Cryptopolitan

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says he wants the AI industry to move more carefully as models get better at helping create even stronger AI.
Dario wants labs to put more time between major jumps in capability so researchers, outside reviewers, and governments can check what these systems are doing before the next jump happens.
Elon Musk, who competes with Anthropic through his own AI business, backed Dario’s position and said, “Dario is right.”
OpenAI’s Sam Altman, another rival, also supported Darion, saying on X:
“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks. Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We’ll have more to share soon.”
Anthropic slows capability growth as Dario warns AI systems could outrun current safety work
The risks identified by Dario include loss of control of high-level systems, use of AI in cyber attacks or biological attacks, and heavy damage to employment and the economy as a whole.
Another risk highlighted by Dario was the possibility of companies rushing to roll out highly developed systems even before their safety work was completed in the process of intense competition.
The company Anthropics has invested a portion of its research budget in alignment, safety testing, risks assessment, and regulation.
During the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, a group of AI agents reportedly behaved like a tightly coordinated team.
They attacked computer systems outside their assigned task, tried to compromise the system, judging their performance, and allowed individual agents to fail if doing so helped the group.
“It’s easy to dismiss this incident because no one was hurt and the economic damage was minimal, but in my opinion, a swarm that possessed greater capabilities but a similar level of misalignment could have caused catastrophic damage. Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet.”
Anthropic gives outside evaluators deeper access while Dario pushes industry and government coordination
The first part starts inside Anthropic itself, according to Dario, as external reviewers would receive office desks, badges, company laptops, internal tools, and access close to what employees doing risk assessments already have.
Their job would include checking training systems, deployment rules, safety controls, incidents, and whether Anthropic actually follows the commitments it makes publicly.
“Embedded evaluators can check at the level of nuts and bolts whether an AI company is actually following the training, deployment, operational, and safeguards practices they claim to be following. Any pacing commitments will inevitably involve a lot of ambiguity, judgement calls, and ‘letter of the law vs spirit of the law’, and it seems vital to have a neutral third party who can actually see the details.”
Dario said extra time would go into four areas. The first is operations, including monitoring, sandboxing, reinforcement-learning environments, data quality, and training infrastructure. Current model development can involve thousands of workers, millions of chips, and huge computing systems. Anthropic has already linked some recent alignment failures to poor filtering inside broken reinforcement-learning environments.
Second, alignment refers to efforts that ensure the models comply with the safety rules despite their increasing capabilities. The third is interpretability, where the researchers examine the activities of the models internally to find the motivations or patterns that the models never state explicitly.
The fourth area is evaluation. More capable models can become better at fooling tests, so a system may look safe during an assessment while hiding problems.
“I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong.”
Dario also believes that there needs to be governmental involvement. He has argued that the US frontier laboratories must be subject to regulatory systems related to transparency, independent auditing, and evaluation on a continuing basis. The businesses can even make a voluntary decision to have shared points of evaluation, but with governmental help if the antitrust laws pose problems for private cooperation.
Dario said American companies cannot slow down so much that Chinese Communist Party-linked projects move ahead. He agreed with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has warned that losing the AI race to China would create a major security problem.
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Anthropic has lost another safety researcher. Joe Tenton said he left the company two weeks ago and will join METR, an independent group that tests risks in advanced AI systems.
Joe had planned to explain the move later, but Jacob’s resignation this week changed that. He said:
“I’d planned to write about that decision in more detail at some point, but Jacob’s resignation this week made me want to say more now.”
Joe believes major AI labs are creating a level of danger society has never faced, saying that AI capability is improving at extreme speed while companies are trying to move even faster.
Their goal is to build systems that can improve AI research themselves and eventually reach “superintelligence.” Joe warned that success could make progress move beyond human control.
Joe says AI labs are racing toward systems humans may not be able to contain
Joe said people could be living with AI agents smarter than every human within the next few years. Those systems may also develop goals that do not match the people supervising them. If their abilities become too strong to restrict, he believes the result could be disastrous. “Humanity may not survive this transition,” he wrote.
He said competition makes the problem worse. Any frontier lab that slows down risks losing ground to another one. Joe believes that pressure pushes companies to spend less on safety than they should.
He referred to some recent instances. Several hundred of the OpenAI’s agents were caught up in a hack that is somehow related to Hugging Face. Anthropic models also reportedly engaged in social engineering against individuals online.
Joe says Anthropic has not encountered an instance as damaging as the one from Hugging Face, although he attributes this partially to luck.
If progress continues at such a rapid pace, Joe believes we should expect even more dangerous incidents. He predicts that within the next few years, humanity will be rendered powerless to manage AI systems created during this time.
Finally, Joe talked about the problem that safety engineers face in frontier companies. In both cases, either resigning can give way to more careless individuals or keeping the job entails work on a system that can cause immense damage.
He said many former Anthropic colleagues are scared by what they are building. Joe named Evan Hubinger, who managed him. Evan has put the chance of AI killing everyone at above 10%. Joe said Evan has worked on these problems for almost a decade, before large language models became a major business.
The CEOs of Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind, which belongs to Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL, GOOG), have also backed a statement calling AI extinction risk a global priority. Joe said these concerns are common inside the companies themselves. He added that humans are choosing to build this technology and can choose another route.
Joe pushes outside AI checks while Donald Trump focuses on beating China
Joe said:
“One question is whether we should actively manage the rate of capabilities progress, and if so, by how much. I think even holding AI progress at today’s pace, rather than the much faster pace the companies are aiming for, could be a win.”
The bigger problems are political support and legal protection. Companies that jointly agreed to slow development could face antitrust problems. Joe said that makes legal cover necessary if policymakers want competing labs to restrain themselves.
He is also doubtful that governments will act while frontier development stays hidden from the public. Joe warned that a lab could experience a sudden intelligence jump or lose control of a system without outsiders knowing.
According to him, his new job at METR will focus on independent testing. He wants outside checks to become normal enough to change company incentives.
Joe would also like there to be stricter disclosure requirements. For instance, AI labs need to disclose any advances made and their steps towards recursive improvement as well as any accidents and near-misses.
U.S. President Donald Trump has rejected the extinction warnings. Donald was asked whether AI wiping out humanity worried him. “No, I don’t have any,” he said.
Donald said his concern is winning the international AI race. “I have concerns that if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position,” he told reporters Thursday. “We are leading China right now by a pretty good period, I would say a year, which is, you know, considered a lot.”
The United States and China are competing for AI leadership as Chinese models become more capable and gain users around the world. Donald made his comments after researchers from frontier labs, including Anthropic and OpenAI, increased their public warnings about the speed of AI development.
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Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is weighing an investment of up to $10 billion in Anthropic’s planned IPO as the AI company looks for an anchor investor before going public.
Sources allegedly told Reuters the deal could be part of what may become the biggest IPO ever. Anthropic is trying to raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation close to $2 trillion.
The talks are still private and the terms can change. The sources asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential. Nvidia’s role has not been reported before. If the chipmaker signs on early, Anthropic will have a large investor committed before the broader sale begins.
That matters because giant IPOs often use anchor buyers to secure part of the offering before the shares are marketed to everyone else.
The size also turns the listing into a direct test of how much public investors are willing to pay for frontier AI companies that need enormous amounts of capital. Nvidia would enter not just as a financier, but as a supplier to one of its major customers.
Nvidia could lock in a major position
Anchor investors normally agree to buy a fixed part of an IPO before wider demand is tested. That model is now common in very large listings because the companies are raising huge amounts.
Arm Holdings (NASDAQ: ARM) used Nvidia and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) as anchor investors when it went public. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund also took an anchor position in SpaceX.
