According to Cointelegraph, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon believes that artificial intelligence (AI) could be applied to every single process of the firm's operations and may replace humans in certain roles. In an interview with Bloomberg on October 2, Dimon said he expects to see various models, tools, and technology for AI in the future. He added that AI is already being applied to processes such as errors, trading, hedging, research, and databases at JPMorgan. Dimon acknowledged that AI could replace some jobs, but emphasized that technology has always done so. He also expressed concern about AI being used by malicious actors, particularly in cyberspace, but is hopeful that legal guardrails will curtail such conduct over time. If JPMorgan replaces employees with AI, Dimon hopes to redeploy displaced workers in more suitable work environments, such as different branches or functions.

According to Cointelegraph, a group of investors behind a class-action lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon over fraud allegations have dropped the case. In a September 28 filing in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, lawyers representing plaintiff Nick Patterson, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of investors, filed a notice of voluntary dismissal only against Terraform and Kwon. The notice did not explicitly state the reasons for dropping the case without prejudice. Patterson's legal team filed the lawsuit in June 2022 following the collapse of Terraform Labs, which many attributed to kicking off a major crypto market crash. Kwon and the company have since been the target of many authorities globally for their role in an alleged scheme aimed at defrauding investors. In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit against Kwon and Terra for allegedly 'orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud'. Authorities in Montenegro arrested Kwon in March and subsequently sentenced him to 4 months in prison for using false travel documents. At the time of publication, it was unclear if he will be released in Montenegro or face extradition to the U.S. or South Korea.

According to Cointelegraph, United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Rostin Behnam discussed the agency's activity in the crypto sphere and the need for updated legislation at the Financial Industry Association Expo 2023 event in Chicago. He highlighted the CFTC Enforcement Division's efforts as a "nonstop drumbeat." In his keynote address, Behnam mentioned that his agency collected $6 billion in penalties in fiscal year 2023, with 45 of those enforcement actions involving digital asset-related misconduct, representing over 34% of the 131 such actions brought by the Commission since 2015. Behnam also discussed the precedent-setting litigation against Ooki DAO, which resulted in the closure of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and a $643,542 penalty. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found that the DAO was a "person" under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) of 1936. Behnam noted that the limits in the CEA create barriers to engaging in rulemakings and policy necessary for the agency's mission, forcing the CFTC to engage in resource-intensive quests for assurances that they are acting within the bounds of their intended remit. Behnam's statements contrasted with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler's position that Depression-era financial legislation should not be tampered with. Behnam also indirectly addressed limitations on the CFTC's enforcement authority, stating that he has continued to advocate for additional authority in the crypto space.

According to CoinDesk, a report from the Federal Reserve’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found that Silvergate Bank was able to transform from a community lender to a high-flying crypto bank without its Federal Reserve examiners raising concerns. The OIG report concluded that the bank's change in course should have required a different type of registration, which its government supervisors failed to demand. The report also found that examiners were too slow to deal with several problems as the bank headed toward its voluntary wind-down in March after last year’s crypto mayhem shattered its customers. The OIG made several internal recommendations for how Fed examiners should handle similar situations in the future, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has agreed to develop new and expanded guidance on rapidly growing banks that change their focus.

According to Cointelegraph, a team of scientists from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, recently published pre-print artificial intelligence (AI) research that highlights the difficulty of removing sensitive data from large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. The researchers found that while it is possible to delete information from LLMs, verifying that the information has been removed is just as challenging as the removal process itself. This difficulty arises from the way LLMs are engineered and trained. They are pre-trained on databases and then fine-tuned to generate coherent outputs. Once a model is trained, its creators cannot go back into the database and delete specific files to prevent the model from outputting related results. This is the 'black box' of AI. Problems occur when LLMs trained on massive datasets output sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information or financial records. To address this issue, AI developers use guardrails, such as hard-coded prompts that inhibit specific behaviors or reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). However, the UNC researchers argue that this method relies on humans finding all the flaws a model might exhibit and, even when successful, it still doesn’t 'delete' the information from the model. The researchers concluded that even state-of-the-art model editing methods, such as Rank-One Model Editing (ROME), fail to fully delete factual information from LLMs, as facts can still be extracted 38% of the time by whitebox attacks and 29% of the time by blackbox attacks. The researchers were able to develop new defense methods to protect LLMs from some 'extraction attacks' — purposeful attempts by bad actors to use prompting to circumvent a model’s guardrails in order to make it output sensitive information. However, they noted that the problem of deleting sensitive information may be one where defense methods are always playing catch-up to new attack methods.

