MACRO & FED
Biztoc.com
07 Oct 2026 · 13:30
Fed's Schmid says AI among key drivers of inflation
United States Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence is among the key drivers of inflation, warning that the central bank's credibili... United States Federal Reserve …
United States Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence is among the key drivers of inflation, warning that the central bank's credibili... United States Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence is among the key drivers of inflation, warning that the central bank's credibil…
MACRO & FED
The Times of India
07 Oct 2026 · 13:15
Fed plans bank-supervision overhaul to strengthen accountability, says Vice Chair Michelle Bowman
The Federal Reserve is set to realign its bank supervision system for increased accountability and efficient decision-making. Five new geographic supervisory regions will be established, each led by a regional leader. This new structure …
The Federal Reserve is set to realign its bank supervision system for increased accountability and efficient decision-making. Five new geographic supervisory regions will be established, each led by a regional leader. This new structure aims to address concer… The Federal Reserve plans to restructure its supervision of US banks, replacing a system that gives regional Fed presidents responsibility for examinations with one that gives Washington officials cl…
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 13:15
CFTC unveils federally regulated path for crypto exchanges
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced plans to offer a federally regulated framework for cryptocurrencies. This move aims to provide a structured pathway for crypto exchanges dealing with leveraged, margined, or …
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced plans to offer a federally regulated framework for cryptocurrencies. This move aims to provide a structured pathway for crypto exchanges dealing with leveraged, margined, or financed retail transactions, although it does not extend to all spot trading. The CFTC’s proposal includes Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM, which would require entities to register and comply with various controls, including anti-manipulation measures and proof-of-reserves. This development appears to be a step towards greater regulatory clarity for crypto markets, but broader authority over spot exchanges remains contingent on future congressional actions.
Key Takeaways
The CFTC’s announcement suggests an increased regulatory focus on specific crypto transactions, potentially enhancing market stability.
Market behavior indicates this could be supportive of scenarios where Bitcoin reaches higher price targets, reflecting institutional confidence.
The current regulatory proposal does not cover all crypto spot trading, hinting at potential legislative action needed for broader oversight.
What to Watch
Observers will be keen to see how the CFTC’s proposed regulations impact institutional adoption and market dynamics. Key indicators include congressional responses and potential amendments to the regulatory framework. Markets may also reflect whether the CFTC’s actions lead to significant changes in Bitcoin’s price trajectory, particularly in achieving the $200,000 target by the end of 2026. Further statements from U.S. Congress or market-leading institutions could offer additional insights into the future regulatory environment.
CRYPTO
Bitcoinfoundation.org
07 Oct 2026 · 13:15
RLC Crypto Surges 146%: What’s Behind iExec’s Massive Price Rally?
RLC crypto has become one of the market’s most aggressive movers. iExec’s token has risen roughly 146% over three months, with most of the excitement centered in a spectacular October 5 breakout that nearly …
RLC crypto has become one of the market’s most aggressive movers. iExec’s token has risen roughly 146% over three months, with most of the excitement centered in a spectacular October 5 breakout that nearly doubled the price in a single day.
Read More: He Says His Binary Options Strategy Brings In $2,000 a Week—Watch Him Trade Live
RLC price jumped from around $0.36 to above $0.70 and briefly traded much higher intraday. So why is this token growing and could it sustain this rally?
Related: Trump Just Sent Hyperliquid (HYPE) Soaring: Is a U.S. Breakthrough Coming?
What Is RLC Crypto?
RLC is the utility token behind iExec, a decentralized computing project that has been operating since 2017.
The network focuses on confidential computing: processing data without exposing sensitive information during execution.
That matters for areas such as:
Artificial intelligence
DeFi
Real-world assets
Data monetization
Private financial applications
Decentralized computing
iExec uses Trusted Execution Environments, or TEEs, to isolate sensitive workloads while they are running.
RLC crypto sits underneath that infrastructure.
According to iExec, RLC can be used to access computing resources, secure off-chain computation, and monetize digital assets.
The token supply is fixed at roughly 87 million RLC, with no inflation or future token unlocks.
Why Is RLC Crypto Surging?
The strange thing about the rally is that there is no obvious single catalyst.
iExec did not announce a transformative partnership on October 5, there was no major new token listing that suddenly exposed RLC to millions of additional traders, nor did the project launch a new product that would reasonably double its valuation overnight.
That makes the market structure itself important.
Before the breakout, RLC crypto had spent much of September trading between roughly $0.28 and $0.38.