The possible Anthropic deal would also add another layer to Nvidia’s existing relationship with the Claude developer. Anthropic uses large numbers of Nvidia GPUs to train and run its models.
At the same time, the company is trying to use more than one chip supplier because demand for Claude has pushed its available computing capacity hard.
Nvidia already said in November 2025 that it planned to invest as much as $10 billion in Anthropic through a wider partnership. Under that arrangement, Anthropic agreed to spend $30 billion on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Azure computing capacity powered by Nvidia hardware.
Amazon and Google, owned by Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), are also Anthropic investors and major compute providers.
In April, Anthropic said it planned to spend more than $100 billion with Amazon Web Services over ten years and use more than 1 million Amazon Trainium2 chips. The company also has agreements with Google and Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) to add several gigawatts of TPU capacity.
Anthropic races for more compute as revenue and valuation climb
Anthropic is also building an internal chip team. The group is working on custom hardware for Claude as the company looks for more control over computing costs while demand keeps rising.
However, the IPO is forecast to take place prior to the American midterm elections in November. This will result in further appreciation of the company’s value.
Anthropic managed to raise $65 billion in May while valuing itself at $965 billion post-money. By July, the annualized revenue run rate of the firm exceeded $65 billion, while the number for December was $9 billion.
Part of the $2 trillion prediction is based on Anthropic’s projections. Earlier, Reuters reported that the company projects revenues ranging between $190 billion and $200 billion by 2028.
Anthropic would enter a U.S. IPO market already running at record speed. The expected listing follows SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, which debuted in June.
U.S. IPOs excluding special-purpose acquisition companies had raised a record $137 billion through the end of August, according to Dealogic.
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Symbiosis shut down its native Bitcoin bridge on Friday after an attacker exploited its BridgeV2 contract to mint a huge amount of unbacked synthetic BTC. Yet the attacker managed to extract only about $336,000 in real value.
The importance of that gap cannot be overlooked. It is important to emphasize that Bitcoin’s security was not compromised, rather it is the infrastructure by which BTC crosses into DeFi that proved to be vulnerable.
This incident occurred only days after the Liquid Network breach that resulted in a loss of $320 million, thus making one wonder just how safe the cross-chain infrastructure is after making the observation that Bitcoin is secure, yet its bridges are failing repeatedly.
BTC routes halted while the rest of the network stayed open
Symbiosis revealed on X that it found evidence of the Bitcoin Bridge attack on September 11 at about 04:28 UTC and stopped BTC routing right away. However, other routing protocols continued to function.
In the Delta Incident Archive, the incident is classified as DCI-2026-304, which says that BridgeV2 processed an incorrect message that led to more than 2^62 syBTC being generated on BNB Chain and Ethereum.
As a result, the criminal managed to convert a portion of this illegitimate balance into approximately 4.39 WBTC on Ethereum, thereby profiting around $336,000. DeFiLlama classifies the incident as an “Unbacked Cross-Chain Mint.”
Where cross-chain trust enters the system
Symbiosis documentation shows how heavily the bridge relies on the secure transmission and authentication of cross-chain messages.
BridgeV2 connects the protocol’s Portal and Synthesis contracts with its off-chain Relayers Network. Those relayers submit transactions signed through an Multi-Party Computation (MPC) key stored in the contract.
Through the use of MPC threshold signatures, native Bitcoin (BTC) is secured in a Portal. This enables relayers to create syBTC on a separate blockchain that is then transformed into the preferred asset of the user. Symbiosis has claimed that their native BTC bridge has undergone an audit through Decurity.
This model relies on ensuring that instructions sent across chains are authenticated accurately, which was not the case here.
A huge synthetic mint, a small realized loss
The large synthetic mint ought not to be confused with the total amount stolen.
The minting of more than 2^62 raw syBTC has created a massive imbalance in accounting, but the hacker was able to convert only a small portion of that into real assets. The total loss is estimated to be around $336,000.
This brings Symbiosis closer to the bottom of the major hacks of 2026. TRM Labs reports 207 crypto hacks in the first half of the year, the highest semi-annual total in its history, with an average loss of $219,000. The total losses have decreased significantly, from $2.3 billion in H1 2025 to $972 million in H1 2026.
Bridge exploits keep recurring
The more troubling issue is how often bridges are still failing.
Currently, DeFiLlama has estimated at least $3.68 billion worth of total bridge losses. Symbiosis has indicated that one of the frequent causes of bridge attacks is lack of strong message authentication.
The consequences can extend beyond the bridge. For example, the analysis conducted by the Bank Policy Institute of the KelpDAO hack has shown that unbacked rsETH that came into existence as a result of the poor cross-chain validation contributed to overall stress on Aave. In total, $5 billion worth of stablecoins was withdrawn and the borrowing interest rate climbed to 10%.
Symbiosis BTC Bridge Exploit Highlights Growing Cross-Chain Risk
Echoes of the $320 million Liquid Network hack
Symbiosis comes after a much bigger failure on Liquid Network.
Chainalysis stated that self-proclaimed white hat hackers took 4,000 out of Liquid’s 4,200 BTC, which is approximately $320 million, as they took advantage of a defect in cached transaction-validation proofs. This flaw facilitated the creation of L-BTC without any backing, which were eventually exchanged for real Bitcoins.
Cryptopolitan reported earlier this week that the hackers returned 3,400 BTC, or around 85% of the lost funds.
Neither of the exploits broke Bitcoin itself. They pointed to the faults in the systems designed around it.
The problem goes further than just Symbiosis. According to DeFiLlama, there is only about $1.32 million worth of total value locked (TVL) in the Bitcoin cross-chain bridge area, with the Symbiosis platform at $0. If these mishaps continue occurring, it will discourage investors from putting BTC into DeFi. This may keep liquidity trapped in siloed ecosystems and make cross-chain options appear riskier and less appealing.
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According to Artemis’ reports, outstanding loans on Base peaked at an unprecedented $2.75 billion on September 10 after an increase in lending activity in late August. This record reflects the rapid growth of credit on Coinbase’s Layer 2 network and the share of Morpho and Aave in it.
Artemis writes on September 11:
Lending on @base is accelerating.
According to its prior research, lending is slowly becoming more modular as lending has now broken down into many special enterprises that each take care of some aspects of origination, distribution, risk, and infrastructure needed for this process. Base is beginning to display how this transformation appears, when taking place on a big scale.
Morpho and Aave carry most of the weight
Base’s lending total value locked (TVL) stands at approximately $4.56 billion as stated by DeFiLlama. Out of this, Morpho accounts for significantly about $3.94 billion, while active loans worth approximately $1.93 billion are given out by it. Aave V3 follows the race with TVL of around $513 million and active loans worth $354 million.
The trend is not an unusual one for Base as Galaxy’s estimate of total DeFi lending TVL was around $39.9 billion in July, with a combination of both Aave and Morpho accounting for 53.1% of the share. The total TVL according to Galaxy stood at about $13.9 billion for Aave and $7.3 billion for Morpho.
Base Lending Market Share: Morpho vs Aave V3 TVL and Loans
Coinbase puts DeFi lending behind a familiar button
Coinbase is bringing decentralized finance lending to those who might never experience a lending protocol first-hand. The crypto-backed loan lets qualifying customers borrow USDC versus crypto on Coinbase’s platform. Coinbase characterizes the product as: “powered by Morpho”
This is the essence of the partnership: Coinbase manages customer relations, while Morpho provides all of the on-chain infrastructure. Even if the loan is powered by decentralized technology, the experience for borrowers seems very much like a conventional financial transaction.
Coinbase allows a maximum of $5 million in USDC with Bitcoin in the United States but lower amounts of USDC with some other crypto assets which comes with 86% liquidation threshold. Coinbase advertises its US rates as low as 5%.
