BeInCrypto Global

Oil prices slipped on Monday after the Group of Seven (G7) agreed to release 100 million barrels from emergency reserves. Rising crude exports from the Middle East added to the supply relief.
Brent crude traded at $101.69, down 0.55%, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 1.04% to $90.16, Trading Economics data showed.
Oil Prices on October 5. Source: Trading Economics
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Reserve Barrels and Returning Tankers Ease the Squeeze
G7 leaders agreed Friday to a 4-month release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA). A statement from French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said diesel releases would be front-loaded into the first 20 days. The deal came after pressure from US President Donald Trump.
“Facing unprecedented volatility in oil markets–with surging prices threatening economic stability and the well-being of our citizens–we have agreed on decisive, coordinated measures to stabilise immediate energy supplies, shield households and businesses from price shocks, and strengthen the long-term resilience of global energy systems,” the statement said.
Gulf tanker flows have also recovered. Crude transits through the Strait of Hormuz hit a 7-day average of 13.5 million barrels per day in late September, CNBC reported, citing Kpler data.
Shipments from the wider region, including Red Sea routes, have climbed further. On 4 of the last 7 days of September, they topped pre-war levels, Kpler data cited by Reuters showed.
Tim Waterer, chief analyst at KCM Trade, pointed to both factors.
“The G7 decision to tap strategic reserves is taking some of the immediate supply anxiety out of the price, while there’s a growing view that Saudi export volumes are moving back toward pre-war levels, even if those barrels are still moving at higher cost and via less efficient routes,” he said.
Bitcoin and Gold Break From Oil While Tankers Stay Exposed
Bitcoin (BTC) and gold moved against oil on Monday. BTC rose 1.55% to $86,254, BeInCrypto Markets data showed, while gold edged up 0.23% to $4,149.70 an ounce.
Bitcoin Price Performance As Oil Prices Fall. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
Both have lagged crude over the past year. Brent is up 55.06% from a year ago, while gold has gained 4.71%. Bitcoin is down 29.4% over the past year.
Tanker attacks still threaten that supply recovery. Shipping intelligence firm Marisks logged at least 7 incidents near Hormuz, including a reported strike on Kuwaiti tanker Kazimah III. It said Iranian forces may be firing into a predetermined engagement zone.
On land, the Houthis said they fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and Khurais.
The diesel-heavy first phase of the G7 release is due within 20 days. Its arrival will test whether reserve barrels can offset the continued attacks.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson told a United Nations audience he does not trust the European Union with a digital euro. He predicted it would enable “asset and transaction discrimination” within a decade.
On paper, the EU’s draft law already rules out programmable spending rules. However, that text is still under negotiation, and Hoskinson argues only a binding law would prove his fears wrong.
UPDATE: Charles Hoskinson slams the EU, says "why I don't trust you Europeans with your Digital Euro, is we all know what you're gonna do with it—asset and transaction discrimination. Don't believe it? Well then put it in some sort of law that you're not gonna do it." pic.twitter.com/Yv8ONo8p7l
— Angry Crypto Show (@angrycryptoshow) October 4, 2026
Why Hoskinson Wants Digital Euro Limits Written Into Law
Hoskinson spoke on October 2 at the Future of Money, Governance & the Law Summit in New York. The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) hosted it at UN headquarters.
He warned that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) risks becoming a “financial panopticon” that watches and blocks payments.
“You’re going to go to buy some fuel and even though you have €2,000 in your bank account, it’s going to decline your card and say, ‘Well, I’m sorry. You’ve already purchased 50 L of petrol this month. You’re not allowed to buy anymore.’ Don’t believe it? Well, then put it in some sort of law that you’re not going to do it.”
He pitched his Midnight privacy network as an alternative. Code, he said, shifts the standard to “can’t be evil.”
The same day, BeInCrypto Global Head of News Brian McGleenon led a summit panel on AI outpacing financial regulation. Experts from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Mastercard, and the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund debated who controls money-moving AI agents.
The session also launched joint BeInCrypto Research and GBA research on AI, blockchain, and quantum computing in finance. Final findings are due in January 2027.
Does the Draft Law Already Answer Him?
The European Parliament voted 416 to 169 on July 9 to open trilogue talks, closed-door negotiations with member states and the Commission.
The third round on September 30 ended with no deal on merchant fees or holding limits, which cap individual balances.
Meanwhile, the Commission’s 2023 proposal states that the digital euro should not be programmable money. Then-European Central Bank (ECB) board member Fabio Panetta also told lawmakers in 2023 the bank would never limit where, when, or to whom people pay.
None of these safeguards is binding yet. The ECB plans a 12-month pilot from late 2027, with possible issuance in 2029.
In contrast, the US Senate has passed a temporary CBDC ban running through 2030. Europe’s negotiators must now show that written guarantees can satisfy critics who trust only code.

Public voting decided the category, with the winner announced at the Future of Money, Governance, and the Law summit at the United Nations.
BeInCrypto has won the Government Blockchain Association’s (GBA) 2026 Annual Achievement Award for Best Organization. The winner was announced on October 2 at the Future of Money, Governance, and the Law (FoMGL) summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, following a public vote. Brian McGleenon, our Global Head of News, received the award on behalf of BeInCrypto.
The GBA presents five awards inspired by historical changemakers, covering Leadership, Innovation, Social Impact, Courage, and Organizational Excellence. The Organization category honors groups that use blockchain technology to solve challenges, promote justice, improve results, and change paradigms. According to the GBA, winning organizations create environments where people and ideas can thrive.
Why This Recognition Matters to Us
Since launching in 2018, BeInCrypto has covered digital assets, blockchain, and Web3 infrastructure, publishing news and market analysis in 26 languages. We are now expanding beyond daily coverage into a broader reference point that combines journalism, expert-led insights, research, and industry initiatives, connecting readers with the institutions, experts, and developments shaping the industry.
Our focus is making blockchain technology understandable. Our newsroom works to cut through speculation and hype with clear, accountable reporting for millions of readers trying to make sense of the digital asset space.
We thank the GBA for the recognition, our community for voting, and our peers for a productive week of discussions in Washington, D.C. and New York.
About BeInCryptoBeInCrypto is part of the BeInNews Academy Ltd, an independent media group covering the convergence of finance and digital assets. Through its newsroom, Expert Councils, Research Division, Institutional 100 Awards, and events, it helps professionals navigate a complex and fast-changing industry.