Then activity changed almost instantaneously.
On October 5, RLC opened near $0.36 and climbed above $0.70, while some markets recorded an intraday high close to $0.98.
Volume expanded even more dramatically.
That combination, an explosive price move with an even larger surge in trading, is often a sign that speculative capital has found a relatively illiquid asset.
And RLC is small enough for that to matter. Before the rally its market capitalization was only around $30 million.
Is a Short Squeeze Driving the RLC Rally?
Derivatives activity around RLC exploded alongside spot trading.
Coinalyze data showed RLC open interest rising from roughly $2 million before the breakout to almost $38 million: an increase of more than 1,800% in 24 hours.
That is extraordinary relative to the size of the underlying asset.
Open interest represents outstanding futures positions.
It does not tell us whether traders are bullish or bearish by itself, but such a huge increase indicates leveraged speculation entered the market extremely quickly.
RLC had also been trading with strongly negative funding rates before the breakout.
Negative funding usually means perpetual futures traders are leaning toward short positions.
When price unexpectedly moves upward, those traders may have to buy RLC to close their positions or face liquidation.
That creates a feedback loop:
Spot buying pushes RLC higher Short positions move into losses Shorts close or are liquidated Those purchases push RLC higher again Momentum traders enter More shorts become vulnerable
For a relatively low-cap token the effect can be violent.
Why Is iExec Suddenly Interesting Again?
The rally may be speculative, but the underlying narrative did not appear from nowhere.
iExec argues that public blockchains create a basic problem for institutions. Transactions may be verifiable but sensitive balances, trading strategies, and financial data are also exposed.
Its proposed solution is confidential execution.
Earlier this year, iExec introduced its Confidential Token concept, designed to let ERC-20 assets hide balances and transaction amounts, while still allowing selective disclosure to approved parties such as auditors or regulators.
Nox Protocol v0.1.0 is live 🚀
The first official version of iexec-nox/nox-protocol-contracts is here.
This release introduces the core building blocks of Nox:
confidential token, confidential compute primitives, ACL system, on-chain proof validation and a Solidity SDK for… — iExec Developer (@iExecDev) April 9, 2026
The project has also been building confidential AI infrastructure and working with decentralized computing providers such as Aethir.
Related: Best Polymarket Trading Bots in 2026: Top Bots for Copy Trading, AFK Trading and Telegram Automation
That puts iExec at the intersection of several crypto narratives that remain attractive to traders:
AI
DePIN
Privacy
Real-world assets
Institutional DeFi
RLC crypto gives traders a relatively small-cap way to speculate on all of them simultaneously.
Why RLC Tokenomics Matter
RLC’s supply structure can amplify both bullish and bearish moves.
The maximum supply is approximately 87 million tokens, and essentially the entire supply already exists.
That means RLC crypto does not face the large scheduled unlocks common among newer tokens.
There is no constant stream of newly vested tokens entering the market and diluting holders.
iExec has also proposed tying future protocol usage more directly to RLC demand.
Under the model described for its confidential DeFi infrastructure, users would not necessarily need to hold RLC themselves, instead, protocol revenue could be converted into RLC through automated market purchases.
Conceptually, that solves an old problem with utility tokens.
For adoption to benefit a token, users normally have to care about the token itself.
iExec’s model aims to let institutions use the product normally while the infrastructure handles RLC demand behind the scenes.
But this mechanism only becomes meaningful if iExec generates meaningful usage and revenue.
For now, much of that value proposition remains prospective.
Does the 146% Rally Mean iExec Adoption Is Exploding?
No.
A 146% RLC crypto rally proves that demand for the token increased, but it does not prove that usage of iExec’s infrastructure increased by 146%.
There is currently little evidence that fundamental network activity suddenly changed enough to justify the speed of the move.
That makes the enormous rise in derivatives positioning particularly important.
If the rally were primarily being driven by a major new source of long-term RLC demand, traders would want to see accompanying evidence such as:
Increased protocol usage
More confidential applications going live
Higher developer activity
Growing protocol revenue
Larger RLC purchases tied to actual usage
New institutional integrations
Instead, the clearest immediate change is in the market itself. Price, volume, open interest, and speculative attention all exploded together.
Why the Rally Could Continue
Momentum rallies can travel much farther than fundamentals initially justify.
RLC crypto now has several factors working in its favor.
First, it has regained trader attention after months of relatively subdued activity.