Ethereum futures Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have commenced trading with a moderate volume, which is typical for newly launched ETFs, said Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas via a social media post on October 2nd. The total volume for the nine Ethereum futures ETFs is currently slightly less than $2 million, as reported by BlockBeats. However, compared to the Bitcoin futures ETF BITO's trading volume, which reached $200 million within the first 15 minutes of trading, Ethereum futures ETFs have started with a smaller volume. This could reflect cautious investor sentiment towards Ethereum as it navigates through regulatory scrutiny and market uncertainties. The introduction of Ethereum futures ETFs is seen as a significant development, providing investors with an additional investment instrument to speculate on Ethereum's price without actually owning the underlying asset. These ETFs also offer the cryptocurrency market increased visibility and direct access to a broader range of investors.  

According to CoinDesk, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is concerned about the poor quality of responses it has received from unregulated overseas crypto firms regarding the upcoming promotions regime for the sector. The new rules, which require crypto firms to have appropriate warnings on websites and implement a 24-hour waiting period for new investors to confirm they want to enter into a contract with companies, will take effect on October 8. Firms have the option to apply for a three-month extension to comply with the rules. Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investments at the FCA, said the regulator is concerned about a lack of engagement from some unregulated overseas firms. However, crypto firms like ByBit, Luno, and payments platform PayPal, who recently announced they were halting certain services to the UK market in order to comply with the rules, received a nod of approval from the watchdog. The FCA is prepared to monitor firms' compliance and has the ability to scan 100,000 websites on a daily basis, according to Castledine. Unauthorized ads or promotions could mean jail time, the FCA warned in February. The regulator will also have powers against overseas companies serving UK clients without registering with the FCA, but how they will handle them will vary case by case, Castledine added. The regulator submits information on non-compliant firms to global watchdogs like the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to be added to alert lists.

According to Cointelegraph: Haru Invest, the bankrupt South Korean yield platform, has signaled its intention to return assets to investors, despite not providing a specific time frame for the process. During a Q&A session on October 2, Haru Invest's CEO Hugo Lee explained that the firm is planning a "phased asset recovery and distribution" in multiple stages through the sale of recovered assets. However, he acknowledged that predicting an exact distribution schedule is impossible at this stage due to ongoing legal procedures and cooperation with investigative agencies. Lee assured investors that their money would be returned via an equitable distribution process that doesn't favor South Korean creditors over international investors. Notably, about 60% of Haru Invest's users are from abroad, while the remaining 40% reside in South Korea. Haru Invest previously experienced suspicion of fraudulent activities involving a consignment operator, B&S Holdings, in June. Subsequently, the platform suspended all deposits and withdrawals before filing for bankruptcy. The situation sent shock waves through the crypto sector, affecting the fellow crypto lender Delio, which held $1 billion in Bitcoin and $200 million in Ether. At its peak, Haru Invest served over 80,000 members and reported 9.8 million crypto-earn payouts, alongside $2.27 billion in total transactions. The firm once aimed to offer a 12% annual yield on most of its earn products and raised $4 million last September in funding, valuing the company at $284 million. As of a September 25 update, Haru Invest is being maintained by a minimal operating team, rendering its website login functionality non-operational.  

According to CryptoPotato, October is shaping up to be an important month for several major projects, including Axie Infinity, Optimism, and Aptos, as they prepare for significant token releases. Collectively, the three projects are set to release over $130 million into the market, with Axie Infinity experiencing the largest increase in the circulating supply of its AXS token at 11.5%. Axie Infinity, a blockchain-based NFT game, leads the token unlocks this month. Data from TokenUnlocks indicates that the project will release 15.1 million AXS tokens on October 20, representing 11.5% of its circulating supply and valued at approximately $71.8 million. The distribution of these tokens will primarily benefit the project's team, who will receive $28.9 million, followed by $16.3 million allocated to staking rewards, $16 million for play-to-earn incentives, $8 million for an ecosystem fund, and $2.6 million going to advisors. Optimism is also set to unlock tokens this month. On October 30, 24.2 million OP tokens, equivalent to 3% of its circulating supply, will be released, with a total value of $35.3 million. Of this amount, $18.6 million will be allocated to core contributors, and $16.7 million will go to investors. Aptos will release 4.5 million APT tokens on October 12, equivalent to 1.91% of its circulating supply and valued at approximately $26 million. The community will receive most of these tokens, with $18.4 million allocated, while $7.6 million will go to the Aptos Foundation. Other significant ventures releasing tokens in October include ApeCoin ($19.7 million), Sui ($17.2 million), ImmutableX ($11 million), and dYdX ($4.5 million). In November, Avalanche is preparing for a token unlock, with approximately $93.5 million of AVAX tokens, equivalent to 2.7% of the circulating supply, set to be released on November 24.

