nasdaq (Cointelegraph)

Venture Capital

• A16z Leads $12.9M Round for ZAR to Bring Stablecoins to Pakistan’s Unbanked (Cointelegraph)

Other News

• 14-Foot Gold CZ Statue to Rise in D.C. After Trump Pardon (Decrypt)

• XRP Co-Creator David Schwartz Joins Ripple’s New Academic Advisory Council (DL News)

• How to Spot Bull and Bear Market Traps in Crypto Before (Cointelegraph)

• Solana Foundation Chair Lily Liu in Shanghai: “Everything Can Be Tokenized” (Wu Blockchain)

• Bitcoin OG Kyle Chassé Faces YouTube Ban After Two Strikes in Two Months (Cointelegraph)

• Milei Wins Midterms, But Crypto Has Little to Cheer About (Cointelegraph)

• OKX Removes X Layer Head Amid Binance Poaching Rumors (X Layer)

• Indiana Police Recover 1K Bitcoin Rigs, and $75K in Frozen Turkeys (Decrypt)

• UAE’s Ultra-Rich Push Wealth Managers Toward Crypto (CoinDesk)

Check This Out

The chart shows how network value scales under different models: Sarnoff’s grows linearly, Odlyzko’s slightly faster than linear, Metcalfe’s quadratically, and Reed’s exponentially. Applied to crypto, Metcalfe’s Law suggests value rises as adoption spreads, while Reed’s Law implies many user groups grow the network’s value through compounded network effects.

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