MicroStrategy, now called Strategy, bought just 334 Bitcoin (BTC) for $28.7 million last week. Over the same week, it spent $176.3 million buying back its own preferred stock, about six times more.
The purchase lifts holdings to exactly 848,000 BTC, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is a third straight weekly buy, yet only a fifth the size of the prior week’s 1,665 BTC.
Why Is Strategy Buying Back Stock Instead of Bitcoin?
The filing shows Strategy repurchased about 1.77 million shares of Stretch (STRC). That is a preferred stock that pays investors a 12% annual dividend.
Most of the money came from USD Cash, a pool of dollars the company keeps for general use. MicroStrategy drew $154.1 million from it for buybacks and only $13 million for Bitcoin.
Strategy reports a $21 billion gain on digital assets in Q3 2026. Last week, we acquired 334 $BTC and repurchased $176M of $STRC. As of 10/4/26, we hold 848,000 BTC and $5.7B of USD Assets. $MSTRhttps://t.co/DfKvdQl19R
— Strategy (@Strategy) October 5, 2026
The remaining $15.7 million for Bitcoin came from selling 92,894 new MSTR common shares.
Last week, Strategy said it would keep STRC’s 12% rate until the stock trades steadily near its $100 issue price.
Meanwhile, gold advocate Peter Schiff argued over the weekend that Strategy has lost its Bitcoin-buying power because STRC no longer raises fresh money.
“There’s no way that he’s going to be able to start selling more Stretch; that means he’s not going to be able to raise money to really start buying more Bitcoin,” Schiff said.
MicroStrategy Books a $20.9 Billion Bitcoin Gain for the Quarter
The same filing estimates MicroStrategy booked a $20.91 billion gain on its Bitcoin in the third quarter.
At the end of June, its Bitcoin was worth less than it paid. The rebound let Strategy reverse a $4.12 billion tax asset tied to that earlier loss.
At the current Bitcoin price of about $86,138, its stash is worth roughly $72.4 billion. Strategy paid $63.97 billion in total, or $75,441 per coin.
The company also holds a $4.88 billion USD Reserve for dividends and interest, plus $833.4 million in USD Cash.
Shareholders vote on October 28 on a plan to pay daily dividends across its four preferred stocks. The vote arrives as more of Strategy’s cash goes to those shares than to new Bitcoin.
Strive Buys 2,000 Bitcoin, Six Times Strategy’s Weekly Haul
Smaller rival Strive (ASST) disclosed a bigger purchase the same morning. It bought 2,000 BTC between September 28 and October 2 at an average of $84,422 each, according to its filing.
That comes to about $169 million and lifts its holdings to 29,462 BTC. Chief Executive Matt Cole said 61.5% of the money raised came from SATA, Strive’s own preferred stock.
Strive acquired 2,000 $BTC for $169M at an average cost of $84,422 per bitcoin, bringing total holdings to ₿29,462.61.5% of capital raised came from SATA, with warrants generating $56.7M.Today’s 8-K also highlights key metrics and KPIs through 3Q26.$ASST $SATA pic.twitter.com/HS4ADPQ8mJ
— Matt Cole (@ColeMacro) October 5, 2026
The filing also shows Strive holds 505,000 STRC shares worth $50.2 million. Those are the same preferred shares Strategy is now buying back. Michael Saylor has said he wants his Bitcoin rival Strive to succeed.

The top 3 altcoins of the first week of October, Midnight (NIGHT), Pump.fun (PUMP), and Stacks (STX), gained between 21% and 69% over seven days.
However, all three rallies have now reached major resistance zones on the daily chart. Whether those zones break or hold may decide the next leg.
Midnight (NIGHT) Price Rejected Below $0.055
NIGHT rose 68.5% over the past week and roughly 200% from its July low. The move came weeks after Midnight’s pivot from developers to builders.
The rally tagged the $0.052 to $0.055 supply zone, which capped price in March. Sellers stepped in immediately, and NIGHT now trades at $0.0451, down 7.6% in 24 hours.
NIGHT daily chart / Source: Tradingview
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) cooled from above 85 but remains overbought near 75. Meanwhile, breakout volume stayed well below March levels, suggesting limited conviction.
A daily close above $0.0466, the 0.786 Fibonacci level, could reopen the path to $0.055. In contrast, losing $0.040 support may send NIGHT toward $0.035 and then $0.030.
Pump.fun (PUMP) Price Holds Above $0.0060
PUMP gained 27.3% this week, extending a rally of roughly 457% from its mid-2026 low. The project’s ongoing token buybacks have kept it in focus.
Price broke above the $0.0050 to $0.0054 zone, which rejected PUMP in late August. It now trades at $0.00646, just above the 0.618 Fibonacci level at $0.0060.
PUMP daily chart / Source: Tradingview
The RSI sits near 70. However, it printed a lower high than in August while price set a higher high, a possible bearish divergence.
Holding $0.0060 could push PUMP toward the $0.0071 to $0.0075 resistance zone and later $0.0090. A daily close below $0.0060 may trigger a retest of $0.0050 to $0.0054.
Stacks (STX) Price Tests the $0.40 Breakout
STX added 20.9% in seven days and roughly 237% since its August low near $0.118. Binance added STX to its Monitoring Tag in July, before the rebound began.
The token now trades at $0.3965, pressing into the $0.381 to $0.396 zone that capped price in January. Volume supports the move, with sharp spikes during both the August reversal and the early October push.
STX daily chart / Source: Tradingview
The RSI holds steady near 70, although it also shows a lower high than in August.
A daily close above $0.40 could open the way to $0.4528, the November 2025 high. Conversely, a drop below $0.381 would signal a failed breakout, exposing $0.325 to $0.341 and then $0.285.
Of the three, STX is the only one actively testing a breakout, while NIGHT is fighting a fresh rejection.