Second, its low market capitalization means additional capital can still have an outsized price effect.
Third, the fixed token supply limits the ability of new issuance to absorb sudden demand.
Fourth, iExec fits several narratives currently attracting capital, particularly privacy infrastructure and AI-related decentralized computing.
And finally, a heavily leveraged market can continue squeezing traders who bet against the move.
If RLC can retain strong spot volume after the initial breakout, the rally may develop into something more durable. That “if” is critical.
Related: Monad Price Drops 12%: Is MON’s Breakout Already Falling Apart?
Why RLC Crypto Could Crash Just as Fast
Almost every factor that helped RLC rise can also make it fall. The token has experienced extreme volatility before.
RLC reached above $15 during the 2021 bull market and later lost more than 95% of that value.
The latest rally also pushed technical momentum indicators into extremely overbought territory.
More importantly, a market with enormous derivatives activity relative to its capitalization can reverse violently.
Leverage amplifies moves in both directions.
If traders who entered late begin taking profits, price can fall, that can liquidate leveraged longs, which creates additional forced selling, producing the same feedback loop that may have helped drive the rally upward.
There is also a fundamental problem.
Without a clearly identifiable new catalyst, traders cannot easily estimate what the “correct” post-rally valuation should be.
What Should RLC Investors Watch Next?
Spot Trading Volume
Persistent spot volume would suggest that genuine buyers continue entering the market. A rapid collapse in volume would make the rally look more like a short-lived speculative event.
Open Interest
If open interest remains extremely high while price becomes unstable, liquidation risk will remain elevated.
If leverage declines while RLC holds its gains, the market structure becomes healthier.
Funding Rates
Funding can reveal whether traders are becoming excessively bullish or bearish. Another extreme imbalance could create conditions for the next squeeze, in either direction.
iExec Adoption
Ultimately, the strongest bullish scenario would be rising RLC crypto prices accompanied by actual growth in iExec usage.
The project’s confidential DeFi and RWA strategy gives it a fundamental story. The market now needs evidence that the story is turning into demand.
Is the RLC Crypto Rally Sustainable?
The rally is real, the explanation is less straightforward.
RLC crypto has risen roughly 146% over three months and nearly doubled during its biggest breakout session, while trading volume and futures positioning exploded.
But there is no equally dramatic fundamental announcement behind the move.
The strongest immediate explanation is therefore market structure, a small-cap token attracted sudden buying while heavily leveraged derivatives activity magnified the move.
iExec’s privacy, AI, and confidential-computing strategy probably helped provide the narrative traders needed to chase it.
Whether that becomes a lasting repricing depends on what comes next.
If volume remains strong, leverage normalizes, and iExec begins translating its confidential DeFi roadmap into measurable usage, the rally may prove to be the market anticipating real growth.
If activity disappears once speculative momentum cools, RLC could give back a large part of the move just as quickly as it gained it.
For now, RLC crypto looks like both an interesting fundamental story and an extremely crowded trade.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 13:15
Kalshi expands into stock market derivatives with US 500 perpetual
The prediction market operator is expanding beyond event contracts with leveraged long and short exposure to an index tracking 500 large US companies. Kalshi has launched a perpetual futures contract tied to the US …
The prediction market operator is expanding beyond event contracts with leveraged long and short exposure to an index tracking 500 large US companies.
Kalshi has launched a perpetual futures contract tied to the US stock market, expanding its product lineup as the prediction market operator pushes further into traditional financial markets.
Today we launched the first stock index perpetual future in America. You can now trade a perp on the US 500, an index of America’s largest companies weighted by market cap. Stock index perps let you trade the broader market with greater capital efficiency and make it easier to… pic.twitter.com/8I1u91EQrK — Kalshi (@Kalshi) October 6, 2026
The contract tracks Kalshi’s US 500 index, which the company said covers 500 of the largest US companies. Traders can take leveraged long or short positions without the contract having a fixed expiration date.
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Unlike conventional futures, perpetual futures do not expire and use periodic funding payments between long and short traders to help keep the contract’s price aligned with the underlying index.
Kalshi filed with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in August to offer the product.
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“Stock market exposure is the next step towards Kalshi becoming a full-service financial exchange, and perps are the best way for our traders to get this exposure,” CEO Tarek Mansour said in a statement.
The launch marks another step in Kalshi’s expansion beyond the event contracts that built its business, including markets tied to elections, sports and other real-world outcomes.