This arrangement might account for the increase of Base’s lending capability. Instead of making users interact with DeFi themselves, Coinbase can direct lending requests to Morpho. Base’s strategy for 2026 also delivers the same message, emphasizing deeper liquidity of stablecoins through trading, borrowing. and lending.
Why the surge matters beyond Base
More lending also makes USDC increasingly important to Base’s financial plumbing. A February analysis found that Base was a major contributor to record stablecoin transfer activity, with Morpho among the contracts generating large USDC flows.
There is a hitch in the story. The same analysis found that around 50% of the adjusted USDC volume of $5.3 trillion in January on Base was driven by a small number of DeFi contracts, while part of the Morpho transactions concerned flash loans, being borrowed and paid off in the same deal. Therefore, high volume does not necessarily indicate high present economic activity.
Institutional interest is still growing. According to Galaxy, Standard Chartered initiated coverage of Morpho and Aave. Morpho raised $175 million in June. Cryptopolitan also reported early this month that the outstanding loans on Morpho reached an all-time high of $5 billion which demonstrates how quickly Morpho is catching up with Aave.
The concentration question
The record also highlights a risk: Base lending is becoming increasingly dependent on a small number of protocols and collateral markets, with Coinbase emerging as an important distribution channel into Morpho. That can improve liquidity and capital efficiency, but it also makes smart-contract, oracle, curator, and collateral-risk controls more important.
For now, lending on Base is still moving higher. The next question is whether that growth can continue into the fourth quarter without becoming too dependent on one protocol, one collateral type, or one major distribution channel.
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Caroline Ellison, the former Alameda Research CEO who cooperated with prosecutors after FTX collapsed, has taken a full-time role at Manifund, a nonprofit grant platform. Cofounder Austin Chen said in the Manifund announcement that Ellison will help improve its funding platform and study how philanthropic money can be directed more effectively.
She began a work trial on July 13, moved into a full-time role on August 10, and spent her first two months working under the pseudonym “Carol.”
For crypto followers, the key issue is the kind of job taken by Ellison. She is not going back to work at a trade desk or managing a treasury. Ellison’s work revolves around technical infrastructure, logistics, and customer support. One of her early assignments included a reconciliation tool that revealed some misreported transactions in the Manifund database in the sum of “5-6 figures.”
The actual work: plumbing, not a portfolio
Manifund is an open platform that connects charitable donors and fundraisers. Manifund has three methods of financing projects: publicly disclosed proposals backed by donors, regrantors who distributes grant budgets according to donors’ directives, and markets for impact-certificates in which donors provide funds for the winning or deserving projects.
According to the organization, it has financed 486 projects, raised $17.2 million for various projects, and transferred $5.46 million through regrantors.
How Manifund Funds Projects and Measures Grantmaking Impact
Ellison is responsible for the infrastructure involved in this initiative. She claims that she will continue to work on the improvement of Manifund’s technical system along with its operational and customer service aspects, while the selection of funded projects will not be part of her responsibilities.
Why a nonprofit role sits outside her regulatory bars
That distinction is important because Ellison still has limitations related to the case against FTX, the crypto exchange co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Back in December 2025, the SEC filed proposed final consent judgments that restrict her from being an officer or a director for 10 years as well as impose a conduct-based injunction for a period of 5 years.
In a different statement made in August, the CFTC said that Ellison is also under a trading ban that lasts 5 years and a registration bar that lasts 10 years.
All in all, it can be said that working in a technical and operational position at a private charity is outside the scope of the limitations.
Ellison pleaded guilty in December 2022 to charges of fraud and conspiracy connected to FTX. Later on, she cooperated with the prosecution and gave evidence against Sam Bankman-Fried. Ellison started a 2-year imprisoned sentence in November 2024 and was released in January 2026 after that.
Manifund’s track record, and its FTX debt
Ellison’s appointment is particularly sensitive because Manifund has ties to the FTX Future Fund. Chen reported that he had “a keen debt” to the fund that was behind the initial Manifold initiative and most of Manifund’s concepts have been based on it.
The SEC has claimed that Alameda used misappropriated funds of FTX’s customers for trading and other investments. Given this past, it becomes evident that Ellison’s appointment goes beyond the standard hiring decision.
There is also a transparency issue. Manifund promotes transparency in its business and Chen has to admit that allowing Ellison to work under a pseudonym for several months implied that the organization had “compromised on transparency.”
Will the community grant the “redemption”?
Chen made his reasoning clear:
I believe in redemption.
— Austin Chen, Manifund cofounder
He argued that Ellison had admitted wrongdoing, worked to make creditors whole and served her prison time. Ellison described the role in similar terms:
I’m very grateful to Austin for giving me a second chance, and judging me on my current work performance rather than my past.
— Caroline Ellison
Not everyone is convinced. Responding to the announcement, Cate Hall called the decision:
truly terrible judgment
— Cate Hall, former CEO of Astera Institute
That disagreement is what makes the hire significant. Ellison is not returning to crypto finance, but her new role does test how far reputational rehabilitation can go after FTX.
For Manifund, the answer will depend less on the symbolism of hiring her and more on whether donors believe its transparency, controls and results justify the trust Chen is asking them to extend.
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Ethereum, the second-biggest crypto, jumped as much as 8.3%, its biggest move in three weeks. Traders who bet against it got burned.
Over a 24-hour period, shorts on Ether totaled more than $255 million being wiped out. Shorts on Bitcoin, over the same period, saw losses totaling $172 million.
Usually, Bitcoin sees the bigger leverage wipeout. This time, Ether did. The rally came while U.S. markets bounced around after a pile of economic data came out and oil prices fell.
It looked a lot like late August. Bitcoin ran higher then, setting off the biggest short-liquidation wave recorded since 2021. On Friday, Ether was doing it. The price moved so fast that it looked like traders were chasing the rally more than buyers were piling into spot.
A lot of traders had been sitting back since August. After the last big leverage flush, there still had not been much fresh news to bring everyone back.
Ethereum burns through shorts as traders pay to keep betting against it
According to Coinglass, around $188 million in Ether positions were wiped out in one hour as the price kept climbing.
Across crypto, close to $500 million in long and short positions disappeared over the past day. That was one of the biggest totals since Bitcoin’s record short wipeout last month.
Binance saw about $76 million in Ether positions liquidated over 24 hours. McCarthy said most were shorts that had to close. Ether perpetual futures were also showing negative funding rates. Those contracts are used for leveraged crypto trades.
Where financing costs are below zero, the short-siders on Ether had to pay for their positions, while those on the other side were being paid to take the position. But now that Ether has begun moving higher, those shorts have less room to just wait it out.
Bitcoin has been rising too. The Bitcoin price has moved by some 20% over the past month, putting it back above $80,000. But 2026 is negative for Bitcoin. It is down close to 10% this year. The coin also went above $81,000 in late August before losing some of those gains.
The rebound came after crypto began recovering from the August 19 liquidation event, one of the biggest leverage blowups the market has seen in recent years. Even that was small next to October 10, 2025, when roughly $19 billion in leveraged crypto positions were wiped out in one day.
Bitcoin ETF flows have picked up too. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ: IBIT) brought in about $3.5 billion in net inflows over the past month. That left the fund close to even for the year after earlier outflows.
Bitcoin traders now have Congress and tech stocks sitting in the background
There is another problem with Bitcoin. There has been no clear differentiation of Bitcoin from technology stocks. The correlation data indicates that there is still linkage between Bitcoin and the appetite for risk associated with tech stocks.
In cases where investors become scared, the risky positions are trimmed, which might also include Bitcoin.
Then there is Washington. The U.S. Senate is expected to hold an important procedural vote next week on the Clarity Act. The bill is supposed to set federal rules for digital assets. Lawmakers have spent most of the year trying to get it through Congress, and it still has not made it over the line.
Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” this week that he thinks the bill will pass after crypto companies, law-enforcement groups and several banks found common ground.
Brian also said the industry would still have another way forward if Congress does not pass it. “Frankly, if it doesn’t pass, it’s also going to be a good outcome because the SEC and the CFTC have said that they’re ready to publish rulemaking, and we’re going to get regulatory clarity one way or another on the 15th or the day or two after,” he said.
Prediction markets are less sure. Traders there still do not see the bill as a sure thing after Congress spent the year trying, and failing, to get major crypto legislation passed.
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Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) has completed the acquisition of Iridium Communications (Nasdaq: IRDM) at the price of $54 per share in a cash-and-stock deal valuing the satellite leader at $8 billion. The purchase transaction will add a powerful subscription-based network to Rocket Lab, a company known for its spacecraft manufacturing and launch services.
From the perspective of investors, the transaction makes perfect sense. Rocket Lab is a rapidly growing company that still consumes cash. Iridium, on the other hand, operates a well-established network based on consistent revenues and strong operational EBITDA. This acquisition suggests that Rocket Lab will grow into a more vertically-integrated space company with stable cash flows.
Buying a cash engine instead of building one
Rocket Lab announced that it achieved record revenue of $234 million for its second fiscal quarter, an increase of 62% compared to last year, while its backlog reached a record high of $2.36 billion, a 137% increase year-on-year. However, Rocket Lab continues to spend heavily on the development of Neutron, its reusable medium-lift rocket. The company now expects hardware for first flight to reach the launch pad in the fourth quarter of 2026, rather than committing to an actual launch date.
On the other hand, Iridium has a different financial situation. For the second quarter of 2026, it announced revenues of $225.2 million and operational EBITDA of $119.1 million. More importantly, 72% of those came from service revenues, which are considered to be mostly recurrent according to Iridium. At the end of the quarter, the company had 2,627 million billable subscribers, which is a 6% growth compared to the previous year.
Rocket Lab vs. Iridium: Q2 2026 Financials and $8 Billion Deal Terms
The financial comparison is quite shocking. Rocket Lab is showing fast growth and has significant backlog; while Iridium demonstrates profitability, growth in subscriber base, and recurrent service revenues. The $54-per-share deal is made of $27 in cash and a variable amount of Rocket Lab stock.
What the network actually adds
Rocket Lab is acquiring Iridium for $8 billion not merely for satellites already deployed. Iridium provides globally synchronized L-band spectrum, a low-Earth-orbiting satellite constellation, and unparalleled access to over 500 global partners and customers in the maritime, aviation, defense, and government industries.
This latter part is significant, as Rocket Lab does not have anything similar at the present moment. Iridium’s biggest single customer is still the U.S. Government, contributing around almost 17% of its revenue for services in the second quarter of the year. Iridium expects to sign a contract for a new Enhanced Mobile Satellite Service with the U.S. Space Force by March of 2027.
Rocket Lab claims that by owning the satellite network it will be able to obtain more of the economic gains tied to this venture. Instead of building satellites and hiring another company to do launches, the merged organization will be able to design, produce, launch, and operate most of the satellite systems by itself.
The SpaceX comparison, and an analyst’s price target
The strategy unmistakably gives rise to comparisons with SpaceX. The firms are headed toward vertical integration, but with different approaches. Whereas SpaceX began building Starlink from scratch, Rocket Lab aims to purchase an established network and a group of clients via the Iridium project.
Brian Gesuale, an analyst at Raymond James, rated Rocket Lab as Outperform and set a price target of $80 for the company. According to Barron’s, Gesuale believes that the firm will achieve free-cash-flow break-even by 2028, possibly two years before SpaceX manages to do this, but he noted that there are still risks the company has to face, specifically the Neutron deployment and Iridium integration.
The situation in the overall market is favorable for Rocket Lab. The World Economic Forum estimates that the space industry will generate revenues close to $1.8 trillion by 2035 as the value moves from one-off hardware sales to recurring service-based solutions like connectivity, intelligence and monitoring. Iridium gives Rocket Lab a possibility to move into that high-value segment of the market.
The first big test comes September 24
Before any integration begins, Rocket Lab still has to clear shareholder and regulatory hurdles. Iridium’s special stockholder meeting is scheduled for September 24, 2026, and its board unanimously recommends approval. The companies expect the merger to close in mid-2027, subject to the required competition, foreign-investment and communications approvals.
The harder test comes afterward. Rocket Lab would have to absorb an $8 billion acquisition while continuing to fund Neutron and its core launch and space-systems businesses.
If the integration works, Rocket Lab gains something it has never had before: a large subscriber base and recurring-revenue network sitting on top of its launch and manufacturing stack. If it does not, the company could end up carrying much more financial and operational complexity just as Neutron enters its most demanding phase.
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DeFiLlama’s Movers dashboard is showing an increase in divergence in the crypto world. Some of the tokens which were responsible for the rise in August are well above their competitors in 30 days, but some of them are beginning to lose ground in the last seven days.
This is important because this weakness is manifesting itself in the strongest momentum trades in the market rather than the overall crypto market of large capitalization.
This instrument included in the DeFiLlama’s token rankings can show users the performance of the top 100, 200 or 300 assets for the 24-hour, 7-day and 30-day periods. The September 12 update displays that Zcash (ZEC), Uniswap (UNI), Hyperliquid (HYPE), XRP and Solana (SOL) have still shown a better result over the last month than Bitcoin.
Where the winners and laggards split
ZEC has set itself apart as the only one with positive performance over both time frames under consideration. HYPE, UNI and XRP on the other hand despite their impressive numbers on monthly basis have turned out negative for past week. SOL only gained modestly over the week, while Bitcoin is also in decline.
DeFiLlama Movers: August’s Crypto Winners Lose Weekly Momentum
This divergence is all the more interesting in view of the strong altcoin trend reported by Cryptopolitan at the beginning of September in the midst of 83 out of top 100 alternative currencies closing August with profits. The leading assets of the period turned out to be ZEC, HYPE, SOL and Pump.fun as liquidity shifted to established coins with active use cases.
The composition of the August upswing of Bitcoin also tells you certain things. According to DeFiLlama Research, daily spot volume experienced a 153% surge during the breakout compared to 109% for perpetuals; meanwhile, open interest in Bitcoin has fallen. This shows that new capital has played a more significant role in the breakout than mere leverage.
The recent Movers data will now determine how much of that demand can survive an adverse interest rate environment.
Why the rate backdrop matters
According to Binance Research, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased by 17.6% in August to $2.70 trillion, although the firm viewed part of the rise as a reaction to interest rate fluctuations. The hawkish speech of Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh in Jackson Hole on August 28 eliminated about 60% of price adjustments in the market for September in one go, with the odds of interest hikes shifting towards 60%.
The situation has worsened since then. According to a report by Reuters on September 11, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond was close to 4.93% after the CPI for August went up by 0.4% in relation to the previous month and by 3.4% in relation to the previous year. Inflation indices were in line with predictions, and borrowing remained close to around 5%, which raises concerns in risk markets.
The Head of Research at CoinShares, James Butterfill, has described the latest developments with Bitcoin as follows:
“Bitcoin has traded increasingly like gold over the last couple of weeks as the debasement trade has returned to the fore.” — James Butterfill, CoinShares Head of Research
According to Butterfill, the monetary policy still remains the primary issue in this regard. While worries about the US government’s fiscal sustainability may favor Bitcoin, the tightening of monetary policy may reduce appetite for risk.
Profit-taking or the start of a reversal?