Machi Big Brother has won 12 consecutive trades over the past week, earning $2.14 million, according to Lookonchain. The gains all trace back to one token.
Behind the streak sits a Hyperliquid account with a long losing record and about $151 million in open longs.
Inside the Week That Paid Machi Big Brother $2.14 Million
Every win in the streak came on Pump.fun (PUMP). Lookonchain first flagged the run on October 2, after 10 straight PUMP wins over 5 days. Those trades had made $1.34 million, so the 2 latest wins brought the total to $2.14 million.
Hyperbot shows 4 open perpetual positions on his account, all of them long. The largest is 33,800 Ethereum (ETH) at 25x leverage, worth $91.98 million.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Machi Big Brother Open Positions. Source: Hyperbot
Bitcoin (BTC) follows at $39.26 million across 455 BTC, with 40x leverage. He also holds 164,500 Hyperliquid (HYPE) at 10x, worth $15.36 million.
His PUMP long has grown to 700 million tokens, worth $4.48 million. Lookonchain’s post put that position at 425 million tokens. The PUMP long is also the only one in the red, down about $50,557.
The 3 larger longs, meanwhile, carry about $2.3 million in combined unrealized profit. However, holding the ETH position has already cost him $1.26 million in funding payments.
Hyperbot places his ETH liquidation price at $2,452.53 and his BTC liquidation price at $66,456.5. His HYPE long would face liquidation at $36.39.
Over the past week, the tracker records an 80% win rate across 15 closed positions. Hyperbot puts his equity at $12.2 million and his overall leverage ratio at about 12.3x.
That marks a change from mid-September, when Arkham showed 39,800 ETH, 569 BTC, and 88,000 HYPE. Since then, he has trimmed his ETH and BTC longs and nearly doubled his HYPE position.
12 Wins Inside a $22.8 Million Hole
Machi Big Brother, whose real name is Jeffrey Huang, trades on Hyperliquid with large leveraged positions. In March, BeInCrypto reported he had lost around $75 million there over the prior 6 months.
Lookonchain counted 335 liquidations on his account by that point, earning him the nickname King of Liquidations. Hyperbot now puts his all-time perpetuals loss at $22.83 million. Including spot trading, the deficit widens to $24.48 million.
His open positions currently carry about $2.2 million in unrealized profit. Against a $22.8 million deficit, the bigger swing factor remains his $131.24 million in ETH and BTC longs.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

Metaplanet owns 44,000 Bitcoin (BTC). Yet the stock market values the Tokyo company at less than those coins. On Monday, it rewrote its own rulebook, allowing up to 15% of its assets to go somewhere other than Bitcoin.
Since April 2024, Metaplanet has raised investor money and spent it on Bitcoin. Now only about 85% to 90% of its assets will stay in the coin.
Where Metaplanet’s Other 15% Is Going
Chief Executive Simon Gerovich says buying Bitcoin was never the whole plan.
“From the beginning, our strategy was never simply to accumulate Bitcoin,” he wrote.
The new slice has three jobs, according to the company’s filing. It will:
Fund takeovers
Buy income-paying securities, and
Seed a planned investment business.
In August, Metaplanet agreed to hand 2,100 BTC and $2.5 million to Super League Enterprise, a Nasdaq-listed media company. Metaplanet expects to control it, pending approvals, and rename it Superplanet.
The third job, a Net Interest Income Strategy, raises money and invests it in assets paying more than that money costs. Profits would buy more Bitcoin, though the filing warns results are not guaranteed.
Why Metaplanet Cannot Easily Sell New Shares
Metaplanet’s rules ban most new share sales while the company is worth less than its Bitcoin. Counting its debt, the market valued it at 74 cents per dollar of Bitcoin on Monday, according to BitcoinTreasuries.
Metaplanet BTC Holdings, Value, and mNAV. Source: Bitcoin Treasuries
At the current Bitcoin price of about $86,070, its coins are worth roughly $3.8 billion. Its shares are worth about $2.1 billion.
Growth money now leans on loans, bonds, and preferred shares, which pay investors a fixed dividend. Borrowing on its Bitcoin-backed credit facility to buy Bitcoin stays below about 10% of the coins’ value.
In the third quarter, Metaplanet sold more Bitcoin than its entire debt and held the cash. It then bought back more than it sold, netting 1,000 BTC.
“Rating agencies and credit investors ask one question of a Bitcoin company: can that Bitcoin be turned into cash to meet obligations, and will it be? We answered by doing it,” Gerovich added.
It now wants a credit rating. However, the Tokyo exchange could still reject its plan to list preferred shares.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is now live on Solana, giving the Ethereum-born meme coin a foothold on a network known for meme coin trading. The listing runs through Sunrise, a token gateway backed by Wormhole Labs.
The move breaks with SHIB’s own playbook. For years, the team pushed holders toward Shibarium, its in-house layer-2 network, instead of rival chains.
A Second Front Opens on Bonk’s Home Turf
SHIB traded higher after the listing went live. The token gained 3.89% over the past 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto price data, with most of the move coming after Solana’s announcement. Over the past week, SHIB is up 2.69%. Still, it remains roughly 93% below its October 2021 all-time high.
SHIB Price Performance. Source: BeInCrypto Markets
Solana announced the listing on X.
BREAKING: $SHIB is live on Solana via @sunrise https://t.co/5YMgpqwlp1 pic.twitter.com/bwHIlG1YSN
— Solana (@solana) October 4, 2026
The SHIB team followed up with a playful nod to the news.
Different chain. Same dog. 🐕Have we mentioned $SHIB is on Solana yet?We have?Good. Just checking. pic.twitter.com/0AENVGaVKa
— Shib (@Shibtoken) October 5, 2026
Sunrise acts as an on-ramp for tokens from other blockchains. It relies on Wormhole’s Native Token Transfers (NTT) standard. This means SHIB on Solana is the canonical token, not a wrapped copy. Monad’s MON became Sunrise’s first listing.
Meanwhile, Solana has long been home to dog-themed rivals like Bonk (BONK). However, that corner of the market has cooled. BONK slid to its lowest level since November 2023 in August after Upbit announced a delisting.
SHIB enters a crowded arena just as its local competitors are struggling.
Can SHIB on Solana Win Over Meme Coin Traders?
The timing raises questions about Shibarium. Earlier this year, on-chain data showed Shibarium usage collapsing while SHIB traded near multi-year lows.
As a result, Solana offers SHIB a ready-made audience.
Cost is another draw. SHIB remains on Ethereum, but traders on Solana pay a base fee of 0.000005 SOL per transaction, a fraction of a cent. Ethereum fees, in contrast, fluctuate with network demand and can climb during busy periods.
The expansion carries a familiar risk. Unofficial tokens using the SHIB name already exist on Solana. Solana itself urged users to verify the official contract address on tokens.xyz before trading.
Ultimately, the listing tests whether meme coin loyalty can travel across chains. If SHIB on Solana draws real volume, other Ethereum-based tokens could follow the same route. The SHIB Army now has a second home to defend.