According to CoinDesk, Chainlink, a blockchain data oracle provider, has launched a new product called 'Data Streams' designed to reduce network latency. The product has entered early access on the layer 2 platform Arbitrum. Chainlink Data Streams combines low latency market data and automated execution to enable a new generation of ultra-fast and user-friendly derivatives products. The product uses a pull-based data oracle solution, which reduces latency and allows users to retrieve oracle reports off-chain and validate them with their on-chain transactions. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said in a press release that Data Streams enables decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to support execution speeds and user experiences that rival centralized exchanges without compromising on the core Web3 value of fair, transparent, and decentralized infrastructure. Additionally, Chainlink announced new decentralized computing capabilities with Functions Beta and Automation 2.0 on the main network. Chainlink Functions will enable developers to connect decentralized applications to any application program interface (API), while Chainlink Functions allows high-value jobs to be automated at a tenth of the cost, saving up to 90% in gas costs. Kemal El Moujahid, chief product officer at Chainlink Labs, said in a statement that these updates create a standard for developers to connect heterogeneous Web3 components with any existing system, move data and value seamlessly across multiple chain ecosystems, and create new verifiable applications.

Alex Chehade, the Executive Director and General Manager of Binance FZE in Dubai, has expressed his vision for the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in the Middle East, in an insightful interview about Blockchain & Crypto Innovation. With his 20 years of experience in finance, including 12 years in operations and trading, Chehade, who has focused on digital assets since 2016, is fervent about the potential societal impact of blockchain technology. Chehade highlighted the rapid expansion and adoption of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, particularly in Dubai, where Binance FZE has been established to provide localized services. He noted that the location was strategic and is fostered through collaborations with local governments and financial institutions to envelop the Middle Eastern market more readily. The company executive further spotlighted the hallmarks of Binance, especially its commitment to regulatory compliance through active engagements with regional regulators and authorities. This dedication involves strict adherence to local Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures, which underpin the platform’s operations in the Middle East. Binance has also distinguished itself through a commitment to transparency, routinely updating users on platform developments and security measures. It places a significant emphasis on user education, hand-in-hand with maintaining high-security standards. As pioneers in the cryptocurrency sphere, Binance is actively involved in developing regulations and policies in cooperation with different governments. It is also continuously introducing cutting-edge financial products and services to the industry to bolster crypto adoption and increase understanding. Tailoring its services to the Middle Eastern market, Binance offers customized trading support and fiat-crypto solutions. Chehade emphasized the company’s dedication to promote cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption, meeting the region's unique needs and requirements. As part of its expansion and user adoption drive, Binance has also formed strategic partnerships in the Middle East. Chehade pointed out that Binance has collaborated with the UAE Banks Federation (UBF) to deliver training programs, and are continually involved in joint awareness campaigns and cyber intelligence exchange initiatives. Throughout his role at Binance, Chehade remains committed to Binance's mission while relentlessly seeking opportunities for strategic partnerships, growth, and collaboration. As a visionary, he continues to bridge the physical and digital worlds, propelling Binance onto further heights within the Middle East.  

According to DL News: One of the most popular and controversial NFT projects, Milady Maker, is undergoing a period of turbulence resulting from its opposing founders filing lawsuits against each other, accusing each other of fraud. The fallout of these events has seen the value of Milady NFTs plunge 39% to 2 ETH ($3,460) over the last two-and-a-half weeks, according to DefiLlama data. The situation may expose the inner workings of what has always been viewed as a rebellious, taboo art collective, said Dennis Pourteaux, an investor at Huat Ventures. The risk lies in revealing that the project's creators may be more corporate and litigious than previously perceived. Despite its ongoing scandal, Milady remains the fourth most-traded NFT collection on Ethereum - with over $10 million in trade volume over the past month - according to data from Sea Launch. These 10,000 profile-picture style images of anime girls, known as the "neochibi" style, have a market capitalisation of $33 million. This latest controversy merely adds to Milady's storied history. Its pseudonymous representative, Charlotte Fang, stepped down last year due to accusations of his involvement in white nationalist circles and a "suicide cult". However, the recent legal battles reveal that he never truly left the project. The accusations leveled against each party are severe and contradictory. The conflict has been exacerbated on social media and seems to be far from resolution. The recent turn of events has caught observers by surprise and further emphasizes the unpredictable nature of the emerging NFT market.