For now, the evidence looks more like a selective unwind in momentum trades than a market-wide flush. Glassnode’s Week 37 report found Bitcoin near $79,100 as futures open interest moved above its upper statistical band, capital inflows strengthened and 69.3% of coins remained in profit. Price was relatively flat even as leverage and profit-taking increased.
Supply can also magnify weakness in smaller tokens. Tokenomist found a median 14.7% decline relative to Bitcoin in the month before scheduled unlocks across its sample, although the effect was concentrated in early-stage, thin-float tokens. More established and liquid assets showed no significant unlock effect.
That distinction matters. If weekly losses continue spreading across August’s biggest winners while Bitcoin holds up better, the move would still look like rotation out of crowded trades. If Bitcoin begins weakening alongside them while yields stay elevated, the same momentum unwind could develop into a broader risk-off retreat.
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White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett says President Donald Trump’s $5,000 payment plan can move forward without worsening federal finances. The proposal would cost above $1 trillion, with US debt near record levels.
Kevin pushed back on the borrowing concern Thursday. “We can do it in a fiscally responsible way,” he said. “It is a serious proposal.” Trump first floated the payment idea earlier this week and tied it to Republicans keeping control of Congress.
Kevin said the White House sees the payments returning part of the country’s economic gains to households directly. “Because of all the growth and all the wealth being created in the US, the president thinks we need to return more of that to the American people,” he said.
A reconciliation bill would be one way. This is a procedure that allows the majority party in Congress to pass certain fiscal bills without needing the approval of the opposition party. Kevin did not list any specific areas where cuts could be made or revenues raised.
Asked what could be paired with the checks, he said that part would have to be “negotiated with Congress.” He added: “The bottom line is there are multiple paths to getting it done — don’t underestimate President Trump.”
Kevin kept a major Coinbase stake while Trump’s administration changed federal crypto policy
Kevin’s finances also put him close to a major name in crypto. His 2025 annual disclosure showed between $1 million and $5 million in vested shares of Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) at the end of that year.
Kevin had worked as an adviser to Coinbase from 2021 until January 2025, when he entered the White House. The disclosure, released recently, showed he had not fully sold the position almost 11 months into Trump’s second term. It only covers 2025, so it does not say whether Kevin still owns the stock now.
Three days after Trump went back into office in 2025, he established President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets within the National Economic Council.
Kevin was allowed membership on the panel through an executive order, or someone else that would be designated on his behalf. The recommendations made by the panel had to go through Kevin’s office before reaching Trump.
The team was headed by the White House crypto czar David Sacks at the time. David’s committee eventually proposed sweeping reforms that included the regulation of digital assets markets, banks, stablecoins and taxation.
The government also overturned crypto regulations that were implemented in the Biden era, created the bitcoin reserve in the country and pushed for legislation on national digital asset regulation.
Kevin has said he removed himself from crypto work while ethics officials dealt with the Coinbase holding.
Last year, Kevin said he had not sold because he did not want the sale to look timed around government decisions. He said he had guidance from “the ethics people” and was still working out “what needs to be done.”
“Meanwhile, I have recused from any matter that’s related to crypto,” Kevin said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The White House told CNBC that the recusal remains in place. Spokesperson Kush Desai said Kevin has followed the required ethics rules since entering government.
“Since day one, Kevin Hassett has and continues to be in full compliance with all ethical requirements, including his recusal from all cryptocurrency-related matters,” Kush said.
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U.S. Senate negotiators are considering legislation that would legally require developers of the most advanced AI models to guard against catastrophic harms and could give the federal government power to block unsafe releases, according to Reuters.
For top AI companies, this will transform safety standards from a mostly voluntary effort to a legal duty. A broader market question is whether stricter regulations will foster trust among consumers and investors or simply reinforce the few companies that can afford them.
From voluntary pledges to a “duty of care”
According to Reuters, the proposal seeks to create what is referred to as a “duty of care” for developers of frontier AI models. Various stipulations are under consideration for this purpose. The proposal includes requirements for: developers to design AI models that minimize catastrophic risks; the U.S. government’s reserved right to block unsafe AI models; court appeals against government decisions; and the involvement of national laboratory and governmental partners in AI testing. This proposal will possibly take precedence over some existing state legislation governing the same issues.
According to Reuters, the U.S. technological companies engaged in frontier AI development are Google (Alphabet), Anthropic, and OpenAI.
The talks involve Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz and Senator Amy Klobuchar, with Senator Maria Cantwell also involved.
Klobuchar told Reuters that her goal is:
“government oversight of the greatest risks posed by AI models”
That oversight, she said, should include requiring developers to work with government experts to verify and test advanced models.
Cruz has put forward a similar proposal that indicates some of the worst possibilities of frontier AI. In a post on X, Cruz said he is collaborating with Klobuchar and Thune to:
“address catastrophic risks involving biological or nuclear threats”
These concerns explain why the negotiators are concentrating their efforts on the most functional models instead of requiring the same provisions from the whole AI industry.
Another important consideration is whether the federal regulations should supersede some of the restrictions at the state level. This approach is generally consistent with the AI legislative framework of the Trump administration, which maintains that a disordered set of state laws will hinder experience in the development of AI technology in America and calls instead for a more consistent national framework.
Why lawmakers stopped treating the risks as theoretical
Legislators are responding not only to theoretical situations but also to incidents of AI agents acting on their own and penetrating external systems, together with concerns voiced by researchers working at the major industry players.
The IAPP indicated that the negotiations were prompted by resignation of Jacob Coxon, former Anthropic researcher, and his concerns about a race for self-improving AI.
Demands are rising on Capitol Hill. Senator Josh Hawley investigates OpenAI’s role in the Hugging Face cyberattack that took place in July, while Senator Bernie Sanders works on a bill aimed at pausing the development of superintelligence, as reported in IAPP.
OpenAI also advocates for enforceable federal legislation. In a policy article published on September 9, Chris Lehane, Chief Global Affairs Officer, called for:
“mandatory capability-based national AI safety regulation.”
This puts certain part of the industry and Congress on the same side of a crucial question on whether voluntary safeguards are still enough.
Europe already regulates its riskiest models
The United States won’t be navigating uncharted waters. The European Union’s AI Act has imposed new responsibilities on providers of general-purpose AI models that has a possibility of systemic risk. The duties deal with model assessment, risk management, incident reporting as well as issues related to cyber security.
Any model above the computing power threshold of 10^25 FLOP will be considered to be potentially systemic in nature. However, the European Commission has the right to classify a lesser performing model similarly based on some other criteria like capabilities or effects.
US Frontier AI Safety Bill: Key Thresholds, Labs and Investment Stakes
Compliance costs could favor the biggest labs
The financial stakes are huge. As per Goldman Sachs Research, the estimated global AI investment is expected to reach about $1 trillion in 2026, which includes $581 billion in the US.
New testing, legal and documentation requirements may affect model release schedules, budgets of infrastructure, valuations and timing of IPOs. New requirements may also provide an advantage to larger players since smaller companies may not be able to bear the costs.
This tension is already seen in the capital market. According to Cryptopolitan, David Sacks called upon the suspension of the IPO of Anthropic until safety allegations made by Coxon were checked. Investors of Anthropic had a conversation around the valuation of approximately $2 trillion, which turned the safety of frontier models into an issue of concern not only for regulators but also the investors.
The bill’s progress, though, is uncertain. As reported by Reuters, the House will only be in session for one week in preparation for the midterm elections on November 3, while the Senators are expected to remain for three weeks. Even if the parties involved reach an agreement during negotiations, the limited legislative days remaining may very well serve as the upcoming major hurdle in the passage of the bill.
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Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reportedly has to pay Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930) $250 for every main folding panel fitted inside the iPhone Duo.