Affluent investors in 7 major markets trust wealth managers most for crypto information, a CoinShares survey published October 5 shows. Yet roughly 4 in 10 respondents with an adviser in 4 markets call theirs overly cautious.
The report polled 2,230 investors in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. Each held at least $500,000 in investable assets outside real estate.
Firm Policy Keeps Advisers on the Sidelines
The new data lines up with an adviser-side picture CoinShares published in June. That earlier survey covered 261 wealth professionals in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the UK.
It found that 61% of advisers work at firms that restrict digital assets or lack clear internal guidance. Active recommendation ranged from 48% at supportive firms to just 1% at restrictive ones.
Meanwhile, 25% of advisers said more than half of their clients’ crypto holdings are beyond their view. Among UK advisers, that figure reached 52%, as BeInCrypto reported at the time.
The October report adds detail from the poll. Advisers cited volatility (56%) and crypto’s speculative character (52%) as the top reasons they believe clients hold back.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Investors Admit Knowledge Gaps and Look for Expert Help
The investor survey paints a more committed picture. Depending on the market, between 54% and 70% of respondents already hold digital assets, according to the new report.
Across the 7 markets, 71% to 91% of current holders also plan to add exposure this year. However, 88% concede they lack the knowledge to invest with complete confidence.
Alongside that gap, 69% would consider working with a crypto-savvy wealth manager. Among current holders open to advice, 98% are prepared to pay for it. In the US and UK, wealth managers lead most other sources on trust by 25 to 30 points.
When the June survey came out, CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti framed the adviser gap as a commercial risk for firms.
“Clients did not wait for permission. Every month a firm remains silent, more of its clients’ wealth migrates beyond its advice, its visibility and ultimately its economics,” Mognetti said.
In that poll, advisers said regulatory recognition (45%) and exchange-traded product access (43%) would most boost their confidence
In the 5 markets both surveys cover, investor demand now meets the policy barrier the June survey identified.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

The euro slid to a 17-month low against the dollar on Monday. Reports that Spain’s government may call an early election deepened worries already building over France’s budget.
Higher interest rates add a second strain, slowing European share sales after a strong start to 2026.
Madrid Joins Paris on the Market’s Worry List
According to Bloomberg, the euro lost as much as 0.8% during Asian hours, touching $1.1161. It later recovered slightly to $1.1179, leaving it down 4.86% for the year.
Euro to USD Year-to-Date Chart. Source: Google Finance
Three people close to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told Bloomberg that senior officials now back an early ballot. Cabinet ministers and Socialist party leaders see it as the best response to last week’s heavy defeat in parliament.
Traders said that Asia-based hedge funds sold euros for dollars in the spot market. That selling pushed the currency through option barriers, which extended the decline. These are levels where certain options switch on or off, forcing dealers to adjust their hedges.
Madrid’s troubles come on top of a shaky government and strained public finances in France. On Friday, the gap between French and German borrowing costs reached 152 basis points, its widest since 2011.
“Bond and currency markets are clearly signaling investor discomfort about the rising instability of the French government and erosion in the country’s fiscal anchor ahead of the elections in 2027,” Homin Lee, senior macro strategist at Lombard Odier Singapore, said.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Rates Take the Shine Off Europe’s Deal Boom
Politics explains only part of the strain on European markets, as borrowing costs have also climbed across the region. The European Central Bank (ECB) raised its deposit rate to 2.50% in September amid energy-driven inflation.
The prospect of further increases is now clouding the outlook for share sales. Third-quarter volume already dropped roughly 20% from a year earlier, Bloomberg data show.
That drop followed a first half in which European stock sales reached $89 billion, up 36% year-on-year. The outlook for initial public offerings (IPOs) is less clear. European listings from the past year have lost 17% on average.
Share prices have held up better than deal flow, with the Stoxx Europe 600 setting records over the summer. In August, Goldman Sachs said the index had outpaced the S&P 500 since early 2025.
Stoxx Europe 600 Performance. Source: Google Finance
The index closed Friday at 631.35, about 5% below its August intraday high of 663.41. JPMorgan’s Ashish Jhajharia said that steadiness hides investor unease.
“While headline indices are near all-time highs and VIX is fairly benign, there are clearly concerns underneath the surface around things like rates, inflation, geopolitics,” he stated.
The coming earnings season will show whether corporate profits can keep offsetting higher rates.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

