加密城市 Crypto City

The semiconductor industry is having a year of explosive revenue growth, but who understands the hardships faced by its workers? Taiwanese netizen mrclty created a free web game (Fab24hr: A Day in the Life of a Semiconductor Wafer Fab Worker) that lets players simulate a day in the life of semiconductor engineers and other fab staff. After the game launched, it struck a chord with fab workers, and a Tom’s Hardware editor said after trying it that it really did feel extremely stressful. The game is free to play and can be launched in a mobile or desktop browser.
The game offers two modes that recreate everyday life in a wafer fab

On October 20, crypto research firm Delphi Digital published a lengthy research report titled “The House Always Wins: Why Speculation Is the Theme of the Decade,” presenting an investment thesis worth considering: the best investment of the next decade may not be AI, cryptocurrency, or any single hot asset, but rather the trading infrastructure that enables everyone to participate in speculation.
The report’s author, Jason Pagoulatos, argues that historical waves of speculation have usually been driven by two forces: the promise of wealth created by technological revolutions, and economic systems so out of balance that people gradually lose faith in their ability to build wealth through regular work.

Regulatory responsibility should rest with market operators; the underlying Hyperliquid L1 should not be treated as an exchange
As the United States continues to consider a regulatory framework for crypto derivatives, Hyperliquid co-founder and CEO Jeff Yan has proposed a model of “tiered regulation for protocols and operators.” The idea is to concentrate compliance responsibilities on the businesses that actually build and manage trading markets, while keeping the underlying blockchain in the role of technical infrastructure.
In an interview with Bloomberg’s Odd Lots on October 15, Yan said regulation should apply at the level that truly has control. Operators that deploy markets control customer access, trading rules, and other tools, so they should also bear the corresponding regulatory responsibilities.

AI identity verification platform Persona has launched a new research grant program, offering awards of up to $100,000 per project to academic institutions and researchers. The program aims to advance research into digital identity, data privacy, fraud intelligence, and accessible identity verification, while encouraging relevant experts to actively participate in fraud research to determine whether a real person is operating the computer behind an identity verification process and to prevent fraud.
U.S. fraud losses hit a record $15.9 billion
According to data from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost a total of $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, a 27% increase in one year and nearly five times the amount lost in 2020. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that cybercrime caused $20.9 billion in losses. A 2026 report on malicious bots published by Thales found that automated traffic accounted for 53% of all online activity, with more than half of all traffic coming from non-human sources.

A scam ring has become a victim of cryptocurrency theft!
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis revealed on the 15th that, in a major theft involving Ledger hardware wallets that had recently been maliciously modified, the victim who suffered the heaviest losses was actually an operator of a “task scam.” More than 60 bitcoins (BTC), worth around $4.8 million, stored across three Ledger wallet addresses controlled by the operator were transferred away by the attackers on October 9.
Lured into paying through fake tasks! Victims are asked to keep topping up their accounts when they try to collect their earnings
According to Chainalysis, the scam used a common tactic known as a “task scam.”

Whether the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution succeeds or the investment bubble eventually bursts, could Bitcoin (BTC) emerge as a long-term winner?
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of crypto asset manager Bitwise, has shared his latest views, outlining three very different economic scenarios that all lead to the same conclusion: an AI-driven productivity boom will increase the value of scarce assets; a burst bubble could trigger monetary easing; and even with steady economic growth, Bitcoin could still benefit from institutional adoption.
An AI Boom: The Cheaper Goods Get, the Scarcer Bitcoin Becomes?
Hougan’s first scenario assumes that breakthroughs in AI technology drive a major surge in productivity and economic growth, while the cost of knowledge-based services such as software, legal services, design, and healthcare falls significantly.