According to Cointelegraph, Canadian Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms has significantly increased its mining operations, resulting in a 7.3% increase in mined BTC in September 2023. The company mined a total of 411 bitcoins, up from the previous month, and sold 362 BTC, generating total proceeds of $9.5 million. Bitfarms continues to hold 703 BTC, worth nearly $20 million at the time of writing. The increase in mining production is due to Bitfarms installing new miners and fully energizing its Argentina facility at Rio Cuarto to 51 megawatts (MW). With these new installations, the company has reached a total operating capacity of 233 MW, having increased it by 24% so far in 2023. Bitfarms also managed to increase its hashrate by 9% from 6.1 exahashes per second (EH/s) in September, although it is still slightly below the firm's third-quarter target of 6.3 EH/s, reflecting some electrical infrastructure delays in its Québec facility at Baie-Comeau. Bitfarms CEO Geoff Morphy believes that the company's best opportunities for growth will arise from the next Bitcoin halving, expected to occur in April 2024. This event, which happens once every four years, will cut the Bitcoin miner block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, significantly increasing the costs of mining. Morphy stated that the company is focused on infrastructure and balance sheet strength to provide the financial flexibility to move aggressively when conditions for growth are optimal. Despite the significant increase in mining production in September 2023, Bitfarms' mining pace is slightly lower than figures recorded last year, with the amount of mined BTC last month being 14.6% lower than in September 2022. The firm has mined 3,692 BTC year-to-date, while last year it generated 3,733 BTC over the same period.

According to Cointelegraph: Grayscale Investments, a leading crypto asset manager, has revealed plans to convert its Grayscale Ethereum Trust into a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). This comes in the wake of the approval of the first Ether futures ETF. On October 2, the New York Stock Exchange Arca filed the proposed conversion with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Grayscale's existing trust used Ether futures contracts as an indirect form of ETH exposure, while a spot ETF would directly invest in the underlying asset. Grayscale CEO, Michael Sonnenshein, took to the social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), to announce the move, emphasizing the firm's intention to provide mainstream investment products offering cryptocurrency assets exposure. Sonnenshein recognized this filing as a pivotal step in incorporating Ethereum more extensively into the U.S. regulatory framework, stating: "As we file to convert ETHE to an ETF, the natural next step in the product’s evolution, we recognize this as an important moment to bring Ethereum even further into the U.S. regulatory perimeter." The Grayscale Ethereum Trust was launched in March 2019 and became an SEC reporting company in October 2020, providing the public with transparent insight into the performance of its cryptocurrency investment vehicle. Currently, the Ethereum Trust is valued at $4.9 billion and comprises approximately 2.5% of circulating ETH. Grayscale also discloses that 250,000 investor accounts have exposure to the trust. Grayscale reaffirmed its commitment to carry its cryptocurrency products through a planned "four phase lifecycle" concluding with conversion to an ETF. The platform currently offers 17 different cryptocurrency investment products.  

According Decrypt: Solana, the rising star in the digital currency arena, saw its total value locked (TVL) reach a new high for 2023 at $338.82 million on Monday, according to data from DefiLlama. TVL serves as a metric for gauging the amount of funds flowing through a network's diverse DeFi applications. Over the past 24 hours, Solana's TVL witnessed an increase of about 4.15%, leaping from $324.64 million on Sunday to $338.82 million by Monday. This significant surge has been attributed to the success of popular Solana-based projects, such as Drift, marginfi, Solend, and others. The network’s native token, SOL, is also experiencing strong performance, enjoying its best week since mid-July. The token observed a 29% increase over the past week and has soared 39.08% above its September low, according to CoinGecko. At the time of this report, SOL is trading at $24.42, marking a 65% boost from its lowest price in 2023. However, these figures are still considerably less than their peak during the bull market. In November 2021, Solana's TVL soared to over $10 billion before taking a drastic tumble. It reached its lowest point in January 2023 at $210 million. Despite these past fluctuations, the current trend demonstrates steady and significant growth for Solana.        