The Nikkei 225 jumped about 2.5% on Monday as weak jobs data pushed October Fed hike bets below 25%.
The relief has limits, though. The 10-year Treasury yield sits near 5.25%, close to a two-decade high, after the Fed’s first rate hike in three years.
Does Weak Jobs Data Change the Fed Outlook?
September’s net hiring of 29,000 undershot forecasts and sat far below August’s 133,000, according to AP.
Wage growth also slowed, Investing.com reported, and money markets now price in less than a 25% chance of an October hike.
U.S. stocks rallied on the report Friday. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%, and the S&P 500 ended 0.7% higher, less than 1% shy of August’s record.
Friday also brought a record close for the Nasdaq 100, though its futures edged down 0.1% in Asian trading.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei briefly cleared 70,000 earlier in the session, a level it had not reached in three months, AP reported.
Nikkei has been on the rise and spiked on Monday. Image Source: Trading View
Meanwhile, mainland Chinese and South Korean markets were shut for public holidays, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sat near 23,976.
Can Bonds and Oil Sustain the Chip Rally?
In afternoon trading, Tokyo Electron, a chipmaking equipment supplier, rose 5.2% and SoftBank Group, a technology investor, gained 3.1%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) rose about 3% on reports of talks with Terafab, Elon Musk’s planned Texas chip venture.
Culpium, a newsletter by journalist Tim Culpan, broke the story, and Musk has confirmed talks without announcing a deal.
However, Wall Street’s gains narrowed Friday as the 10-year Treasury yield recovered to 5.28% from an intraday low below 5.17%. Thursday’s peak near 5.35% brought longer-term yields close to two-decade highs.
Investing.com tied the selloff partly to heavier corporate borrowing for AI projects.
Brent crude traded near $101 a barrel after briefly topping $103 on a Saudi-backed push against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.
Still, one soft report has not cleared the risks. Investing.com cited long-term yields, European bond-market worries, and geopolitical threats as sources of renewed volatility.
That leaves the rally exposed to a bond market still digesting heavier AI-related corporate borrowing.

China has cut America’s edge in AI benchmark scores to 3%, Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) estimates. DeepSeek’s V4.1 Flash, launched in September, pushed the gap to its lowest level on record.
That margin is the lead President Donald Trump cited last month when rejecting calls to slow AI. He claimed China is the only party pleased by the pushback against AI.
DeepSeek Moves Within 2.3 Points of Anthropic
BI put the benchmark gap at 15% earlier this year and about 9% in May. DeepSeek’s V4.1 Flash placed sixth globally on LiveBench, an independent leaderboard that scores models on questions, puzzles, and tasks.
The model scored 81.1, compared with 83.4 for Anthropic’s best entry. Still, only three of the top 15 models on LiveBench are Chinese.
The report credited deeper expertise and models tuned for domestic hardware. The gains also raise questions about whether US export curbs on Nvidia hardware are working.
Earlier this year, Anthropic argued that tighter controls could secure the US a 12-to-24-month lead by 2028. However, BI senior analyst Robert Lea cautioned that rankings shift, and Chinese labs may struggle to turn scores into revenue.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Trump Answers AI Warnings and Data Center Backlash With China
The narrowing gap comes as the US debates how fast its own labs should advance. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged pacing the frontier, a call OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed.
Data center buildouts have stirred local backlash too. An NBC News poll found 69% of adults oppose AI data centers nearby.
Trump has answered the backlash by pointing to China. He framed AI as a contest with a single winner.
“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!” he wrote.
He has also warned that communities blocking data centers will end up backwards and poor. Notably, Trump has turned that stance into policy.
On September 19, he announced an AI Force and vowed not to slow the industry. A White House task force under Jay Clayton, the AI czar, reports back in 120 days on AI’s risks and opportunities, along with Washington’s responsibilities.
The president signed a voluntary accord with six tech leaders that leaves safety to the companies. He has also signed an executive order to rename artificial intelligence as superintelligence. Together, these moves reflect Trump’s stated aim of keeping the US ahead of China in AI.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