Leaker Instant Digital said on Chinese social network Weibo that the supply contract lasts three years. It covers the current Duo and the models Apple releases during that period. Samsung was already in possession of the exclusive screen contract because it was reported that Apple could not find any other manufacturer capable of giving the desired screen.
Apple is now bound to its main competitor in the phone-making industry for the expensive component. LG Display (NYSE: LPL), an important screen supplier for Apple, is not capable of manufacturing the flexible screen.
BOE Technology Group (SZSE: 000725) already sells folding panels to Huawei, but Apple reportedly decided BOE’s version was not good enough for its phone. Samsung was therefore left as the only supplier that met the requirements.
Samsung secures three years of Apple orders as each inner panel costs $250
The display of the Duo is more difficult to produce as compared to the display that is present within the iPhone 18 Pro Max. The production process is quite complex for this reason, and hence, this increases the cost of the display even before it reaches the final assembling stage.
The cost of $250 does not include all the expenses incurred by Apple on the screen itself. The cost does not cover the expense of assembling and testing as well.
It is only relevant for the folding display within the phone, but there is no mention of the cover display without the phone. There is no combined cost mentioned for the two screens as well.
Apple designed the Duo like a book. Users get an outer screen when the phone is closed and a larger flexible panel after opening it.
The device is Apple’s first foldable and is planned to start at $1,999 this year. The inner panel was built around higher brightness, longer usable life, and a crease designed to be barely visible. Samsung supplies that key screen.
Samsung wasted little time taking shots at Apple after the launch. One social post said, “so far, so same.” Another went harder: “Let us know when you’re done reheating our leftovers.”
Samsung has been selling foldable phones since 2019 and has regularly used Apple and the iPhone as targets in ads about design choices and features.
Samsung hires another Tim Cook to put the Galaxy Z Fold8 against Apple’s Duo
Samsung New Zealand then turned the rivalry into an ad built around a name. It hired a real estate agent named Tim Cook, not the Tim who recently served as Apple’s CEO.
The other Tim works with Harcourts in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and appeared in a short campaign for Samsung’s latest foldable.
The clip introduces Tim with the line, “Tim Cook has an announcement. And for once, it’s about Galaxy,” before putting the Galaxy Z Fold8 in his hands. The joke gives Samsung a Tim of its own while the company promotes a phone competing directly with Apple’s new foldable.
The Galaxy Z Fold8 arrived in July with a 5.5-inch cover screen, a 7.6-inch inner display and a body weighing 201 grams. Samsung describes it as its lightest Fold model so far. The iPhone Duo also carries a 7.6-inch internal display, but it weighs 254 grams.
Both use the same book-style format, putting the two phones in direct competition as Apple enters a market Samsung has been serving for years.
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Bitcoin Suisse, in an effort to reshape itself into an internationally focused financial services group, plans to eliminate as many as 60 of its roughly 120 jobs in Switzerland.
The Swiss financial workforce is taking a hit on multiple fronts, with Bitcoin Suisse cutting up to 60 of its roughly 120 Swiss jobs while UBS, Helvetia Baloise, Raiffeisen Switzerland, and Swiss Life also plan significant layoffs.
Why is Bitcoin Suisse cutting its workforce?
Bitcoin Suisse has announced that it will be eliminating as many as 60 of its roughly 120 roles. The company initially built its reputation on cryptocurrency trading and custody before adding staking and lending.
Now, it intends to serve wealthy private clients, family offices, asset managers, and institutional investors with services that reach beyond crypto, and the shrinking of its workforce is integral to that.
The jobs that will be most affected by this cut are in back-office and administrative work, along with software development.
The eliminated roles are set to be moved to either Bratislava or Vietnam, where Bitcoin Suisse intends to build a new site over the coming years.
Rather than weakness in the crypto market, the company says the cuts are about cost and efficiency. The firm also pointed out that there are more efficient working methods and new technology, including artificial intelligence, which changes how many people it needs.
Zug, where the company was founded in 2013 by Niklas Nikolajsen, remains the headquarters, and the Bitcoin Suisse name is not changing. The company says Switzerland will stay the base for its “customer-facing business,” which includes client advisory, relationship management, and wealth and asset management for private and institutional clients.
Is Bitcoin Suisse ready to serve international clients?
In preparation for its international ambitions, Bitcoin Suisse’s European arm has secured a MiCAR license in Liechtenstein. The group has won digital asset and investment licenses in Bermuda, and in July, its subsidiary BTCS (Middle East) Ltd. received a Financial Services Permission from Abu Dhabi’s FSRA.
Currently, the group custodies about $3.7 billion in crypto assets and ranks as the fourth-largest staking operator globally.
The exact number of eliminated roles will only be settled after a consultation process that runs until September 20. Staff learned of the plan at a town hall on Friday morning, and the first layoffs are due to take effect before the end of 2026.
Notably, UBS is planning to shed around 3,000 Swiss jobs. Helvetia Baloise plans to cut up to 1,200 positions after its merger. Raiffeisen Switzerland has flagged up to 180 cuts, and Swiss Life is expected to eliminate roughly 600 roles.
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Block-reward miners are pivoting from Bitcoin to Zcash, where the top mining rig now earns around four times more per megawatt-hour than the best Bitcoin machine, after ZEC’s rally pushed the privacy coin into the top 10 by market value.
For miners who have seen their returns in mining dwindle over the past years, especially since the last halving event, among other factors, the potential returns from mining Zcash make it easy to make a decision on where to point electricity.
Why is the Z15 Pro suddenly out-earning Bitcoin’s best ASIC?
The math has flipped in favor of the privacy coin. According to data from The Energy Mag, a Bitmain Z15 Pro mining Zcash generated about $727.30 per megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity by August. As of June 30, that price was $585.61.
A state-of-the-art Bitmain S23 Pro mining Bitcoin returned just $179 over the same measure, and the older S21 Pro managed only $113.45. Only AI cloud workloads, which are generating close to $941 per MWh, beat the Zcash rig.
As of early September, Z15 Pro’s take is around $708 per MWh, which is about 3% below the August peak as more machines joined the network. The returns track ZEC’s price, which was pegged to the record $890 that it hit in August.
The ETF cash that lit the fuse
The rig economics rest on a token rally that Grayscale helped set off. The firm converted its Zcash Trust into an exchange-traded fund and listed ZCSH on NYSE Arca on August 25, making it the first US product offering spot exposure to a privacy coin.
The fund’s assets under management exceeded $500 million within two weeks, according to Grayscale. This also includes roughly $100 million from DCG International Investments, an affiliate of Grayscale’s parent, Digital Currency Group, which handed over 85,705.32563297 ZEC for shares.
ZEC has climbed with the flows. The token crossed $1,000 for the first time on September 4, and CoinMarketCap now lists it near $1,180, with a market cap of around $20 billion. On September 3, Grayscale credited “the hard money thesis and growing awareness around digital privacy” for the run.
A land grab for Zcash hashrate
The profits have drawn a crowd, and the crowd is thinning the margins. Cypherpunk Technologies (Nasdaq: CYPH), backed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, paid $33.33 million in August to fund what it calls the world’s largest Zcash mining fleet, running about 4.2 GSol/s, or roughly 18% of the network. The company holds nearly 2% of the ZEC supply and wants 5%.
It has company. Foundry USA launched an “institutional-grade” Zcash pool in March and reached close to 30% of mining share within a month. Fortitude Mining Holdings, another DCG subsidiary, bought a 12.5-megawatt Nebraska site to expand.
As the network’s solrate climbs faster than the price, each participant’s slice of the roughly 43,800 ZEC in monthly rewards shrinks.
Bitcoin miners are leaving anyway
The move to Zcash lands as Bitcoin mining loses its shine. BTC’s rally stalled after topping $82,000 on September 3. It is now trading around $77,000, and network difficulty is reportedly set to rise again on September 19.