According to Decrypt: Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market started October with a bullish surge powered by a string of liquidations and a short squeeze. Bitcoin leapt over $28,000 for the first time since August 17 in a surprising move last Sunday evening. Bitcoin quickly spiked by $800 around 6:30 pm ET, breaking past resistance at about $27,200. As per CoinGecko data, it was last traded at a 4.4% hike from the previous day, at $28,271. The bullish surge resulted in liquidations worth $47.4 million in the futures market, as reported by CoinGlass data. 90% of these, or $42.9 million, were short orders, indicating the potential reason for the surge. The price upswing was concurrent with short liquidations, suggesting the momentum might be driven by a short squeeze in the futures market. A short squeeze happens when an asset's price quickly ascends as incumbent short order holders, who have wagered against the market using leverage, are obligated to purchase the asset at higher prices as the price increases. Ethereum (ETH) mirrored the leading cryptocurrency, climbing above $1,700 for the first time in five weeks. ETH’s price ascent led to the liquidation of futures orders valued at $28 million. The aggregate market cap of crypto tokens rose 3.3%, adding nearly $37 billion over the previous 24 hours to reach $1.16 trillion. The upward swing in crypto prices led to the liquidation of $114.9 million across the crypto market, with shorts accounting for over 85% or $97.8 million of the total, according to CoinGlass data. Solana (SOL) led the gains in the niche market among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap with a 13.5% increase overnight. Other major gainers in the past 24 hours included Thorchain (RUNE), Bitcoin SV (BSV), and Render (RNDR) tokens. The US government’s successful avoidance of a shutdown by extending its funding for the next 45 days may have also positively affected global market sentiment. US stock market futures opened positively on October 2nd, with the S&P 500 gaining 17.5 points to trade at 4,312.4 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index also began with a 0.7% increase above Friday’s close, breaching the 15,000 level. Coinciding with these market trends, VanEck is prepping to launch the first futures Ethereum ETF today, further bolstering positive sentiment. Historically, Bitcoin's price has seen a rise in October every year for the past decade, except during the bear markets of 2014 and 2018, as per CoinGlass data.          

According to Foresight News, GSR Markets, a subsidiary of cryptocurrency market maker GSR, has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for its application for a large payment institution license. GSR stated that it is working towards obtaining the full license.

According to CoinDesk, Space and Time (SxT), a Web3 data warehouse, announced at Chainlink's SmartCon conference that its Proof of SQL, a zk-proof for SQL queries, will natively run its zk-Verifier on Chainlink nodes. This integration will enable verifiable, zk-proven query results for smart contracts, AI models, and enterprises. As a result, SxT is now the preferred data warehouse solution for the Chainlink ecosystem, enhancing trustlessness and decentralization. The Proof of SQL Verifier will run natively on Chainlink nodes, allowing the Chainlink Network to reach consensus on untampered query results.

According to Foresight News, a report by CoinShares revealed that last week, digital asset investment products experienced net inflows of $212 million, ending a six-week streak of outflows. Bitcoin investment products saw net inflows of $204 million, while Ethereum investment products experienced net outflows of $1.5 million. Investment products shorting Bitcoin also had net outflows of $1.5 million, and Solana investment products recorded net inflows of $51 million.

According to Cointelegraph: A recent working paper put forth by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduces a country-level Crypto-Risk Assessment Matrix (C-RAM) aimed at detecting potential risks associated with cryptocurrencies, thereby guiding regulatory responses. The paper, titled "Assessing Macrofinancial Risks from Crypto Assets", was published by the IMF on September 29. Crypto ecosystem links to the traditional financial sector. Source: IMF paper The proposed C-RAM follows a three-step approach. The initial phase involves using a decision tree to evaluate crypto's "macro-criticality", or its possible impact on the macro-economy. The subsequent step involves examining indicators similar to those employed in monitory the traditional financial sector. The final phase tackles the global macro-financial risks that might influence a country's systemic risk assessment. The authors, Burcu Hacibedel and Hector Perez-Saiz, applied C-RAM to El Salvador as a case study – the first county to declare Bitcoin a legal tender in September 2021. As per the paper, the Central American country's usage of Bitcoin presents market, liquidity, and regulatory risks, potentially destabilizing its financial framework, and affecting significant remittances and other capital inflows. Historically, the IMF has advised against El Salvador's adoption of Bitcoin due to significant risks including financial stability, consumer protection, and financial integrity. As cryptocurrencies continue to evolve, regulators worldwide are updating their risk mitigation strategies to better address the burgeoning asset class. Earlier in September, the IMF and the Financial Stability Board collaborated on a joint paper outlining policy proposals in response to an appeal by the Indian G20 presidency. The paper provided consolidated recommendations to navigate multiple risks associated with crypto activities.