The crypto market will welcome tokens worth $1.11 billion in early October 2026. Major projects, including Hyperliquid (HYPE), Ethena (ENA), and Aptos (APT), will release significant new token supplies.
These unlocks could introduce market volatility and influence short-term price movements. So, here’s a breakdown of what to watch.
1. Hyperliquid (HYPE)
Unlock Date: October 6
Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 3.75 million HYPE
Released Supply: 474.83 million HYPE
Total Supply: 1 billion HYPE
Hyperliquid is a leading decentralized perpetual futures exchange built on its own Layer-1 blockchain. It offers high-performance trading with low latency, on-chain order books, and sub-second transaction finality.
On October 6, the team will unlock 3.75 million HYPE worth $340 million. The tokens account for 1.69% of the released supply.
HYPE Crypto Token Unlock in October. Source: Tokenomist
The team previously announced that the unlocked supply is going to one institutional buyer.
2. Ethena (ENA)
Unlock Date: October 5
Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 171.88 million ENA
Released Supply: 9.15 billion ENA
Total Supply: 15 billion ENA
Ethena is a synthetic dollar protocol built on Ethereum (ETH). The protocol’s flagship product is USDe, a synthetic dollar stablecoin. Furthermore, ENA is the protocol’s governance token.
The team will release 171.88 million ENA tokens on October 5. The tokens, worth $41.52 million, account for 1.88% of the released supply.
ENA Crypto Token Unlock in October. Source: Tokenomist
Ethena will award 93.75 million tokens to core contributors. In addition, investors will receive 78.13 million ENA.
3. Aptos (APT)
Unlock Date: October 11
Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 11.31 million APT
Released Supply: 1.76 billion APT
Total supply: 2.55 billion APT (Y2035)
Aptos is a Layer-1 blockchain platform designed for scalability, security, and efficiency in decentralized applications (dApps) and Web3 ecosystems. It utilizes the Move programming language to enable high-throughput transactions and smart contract execution.
Aptos will release 11.31 million tokens on October 11. The tokens are worth $9.06 million. It represents 0.64% of the released supply.
APT Crypto Token Unlock in October. Source: Tokenomist
The team will award 3.96 million APT to core contributors. The community and investors will get 3.21 million and 2.81 million tokens, respectively. Additionally, Aptos will allocate 1.33 million tokens to the foundation.
In addition to these three, Aerodrome Finance (AERO), Movement (MOVE), and Babylon (BABY) will also see a new supply entering the market this week.

Bitcoin volatility now matches Nvidia’s, with both at 39%, according to a chart shared by Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor. Meanwhile, Strategy’s 12%-yield Stretch (STRC) preferred stock swings less than any Magnificent Seven tech giant.
However, that calm is recent. STRC slid to about $75 in late June, roughly 25% below its $100 par value, before the company stepped in to support it.
Where Does Bitcoin Volatility Rank Against Big Tech?
The chart tracks 30-day historical volatility, which measures how sharply a price moved over the past month. Strategy compiled the figures itself, as of the October 2 market close.
Among Big Tech names, Bitcoin (BTC) trailed only Meta at 47% and Tesla at 43%. In contrast, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple all sat between 21% and 24%.
Bitcoin can serve very different investors. $BTC offers direct ownership, $MSTR amplified exposure, and $STRC income with less 30-day price volatility than every Mag 7 stock. Digital Capital is the foundation for Digital Equity and Digital Credit. pic.twitter.com/Jvenbigni4
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) October 4, 2026
Saylor framed the three Strategy-linked assets as layers on one foundation. In his view, BTC offers direct ownership, MSTR adds leverage, and STRC pays income.
The data reflects that split. Strategy’s common stock (MSTR) registered 94%, exactly double Meta’s reading and well above Bitcoin.
STRC, by contrast, logged just 9%. The perpetual preferred pays a 12% annual dividend, reset monthly to hold the price near par, according to its website.
Can Strategy Keep Its Yield Product This Calm?
Leverage caused the earlier slide. Investors had borrowed at about 6% to collect the 12% yield, Strategy CEO Phong Le said. When Bitcoin dropped, margin calls forced them to sell, as he explained in STRC’s June price collapse.
Since late July, the company has bought back STRC and built a reserve of roughly $5 billion. As a result, the stock has climbed back toward $100.
Strategy has also floated a daily preferred dividend proposal for STRC holders.
Still, critics see a cost. Bitcoin skeptic Peter Schiff argues Strategy has lost its Bitcoin-buying power, since it last sold STRC in May. The company now funds purchases mainly through MSTR sales.
Strategy Bitcoin purchases chart. Source: Michael Saylor, X
Even so, the buying continues, with Strategy now holding 847,666 BTC at an average cost of $75,437. Saylor shared the purchase chart with a short caption.
More orange than ever.
Michael Saylor via X
For Saylor, the volatility chart casts Bitcoin as the base layer for equity and credit products. Therefore, STRC’s calm may hinge less on Bitcoin volatility than on how long Strategy defends par.