The company has also been moving into more conventional derivatives markets. Reuters reported last month that Kalshi is preparing to file with US regulators for a perpetual contract tracking West Texas Intermediate crude oil.
The expansion puts Kalshi more directly into competition with traditional exchange operators as it builds products spanning prediction markets and financial derivatives.
MACRO & FED
ABC News (AU)
07 Oct 2026 · 13:00
The RBA isn't trying to stop inflation. So don't expect prices to fall
The Reserve Bank doesn't want consumer prices to come down, but to rise more slowly. It's a common misunderstanding that the ABS is partly responsible for. What is the Reserve Bank trying to achieve …
The Reserve Bank doesn't want consumer prices to come down, but to rise more slowly. It's a common misunderstanding that the ABS is partly responsible for. What is the Reserve Bank trying to achieve by raising interest rates?
In recent days, a video has done the rounds on social media of someone asking for help to understand what the RBA is up to. This…
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 13:00
Firelight launches DeFi insurance with $115M staked XRP on Flare network
Firelight, a DeFi cover protocol incubated by Sentora, has launched insurance coverage backed by 50.2 million XRP staked on the Flare network. This development marks the introduction of a new utility for XRP within …
Firelight, a DeFi cover protocol incubated by Sentora, has launched insurance coverage backed by 50.2 million XRP staked on the Flare network. This development marks the introduction of a new utility for XRP within the DeFi ecosystem, as staked XRP is used to back coverage for risks such as smart-contract exploits and oracle failures. The total aggregate cap for staked XRP positions is set at $115 million. By leveraging XRP bridged as FXRP, Firelight adds an on-chain protection market to Flare, providing coverage for vaults like Sentora’s USD Protected Vault.
Key Takeaways
Firelight’s use of staked XRP for DeFi cover suggests increased utility and adoption of XRP.
The aggregate cap for staked XRP positions is $115 million, indicating a significant commitment to backing coverage.
This development appears to align with market sentiment supportive of a positive outcome for XRP’s long-term prospects.
What to Watch
Market participants will likely focus on how the introduction of DeFi insurance impacts XRP’s adoption and utility. Additionally, the reaction of key actors such as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and financial institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity could provide further indications. Observers should also monitor regulatory developments, including any actions from the U.S. SEC, which may influence market sentiment and the pricing of XRP’s all-time high potential by December 2026.
MACRO & FED
Business Standard
07 Oct 2026 · 12:30
Energy shock puts South Asia on inflation path: World Bank economist
South Asia’s growth has remained more resilient than expected despite the energy shock. How durable is this momentum? It is a broad-based upgrade. We had expected a slowdown because of the energy market disruptions …
South Asia’s growth has remained more resilient than expected despite the energy shock. How durable is this momentum?
It is a broad-based upgrade. We had expected a slowdown because of the energy market disruptions elsewhere in the world. What has happened instead is that growth has held up. We expect growth to stay at 6.8 per cent in 2026-27. It has been much more resilient than we had expected, and that’s the whole region, almost the whole region. It’s not just India.
To some extent, the growth momentum is very durable because domestic demand remains very robust and resilient. Across the region, governments have taken measures to buffer the impact of high energy prices. Private credit growth in several countries has also been very robust, holding up investment.
The question is whether the underlying assumption behind the policy action is right: Is the energy price increase temporary or permanent? That is our downside risk.
What could happen if energy prices remain elevated?
If refined petrol and refined energy product prices stay high, then within the next few months governments need to begin to unwind some of the policy measures that were meant to buffer a temporary shock. In the long run, they need to be unwound, and energy demand will have to be depressed.
Are there any upside risks to the growth outlook?
I think the upside risk is in the long term. In the short term, it is probably mostly downside risks. This resilience has been surprising, but the longer resilience gets tested by shocks, whether that’s El Niño, energy prices or some financial market disruption in the rest of the world, the bigger the downside risk.
But in the long term, that is where the upside risk is: artificial intelligence (AI) could really unleash productivity gains.
What would governments in South Asia need to do to capture these AI-related gains?
The most important thing is to create the right enabling environment through sufficiently fast broadband, large energy capacity, reliable internet, a workforce that is skilled not just technically in AI but in the foundational skills that allow people to work with AI, and a good business climate.
Firms need to be able to experiment with AI. There needs to be trial and error. Some firms need to expand, others need to contract, and there needs to be reallocation of workers and money.
The government’s role is to regulate, and regulation must be clear, predictable, and reliable to take uncertainty out of the system. Uncertainty really damages investment.