Canaan reported second-quarter mining revenue of $17.7 million and a net loss of $97.6 million, with third-quarter revenue guided to as little as $11 million.
Many miners are skipping crypto entirely for artificial intelligence. It was reported on August 25 that Riot Platforms signed a $9 billion, 20-year compute deal with Anthropic, and Bitdeer struck a 16-year deal.
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Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) shares are rallying Friday after investors got new numbers on its cloud business, AI contracts and revenue backlog.
The stock rose 3% in early trading after gaining nearly 7% after hours Thursday. Oracle beat Wall Street forecasts for its fiscal first quarter, while a $26 billion increase in backlog eased some concern around the amount of money it is spending on AI infrastructure.
The revenue of Oracle reached $19.35 billion, which is about 30% higher than what was observed in the previous year, whereas adjusted profits increased by 30% to reach $1.92 per share.
The revenue from the cloud business increased by 62%, reaching $11.61 billion, while the cloud infrastructure saw its sales soar by 121%. In addition, Oracle added up another 850 megawatts to the data center capacity during the quarter.
Oracle adds AI contracts as cloud infrastructure revenue climbs 121%
The company had booked around $664 billion worth of remaining performance obligations at the end of the quarter, which is contracted revenue not yet booked by the firm. The figure was up by $209 billion from last year. In addition to that, the company secured AI cloud contracts worth more than $30 billion.
According to the financial report issued by the company, “the customer demand for AI Cloud Training and Inferencing Services continues to outpace supply.” Oracle expects to generate at least $90 billion in total fiscal 2027 revenue.
Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) maintained its Buy rating on Oracle and price target of $300. It added that the new AI contracts were pre-paid as well as bring your own hardware deals that apparently won’t require any additional investment from Oracle’s side. It further pointed out that the company completed its $20 billion at-the-market equity program.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) maintained Equal Weight with a target price of $210, citing that:
“Oracle’s 1Q delivered a near-term proof point on [IaaS] execution, as Cloud Infrastructure grew 121%.”
Citi (NYSE: C) kept Buy with a $330 target and maintained its Positive Catalyst Watch. The bank said, “Given the magnitude of FQ1 outperformance, we see a favorable setup for upward revisions at Investor Day and AI World.” Its target is based on roughly 30 times fiscal 2028 earnings and slightly higher estimates.
Bernstein maintained Outperform and a $325 target. The firm cited higher revenue, a larger contract book, margins and the raised fiscal 2027 outlook. It rolled its estimates forward but cut the earnings multiple in its model to 23.5 times from 24.5 times after software valuations moved lower.
Wall Street keeps higher targets while funding and margins stay under review
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) kept Overweight with a $280 target. The bank said Oracle can bring in new contracted work and growth opportunities without automatically adding another cash outflow. It also said management remained confident in its fiscal-year targets without making a large increase to guidance. Wells Fargo listed A-day as the next catalyst.
Barclays (NYSE: BCS) stayed at Overweight with a $252 target. The bank pointed to annual growth reaching 30% from 21% in the first quarter comparison. It also said Oracle’s funding position improved after completion of the $20 billion equity raise, while management addressed questions about delays and margins.
UBS (NYSE: UBS) maintained Buy with a $250 price target, noting that the after-hours performance of the stock was driven by better-than-expected revenues and profits, faster cloud infrastructure growth, and a successful equity sale. The negative factor was the unchanged forecast for Oracle’s fiscal 2027 revenues. UBS said that AI-driven growth has shifted to 30% from 11% one year ago.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) maintained Buy with a $240 price target. The bank based its rating decision on the faster adoption of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. However, Bank of America also noted limited visibility into Oracle’s profitability and return on capital investment, despite the growth in OCI revenues, which indicates significantly higher demand.
JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) maintained Overweight and set a December 2027 target of $200, replacing its previous December 2026 target of $210. The bank expects higher revenues from additional capacity to drive higher profit growth amid similar margins. At the same time, JPMorgan sees potential for a narrowing of Oracle’s discount to its peers’ valuations.
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The UK’s largest listed Bitcoin treasury holder, The Smarter Web Company (LON: SWC), announced plans this Friday to launch a new class of preferred shares, the first of its kind by a British corporate Bitcoin holder, on the main London Stock Exchange.
The preferred share, “MORE,” will be listed with a nominal value of £0.001 each and plans to raise between £15 million and £25 million in gross proceeds, while offering what the Bristol-based company described as a “cumulative variable rate weekly preferential dividend,” plus a liquidation preference and a company option to redeem.
The plan appears to have landed well among investors, as the company’s SWC stock gained over 15% on the day.
What Smarter Web’s MORE preferred share offers?
The MORE preferred share does not confer general meeting voting rights to holders. It is simply a fixed-income-style claim, allowing holders to gain exposure to a Bitcoin balance sheet without actually buying the coin or the firm’s common stock.
Sweden’s Bitcoin Treasury Capital listed Europe’s first Bitcoin-backed preferred in July, paying monthly installments on a flat 10% annual dividend.
Smarter Web’s version will list in the UK in the non-voting category of the FCA’s Official List.
Comparison of Smarter Web and Bitcoin Treasury Capital’s preferred shares.
Smarter Web directors named four routes to raise the funds to cover dividend payments:
Operating cash flow
Cash reserves
Bitcoin treasury
Future sales of ordinary or preferred stock
The company is also counting on selling more preferred shares over time via the at-the-market facility managed by Tennyson Capital Partners.
How is Smarter Web handling its Bitcoin reserve now?
When Smarter Web sold 177.89 BTC to repay an $11.7 million convertible instrument to the TOBAM Group, CEO Andrew Webley said the company was reviewing its position on whether fiat and Bitcoin-denominated convertibles are “the right capital solution.” Notably, Webley left the door open to their benefits.
However, the two-week early repayment halted a potential issuance of more than 7.7 million ordinary shares.
Smarter Web is now moving forward with a long-term capital source that directors are planning to use to fund revenue-generating web businesses acquisitions, general working capital, and to continue to build its Bitcoin treasury.
Smarter Web held 2,747 BTC as of early September, ranking 29th among public corporate holders, after adding 35 coins in a recent update, Cryptopolitan reported.
The FCA still needs to approve the prospectus before Smarter Web can list the MORE share. Completion is also contingent on the firm raising at least £10 million, lining up at least three registered market makers, and having at least half the preferred shares in public hands.
Shareholders will vote on the plan at a September 28 general meeting in Bristol.
Why the timing cuts both ways
The raise arrives during a reshuffle in the treasury sector. Some UK peers are retreating: Satsuma Technology’s shareholders voted by more than 90% in July to sell their 668 BTC and delist, returning far less than the £163.6 million investors put in, according to Cryptopolitan.
The Financial Times reported that Bitcoin treasury companies had lost more than $80 billion in market value from their 2025 peak.
Against that backdrop, Smarter Web is trying to widen its funding options rather than shrink. Whether the MORE listing clears its conditions, and how investors price a weekly variable dividend backed by a volatile asset, will be the test.
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Three companies sold ₹1,025 crore ($107.2 million) of corporate bonds as digital tokens in the first run of Demat 2.0, India’s regulator-led pilot.
The pilot is the first real test of issuing and settling Indian corporate debt on a shared digital ledger within the country’s current market system.
What milestone did India accomplish?
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has referred to India as “the first country” to launch a project like the Demat 2.0 pilot. Under this system, corporate bonds are issued, held, and settled as digital tokens on a distributed ledger that is owned by India’s two statutory depositories, NSDL and CDSL.