JPMorgan has added new names to its October list of favorite stock ideas, including American Express, Liberty Energy and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Each carries an overweight rating from the bank’s analysts.
The refresh lands after a split September on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 4.3%, the S&P 500 slipped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.9%.
October Arrives With a Friendlier Track Record
September has long been the weakest month for US stocks, as BeInCrypto noted at the start of the month.
Barchart data show SPDR S&P 500 ETF total returns averaging 2.27% in October since 2010. That ranks third among all 12 months, behind November at 3.09% and July at 2.79%. September averaged a 0.48% loss over the same stretch.
Meanwhile, the third quarter closed with the Dow down 3%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each advanced at least 2% over the period.
S&P 500 is about to say goodbye to the worst month of the year (September), on average, and enter the third best month of the year (October) ✅ We made it everyone 🥳 pic.twitter.com/o7bp32XxU1
— Barchart (@Barchart) September 30, 2026
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Why Do JPMorgan’s October Stock Picks Include a Falling Card Issuer?
JPMorgan sorts its overweight-rated stocks into growth, income, value, and short strategies. American Express is one of five new names and sits in the value group.
The stock closed at $302.78 on October 2, down 18.16% year to date, Google Finance data shows.
American Express Stock Performance. Source: Google Finance
Doubts over consumer spending and volatile credit rates have weighed on the shares. Analyst Richard Shane still backs the stock.
“AXP remains a core holding for investors looking for industry leading high returns and disciplined return of capital (dividend plus repurchases 3% of shares year after year),” he stated.
Can AI Demand Keep Carrying Stocks That Already Rallied?
Liberty Energy, a growth pick, has climbed 52% over the past year. Its Liberty Power Innovations unit builds on-site generation for large power users.
In January, the unit agreed to supply up to 1 gigawatt of power for Vantage Data Centers within 5 years. Analyst Arun Jayaram expects tight power supply to keep that demand going.
“We are seeing a reinforced structurally tight behind-the-meter power backdrop tied to data center load growth, with a power deficit expected to persist into 2030, which supports a multi-year demand runway for distributed generation providers,” Jayaram said in a note to clients.
Thermo Fisher, the second named growth pick, closed at $654.80 on October 2, up 13% year to date. Its shares have gained more than 25% over the past 3 months.
In September, Mayo Clinic launched Precure, an early disease detection venture, with Thermo Fisher as founding partner. Analyst Casey Woodring sees further gains from wider AI adoption and US biopharma reshoring.
This article is not financial advice. Stock prices are volatile, past performance does not guarantee future results, and readers should conduct their own research or consult a licensed advisor before making any investment decision.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

Employers have cited artificial intelligence (AI) in more than twice as many US job cuts this year as in all of 2025. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban, however, says workers are watching the wrong threat.
Cuban’s argument shifts the focus from the technology to the people using it. New hiring data and a Gallup survey suggest that shift matters for who gets hired and who gets laid off.
Cuban Puts the Job Risk on AI Skills
The anxiety has numbers behind it. US employers cited AI in 120,136 announced job cuts through September. That is about 21% of all cuts, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported.
Cuban sees the threat differently and argued that the risk comes from other people.
“AI won’t take your job. Someone who knows how to use AI better than you, will take your job,” he said.
Survey data supports his view. Gallup found tech workers who used AI less than monthly faced 3 times the layoff risk of monthly users.
Overall, 62% of laid-off workers used AI once a year or less, compared with 50% of employed workers. Still, only 1% of laid-off workers named AI as the main cause.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Annotators Lead a 750,000 AI Hiring Wave
AI has been the top reason for US layoffs this year, yet it is also creating jobs. The Kobeissi Letter, citing Wall Street Journal data, reported AI-linked roles added more than 750,000 US jobs since 2023.
The figures are based on LinkedIn estimates. Demand also shows up in listings, as AI job postings on LinkedIn rose 156% between 2024 and 2025.
Data annotators, who label material used to train AI models, lead the count with 282,000 positions. Data center jobs follow at 117,000, while AI engineers added 105,000.
“AI-related positions also offer significantly higher pay, with a median salary of ~$180,000 on LinkedIn, compared to $80,000 across all jobs,” the post added.
Box CEO Aaron Levie expects that demand to spread well beyond the tech sector.
“Every bank, life sciences company, manufacturer, and even law firm is bringing on more technical talent -or repositioning existing roles- to help with agent deployment in their companies,” he wrote.
Banks are also hiring for AI skills. Job postings that mention agent orchestration jumped 1,721% this year, according to hiring data firm Draup.
Still, overall hiring remains slow. Nonfarm payrolls rose 29,000 in September, and the unemployment rate reached 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported.
The BLS releases its October jobs report on November 6. That data may show whether AI-linked hiring keeps growing while overall job gains stay slow.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

A US debt spiral looks closer as 10-year Treasury yields pass 5% and interest costs top $1 trillion. Yet growth of 8.5% before inflation still outruns the 3.4% average rate on that debt.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis measured that 8.5% as an annualized second-quarter pace. However, the 3.4% average partly reflects older bonds, and TD Securities says higher costs feed through as they mature.
Why Haven’t 5% Yields Triggered a US Debt Spiral?
Yields touched a 24-year high last Thursday, but the US does not refinance its debt all at once. TD Securities puts the debt’s weighted-average maturity, or average time to repayment, at about 5.9 years.
Bonds excluding short-term bills still carry an average coupon, or fixed interest rate, of 3.1%.
TD estimates fiscal 2026 interest costs at about $1.1 trillion. Looking ahead, it projects $1.4 trillion in 2027 and $1.6 trillion in 2029 if yields hold.
In addition, the Congressional Budget Office projects public debt at about 101% of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal 2026.
Consumer spending added about 2.5 points to real GDP growth in the second quarter, while imports subtracted roughly 1.6. Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis
“A fiscal apocalypse is not upon us just yet.”
Gennadiy Goldberg and Molly Brooks, strategists at TD Securities, in a note cited by CNBC
What Would Turn the Math Against Washington?
TD links the surge partly to a stronger economy, expected Federal Reserve rate hikes and higher oil prices. Similarly, Ian Lyngen, head of US rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets, cites stronger actual and expected growth.
Matthew Reese, head of global bond strategies at L&G Asset Management, warns the loop worsens as nominal growth fades. However, Japan avoided a crisis despite heavier debt and weak growth, he notes.
BMO’s survey ranks housing as the likeliest first casualty of higher inflation-adjusted rates at 42%, ahead of stocks at 26%. By contrast, only 1% named the labor market.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid as much as 3% Friday as its currency peg imported US yields.
The cushion appears to depend on growth. Lyngen says the only lasting brake on yields is clear evidence that the economy or risk assets are giving way.