According to an exclusive report by South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper on October 22, Tesla and NVIDIA will invest 1.1 trillion won and 2.6 trillion won, respectively—a total of 3.7 trillion won—in partnership with Samsung Electro-Mechanics to expand production facilities for next-generation AI semiconductor packaging substrates, FC-BGA.
Tesla to invest 1.1 trillion won to secure capacity for autonomous driving and Optimus
According to the report, Samsung Electro-Mechanics has signed a long-term FC-BGA supply agreement with Tesla and is currently expanding a dedicated production line at its Sejong facility in South Korea. Tesla will cover approximately 1.1 trillion won in facility expansion and equipment costs in exchange for a stable supply over the next five years. The substrates are expected to be used in AI chips powering Tesla’s self-driving electric vehicles and its humanoid robot, Optimus.

Visa reportedly in $2.5 billion acquisition talks; Fireblocks quickly denies report
According to a report by Axios citing multiple anonymous sources, Visa is in late-stage acquisition talks with Fireblocks, with the deal valued at around $2.5 billion. If completed, it would be one of the larger corporate acquisitions in the cryptocurrency industry in recent years.
However, a Fireblocks spokesperson later told media outlets including CoinDesk, The Block, and Cointelegraph that the company had seen market speculation that Visa might acquire Fireblocks, but the reports came as a surprise. The spokesperson emphasized that no acquisition talks of the kind described in the reports are currently taking place.

As the computing demands of AI accelerators and the number of HBM stack layers continue to rise, thermal management has become one of the toughest technical challenges for HBM. According to an October 21 report by South Korean media outlet ETNews, SK hynix has recently contacted materials, component, and equipment companies in South Korea and abroad to discuss product integration and mass-production plans as it prepares to upgrade its iHBM technology and ramp up production. iHBM is targeted for introduction starting with HBM5, which SK hynix's roadmap projects will debut in 2029.
SK hynix begins iHBM supply-chain talks to pave the way for mass production
ETNews, citing industry sources, reported that SK hynix is in talks with materials, component, and equipment partners about iHBM applications in actual products and mass-production plans. Supply-chain sources said SK hynix is exploring cooperation with equipment and materials suppliers to integrate iHBM into actual manufacturing processes and commercialize it, while also assessing the feasibility of mass production. The launch appears to be imminent.

On October 22, prominent U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced that it was renaming its crypto investment arm, a16z Crypto, to a16z Frontier and expanding the new fund’s investment scope to include artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous machines, and other frontier technologies. In May this year, a16z had just completed fundraising for its fifth crypto fund, which raised $2.2 billion. The rebranding signals an adjustment to its existing investment strategy, but was not accompanied by an announcement of a new fundraising round.
a16z partner Chris Dixon stressed that the firm will continue investing in blockchain and crypto companies and will not stop participating in discussions on industry regulatory policy.

The cryptocurrency market came under renewed pressure, with Bitcoin ($BTC) quickly retreating after briefly nearing $85,000 and at one point falling below $81,000. According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin was trading at around $81,500 at the time of writing, down 3.2% over the past 24 hours. The sell-off came amid weakness in global stock markets, concentrated liquidations of leveraged long positions, and a shift to outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. The market is also watching the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest rate decision and whether Bitcoin can hold key support levels.
Source: CoinGecko. Bitcoin is trading at around $81,500, down 3.2% over the past 24 hours.

Pokémon card prices have surged in recent years, with some collectibles delivering investment performance comparable to tech stocks. According to data from market analysis platform Card Ladder, from early 2019 to October 2026, the Pokémon card price index rose about 40-fold, nearly matching NVIDIA stock’s 41-fold gain over the same period and outpacing assets such as Bitcoin and gold. This comparison has renewed interest in the investment value of physical collectibles. However, the data reflect price changes over a specific period, do not account for transaction costs, and cannot directly represent the actual returns earned by typical collectors.

The U.S. government is stepping up its efforts to crack down on cryptocurrency scams operating overseas. On October 21, U.S. President Donald Trump held a meeting on cybercrime prevention at the White House, announcing the latest results of federal law enforcement operations targeting transnational scam rings. According to the FBI, reported losses from cryptocurrency-related cybercrime in the United States reached approximately $11.4 billion in 2025, up 22% from the previous year. In response to the enormous economic losses caused by transnational scams, the Trump administration has made combating cybercrime originating overseas a key policy priority, expanding its efforts through asset seizures, interagency law enforcement and diplomatic measures.