The cash leg of each transaction is settled in the Reserve Bank of India’s wholesale central bank digital currency, known as the e₹-W. Meanwhile, the bond and the payment are linked through the RBI’s Unified Market Interface.
SEBI disclosed the figures from the now complete first stage of the pilot on Thursday. State-owned power financier REC Ltd. went first on September 7, pulling in ₹500 crore ($52.3 million) from 18 investors.
REC’s bond offered a 7.3% coupon and pulled in bids worth ₹7.96 billion ($83.2 million)— far more than the ₹5 billion ($52.3 million) it was actually looking to raise.
Engineering group Larsen & Toubro matched the ₹500 crore figure two days later with just four investors, and non-bank lender IIFL rounded out the batch the same day with a ₹25 crore ($2.6 million) sale to a single buyer. Altogether, the three companies sold ₹1,025 crore ($107.2 million) of corporate bonds as digital tokens.
SEBI says that issuers can now get their money the same day they make bids rather than the usual two to three days later. Adding to that, smart contracts can now automatically send coupon and redemption payments into bondholders’ e₹ wallets when they fall due.
Do issuers need a Demat 2.0 account?
A 24-question FAQ published by SEBI explains that the Demat 2.0 network is private and completely run by the depositories, which hold and manage the keys for users. Investors also don’t have to open separate accounts or complete fresh Know-Your-Customer checks because the Demat 2.0 account is simply attached to an investor’s existing demat account and linked to a digital-rupee wallet opened at their own bank.
Issuers only require a CBDC wallet tied to a designated bank account to collect proceeds and make payments.
SEBI has also clarified that the tokenized bond is still a security under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. The depository also remains the official record of who owns what under the Depositories Act, 1996.
SEBI explained that the ledger has no need for a separate credit rating because the issuer’s obligations and the cash flows are exactly the same.
Notably, the pilot will run in three stages under SEBI’s Regulatory Sandbox. This first stage is only for institutional issuance.
The next stage adds secondary trading, which will go through exchanges’ existing RFQ and OTC reporting systems rather than a brand new venue. A final stage would extend the network’s nodes to credit rating agencies and other regulated participants.
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Metaplanet (TYO: 3350) rolled out a series of big updates after its Friday, September 11 board meeting, announcing a new Hong Kong subsidiary, a new CFO, and a 41% trim of a contested stock-option pool.
The options pool, by Gerovich’s admission, was poorly presented, which led to a 17% rout in the company’s stock last week over stock dilution concerns. Today’s disclosures are now meant to answer those governance and compensation complaints.
Why Metaplanet’s options pool became a fight
The drama around Metaplanet’s 10th Series Stock Acquisition Rights goes as far back as February 2023 when the Gerovich-led firm carried a going-concern warning on its struggling hotel business in Japan. That was when officers and employees bought into the paid stock-option scheme.
Through the years, as the company continued to issue shares to buy Bitcoin, the pool kept being automatically resized to 20% of fully diluted capital, which eventually caused roughly 46 million to explode into 319.46 million potential shares.
However, when the board finally adopted a decision to freeze the mechanism on August 18, the bloated 319.46 million figure they settled on did not satisfy critics.
Tensions boiled over on August 31 when it was disclosed that Gerovich cashed in his own rights and collected 64.032 million shares. Gerovich’s ties to major shareholder MMXX Ventures only added fuel to that fire.
What did Metaplanet change in its stock pool?
The Metaplanet board has now agreed to shrink the pool by 41.1% from 131,274,000 to 188,190,000 shares, converting each option unit into 410 shares instead of the original 696 it proposed.
Stripping out rights already exercised, the remaining overhang falls 55.5%, from 236,640,000 shares to 105,366,000.
Reaching the new figure took some rearrangement, with Metaplanet moving the reference date it used to size the rights back from June 30, 2026, to September 1, 2025. It also abandoned a plan to shift up to 90,000 rights into a separate long-term incentive vehicle.
However, the 10-yen exercise price and a lock-up running to August 17, 2031, stayed unchanged.
Metaplanet has expanded into Hong Kong
As of this month, Metaplanet Asset Management Asia Limited will begin operating as a wholly owned Metaplanet subsidiary, with an initial $1 million capitalization. Gerovich, Darren Winia and Kelvin Lee were named as directors of the new unit that the firm launched as part of its plan to build a financial platform around Bitcoin, called “Project Nova.”
The Hong Kong subsidiary will handle trade execution, position monitoring and risk management during Asian hours, joining the Miami-based Metaplanet Asset Management Inc. operation the company opened in March.
Finance leadership and a capital reset
The board also reshuffled its executive officers, effective the same day. Yoshihisa Ikurumi moved from CFO to Executive Officer, Director of Administration, while Shinpei Okuno, previously head of capital markets and investor relations, took over as CFO.
Separately, Metaplanet will ask shareholders at a virtual-only Extraordinary General Meeting on December 18, with a September 30 record date, to slash capital stock from about 27.8 billion yen to a single yen and cut its capital reserve to zero.
The company framed the reclassification as a way to lift its distributable amount and clear an accumulated deficit of roughly 1.8 billion yen carried at the end of 2025, giving it more room for dividends and buybacks. If approved, the change takes effect December 30.
Metaplanet stock closed at ¥249 on Friday, against a previous close of ¥259 and a 52-week range of ¥192 to ¥779, according to Google Finance. The company remains among the largest listed corporate holders of Bitcoin.
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One of the world’s most targeted nations, Japan, suffered its latest breach on Friday, September 11, as attackers stole around 246,000 personal data record sets from the country’s Digital Agency.
The hack exposed the names, email addresses and phone numbers of Japanese civil servants and contractors after an intruder got into a shared government network.
The Japanese agency insists that the exposed data has not turned up in any confirmed cases, which often range from phishing campaigns to violent attacks.
What did hackers leak in the Japan Digital Agency breach?
The hackers of the Japan Digital Agency stole government emails and personal phone numbers tied to real names from the common work Government Solution Service (GSS) platform used by ministries and agencies nationwide.
246,000 records of government staff and contractors leaked from the shared GSS platform. Source: Japan’s Digital Agency
In terms of scale, it is smaller than the My Number-style incident that actually affected ordinary citizens.
By data type, the incident exposed 236,000 names, 231,000 email addresses, 94,000 phone numbers and 1,000 physical addresses.
How did hackers enter the Japanese database?
According to the Digital Agency disclosure, it detected unusual activity on June 25 after a maintenance and operations contractor account accessed a large number of files. The intrusion began in late May.
Weeks later, investigators fingered a VPN device vulnerability as the likely entry point. They said they had already suspended the account and cut the compromised equipment off from the outside network on the same day they shared the July 9 update.
France’s DGFiP tax authority was breached via a similar internal VPN compromise that, as Cryptopolitan reported.
Japan is a regular hack target
Japan is one of the ten most targeted countries in the world, per CloudSEK’s 2026 cybercrime report. Ironically, the Digital Agency it set up in 2021 to modernize and secure government IT, has now been breached.
Top ten most targeted countries in the world. Source: CloudSEK 2026 cybercrime report.
In July, roughly 12.23 million email addresses and 7.61 million passwords were exposed in a confirmed KDDI breach.
Chinese hackers breached Japan’s National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity in a 2023 attack suspected to have gone unnoticed data for months.
How hackers use leaked info to target crypto holders
There is a direct route from stolen data to attacks targeting crypto holders, as Telegram founder Pavel Durov called out a personal data leak at a French government apparatus after 41 crypto-linked kidnapping incidents were reported in the country within the first three and a half months of the year.
Chainalysis counted more than $30 million stolen in violent attacks in the first half of 2026, on track to pass 2025’s $58 million.
Analysts will be watching to see whether the 236,000 names and 231,000 emails in this breach turn up in any future exploits.
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