Schwab’s Kevin Gordon says the S&P 500 sits 1% below its high, yet the average stock had a 14% drawdown. He says AI stocks carry the index, so one capex miss, a shortfall in AI capital spending, could disrupt earnings.
However, that 14% is the average peak-to-trough drop among S&P 500 members since early August, not their loss today. The index weights companies by market value, so the largest stocks dominate its moves.
Why Is AI Carrying a Market That Looks Weak Underneath?
Kevin Gordon, Schwab’s head of macro research and strategy, spoke on Bloomberg This Weekend.
Tech sat out much of the summer rally, he said, but AI-related stocks now hold up the market. Valuation worries and public pushback against AI are beginning to fade, he added.
Similarly, Big Short investor Steve Eisman said in July that the whole market has become one AI bet.
What Happens if Mega-Caps Post a Capex Miss?
Gordon said one miss, paired with pared-back budgets, is where earnings disruption could begin. He relayed a line he said he could not claim as his own.
“it’s no longer earning season, it’s CapEx season.”
Kevin Gordon, via Bloomberg
Meanwhile, FactSet projects 32.4% S&P 500 earnings growth for 2026, up from about 15% at the start of the year.
Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok issued an AI debt warning last month. He said the cost of insuring cloud giants’ debt against default signals risk in debt-funded AI spending.
In contrast, Gordon said Federal Reserve hikes at roughly every other meeting would be the best case for stocks. Such a pace would not aim to slow growth sharply or hit the labor market.
Still, the index now rests on a few spending budgets, while the average stock has already taken a double-digit hit. Third-quarter earnings season, which opens this month, will show whether those budgets hold.

OKX filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sunday to trade tokenized US stocks. The venture plans to start with 63 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The SEC opened a five-year exemption for on-chain trading 17 days earlier. However, volume caps and a 30-day issuer objection window could shrink the first-mover reward.
Does Moving First on Tokenized US Stocks Matter?
The filing came through OKXICE LLC, a joint venture with NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Bloomberg reported. ICE’s OKX investment valued the exchange at $25 billion.
In September, tokenized stocks accounted for an 11% average share of decentralized exchange (DEX) trading. The exemption caps each venue at 75 top-tier stocks, typically S&P 500 and Russell 1000 members.
Today we are announcing a major step forward for OKXICE, the joint venture between @okx and Intercontinental Exchange, parent company of @NYSE:OKXICE has notified the SEC that we intend to launch our Tokenized Securities Venue (TSV) under the SEC’s new Innovation Exemption.…
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) October 5, 2026
Each token’s trading cannot exceed 0.25% of the stock’s prior-month volume. A repeat breach forces a three-month pause. Therefore, OKX’s initial 63 names would fill most of the 75-symbol ceiling if they sit in the top tier.
Issuers also hold a veto. Companies that did not authorize tokenization can block a listing by objecting within 30 days. Each venue must send its own notice.
Rivals face the same limits if they use the exemption. Coinbase, for example, launched tokenized US stocks for eligible non-US customers in August.
Can an Agency Order Protect a First Mover Until 2031?
The exemption expires in September 2031 and remains an agency order, not legislation. The Senate failed to advance the Clarity Act, a bill that would set federal crypto market rules, last month.
OKXICE co-chair and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo has warned that agency rules are fragile. He expects a new Congress to scrutinize such rules.
Still, the SEC has asked whether to make the exemptions permanent.
Meanwhile, NYSE struck an early-stage agreement with Blockchain.com covering its own digital venue. That firm claims 44 million accounts.
First-mover status may hinge less on filing dates than on user reach, issuer consent and the next Congress. If tokenized stocks scale, the volume caps and the 2031 expiry could decide who profits.

Egan-Jones, a US credit rating firm, says AI disruption will hit professional services, venture capital and housing first. It regards a broad economic overhaul as virtually assured.
The firm’s Oct. 1 report, titled “It’s Over,” targets institutional investors and risk managers. Egan-Jones notes that credit analysts did not write it.
Where Does Egan-Jones Expect AI Disruption to Land First?
Professional services top the list because those firms bill clients for expertise by the hour.
As evidence, the report cites Big Four accounting network KPMG pressing its auditor, Grant Thornton UK, to share AI savings. UK filings show the audit fee fell 14%, from $416,000 to $357,000, the Financial Times reported.
It also points to IBM, whose shares fell 13% on Feb. 23, the steepest drop since 2000, according to Bloomberg. Anthropic had said Claude Code could speed up modernization of COBOL, a decades-old language used on banking mainframes.
Not every analyst saw lasting damage. Evercore ISI kept an Outperform rating on IBM after the drop. It noted IBM already sells its own modernization tools, per Investing.com.
Venture capital follows, in Egan-Jones’s telling. The firm reasons that startups scaling on less capital leave venture firms with less leverage and lower returns.
It suspects few limited partners (LPs), the investors who fund those firms, have priced that in.
Can Lost Jobs Really Drag Down US Home Prices?
Egan-Jones notes that households with mortgages often rely on two paychecks. One job loss could prompt a sale within six to 12 months.
US home prices rose 1.6% in the year to June, well below the 4.3% average since 1987, and S&P data put July at 1.9%. Source: Egan-Jones
Prices already trail inflation. The S&P Cotality Case-Shiller national index rose 1.9% in the year to July. Consumer prices climbed 3.4%, S&P data show. Real values have fallen for 14 straight months.
Meanwhile, Redfin data show sellers outnumbered buyers by 57.9% in August, a record US home seller surplus.
The Kobeissi Letter, a markets newsletter, put AI-exposed sector job losses at about 11,000 a month. That was the average over the three months to June.
Egan-Jones frames the housing hit as short-term and expects scarce city land to hold its long-run value. How much AI savings reach clients, as at KPMG, may decide how far margin pressure spreads.