U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi continues to expand its crypto derivatives business. According to Bloomberg, Kalshi has partnered with digital asset custodian BitGo to let eligible institutional clients borrow against Bitcoin ($BTC), Ether ($ETH), and select stablecoins, and use the borrowed funds as margin for perpetual futures trading. The arrangement allows investors to access trading capital while retaining their existing crypto assets, further expanding Kalshi’s services in the U.S. regulated derivatives market.

The hacker behind the attack on Drift Protocol, a decentralized exchange in the Solana ecosystem, has moved a massive amount of stolen funds once again!
According to on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, addresses linked to the Drift hack in April this year became active again on October 20 after lying dormant for about two months. Within just two hours, they deposited 25,700 ETH, worth approximately $61.56 million, into the mixer Tornado Cash. More astonishingly, the associated addresses still hold around 82,000 ETH, worth nearly $200 million, indicating that the attackers still control most of the traceable assets.
Source: Lookonchain

Groq, the AI chip startup acquired by NVIDIA, is reportedly planning to redesign its chip memory architecture. South Korean outlet ZDNet reported on October 20 that Groq is evaluating the use of 3D packaging in its next-generation chips, replacing SRAM—the core of its existing design—with DRAM to significantly increase the memory capacity of each chip.
Groq’s Next-Generation Chip Design Takes a New Direction: DRAM May Replace SRAM
ZDNet, citing two anonymous semiconductor industry sources, reported that Groq is reviewing the use of 3D packaging in its next-generation chips, replacing the SRAM in its current design with DRAM. One industry source said Groq plans to use 3D packaging in its new chips, stacking DRAM instead of continuing to use SRAM.

Ministry of Digital Affairs warns of PHP vulnerabilities: Taiwan website services urged to update promptly
The Cyber Security Administration of the Ministry of Digital Affairs issued a major cybersecurity alert today (10/22), noting that the official security team for PHP—a programming language widely used by websites and online systems around the world—released emergency updates on the evening of October 21 to patch two critical vulnerabilities. Government agencies, schools, and private companies using PHP are strongly urged to update to the latest version as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Oracle's Java platform and the open-source Node.js project also disclosed multiple high-risk remote attack vulnerabilities on the 21st. All service platforms using these technology stacks should take note.

Bybit wants to enter the U.S.; CEO hints at possible partnership with a major brokerage
Bybit, reportedly the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is evaluating ways to enter the U.S. market.
According to CoinDesk, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said the company would partner with established local players as it enters the U.S., citing Interactive Brokers (IB) as an example. The move could help Bybit challenge the influence of local players such as Robinhood Markets.
Enter through partnerships to avoid applying for licenses state by state
Ben Zhou said that seeking partners is Bybit’s standard approach to entering new regions.

Standard Chartered announced on October 21 that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire crypto asset custodian Zodia Custody. The non-binding offer Standard Chartered made in May was accepted by Zodia Custody’s shareholders and bondholders, and the deal has now moved to a formal signing. It remains subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The press release did not disclose the transaction value.
Acquiring 100% of the shares; custody business to be integrated into Standard Chartered’s Securities Services division
According to the press release, Standard Chartered’s Standard Chartered I H Limited will acquire 100% of the shares of Zodia Custody Limited, the parent company of Zodia Custody’s regulated operating entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg. Upon completion of the transaction, Zodia Custody’s regulated digital asset custody business will be integrated into the existing digital asset custody business of Standard Chartered’s Securities Services division.

A significant development has emerged in the U.S. regulatory framework for stablecoins. On October 21, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the final implementing rule for the GENIUS Act, establishing regulatory standards for payment stablecoin issuers’ reserve assets, redemption mechanisms, risk management, and asset custody activities. The OCC confirmed that the Act and the final implementing rule within its jurisdiction will take effect on January 18, 2027. However, the final version removes the provision that would have presumed third-party stablecoin yield arrangements to be violations, prompting differing reactions from the U.S. banking and cryptocurrency industries.