Can AI become a significant source of employment and wage growth in South Asia?
Previous general-purpose technologies have given the economy a boost in all dimensions, both in productivity and employment growth. The internet revolution took a long time to really permeate firms, but now everyone’s using it. Employment has risen dramatically since then.
One of the biggest drivers of wages is usually productivity. If you have productivity growth, usually on average, over time, you get wage growth as well.
There is also an interesting pivot already happening in labour markets. We had previously established that the number of jobs in the AI expert industry has gone down. But firms are increasingly hiring or posting job ads for workers with AI-augmented skills. So there is a pivot happening in labour markets.
How long could it take before the productivity and employment gains from AI become visible in South Asia? Could those gains materialise faster in India, given its relatively rapid AI adoption?
Hard to tell. These things take a long time. If you just look at historic evidence, it took decades. Now this may be much faster than previous instances, but it may still take a decade.
India is adopting at twice the rate of others. Individuals are adopting it much faster than the rest of South Asia, and firms are adopting it much faster than other Asian countries.
Are there any other major downside risks for the growth forecast for South Asia?
El Niño is a risk. We looked at past severe El Niños, and it is crop production that significantly falls. Not necessarily gross domestic product — that really depends on the region and the country — but crop production in every country significantly falls. Past El Niños also brought big flooding that doesn’t only affect agriculture; it affects cities as well.
There is also the risk of a global correction in AI-related activity. The whole world is currently benefiting from the surge in global AI-related activity. All of East Asia is part of the supply chain, but South Asia is not.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 12:30
Boost Run signs $525.6M cloud deal with Cohere, pushing total contract value past $2.6 billion
The five-year GPU infrastructure agreement with the AI company Cohere marks a significant revenue milestone for the Nvidia Preferred Cloud Partner. Boost Run, Inc. has locked in a five-year cloud services agreement with AI …
The five-year GPU infrastructure agreement with the AI company Cohere marks a significant revenue milestone for the Nvidia Preferred Cloud Partner.
Boost Run, Inc. has locked in a five-year cloud services agreement with AI company Cohere Inc. worth $525.6 million in total contract value, the company announced on October 6, 2026. The deal pushes Boost Run’s cumulative contracted revenue across all agreements past $2.6 billion.
Markets noticed. Shares of Boost Run (Nasdaq: BRUN) rose approximately 10 to 11 percent in pre-market trading following the announcement.
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What the deal actually involves
Boost Run will deliver dedicated GPU cloud computing infrastructure to Cohere using NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 systems. Initial infrastructure acceptance is expected to begin in early Q2 2027. The agreement also includes conditional terms tied to delivery timelines, with specific performance metrics required to be met by July 15, 2027.
Boost Run CEO Andrew Karos framed the deal as a demonstration of the company’s ability to translate its financing into contracted, ongoing revenue streams. The company is recognized as an NVIDIA Preferred Cloud Partner, meaning it builds to NVIDIA Reference Architecture standards.
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Why $2.6 billion in TCV is worth paying attention to
The company also has a prior lease agreement with 10X Infrastructure Partners that expanded its available capacity, giving it the physical GPU footprint to honor multi-year deals at this scale.
What to watch from here
The most immediate thing to monitor is whether Boost Run meets the July 15, 2027 delivery milestone embedded in the Cohere agreement.
CEO Karos referenced a diversified GPU fleet and customer base as a strategic priority.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 12:15
Stellar’s tokenized US T-bills add $96.2 million in a single week
Treasury tokens keep flowing onto Stellar as the network builds a real-world asset base measured in billions The market cap of tokenized US Treasury bills on Stellar climbed by $96.2 million over the past …
Treasury tokens keep flowing onto Stellar as the network builds a real-world asset base measured in billions
The market cap of tokenized US Treasury bills on Stellar climbed by $96.2 million over the past week.
The jump adds to a steady run of Treasury inflows on the network.
A week of Treasury inflows
A tokenized T-bill is a digital token that represents a claim on a short-term US government IOU, or on a fund holding those IOUs.
A separate RWA Activity report from the RWA Foundation and Token Terminal, covering the week ending October 5, 2026, logged its own sizable move.
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In that report, tokenized T-bills on Stellar added $81.2 million to their market cap. Total tokenized funds on the network grew by $90.9 million that week, with Treasuries doing most of the heavy lifting.
Ethereum’s tokenized T-bills grew by $93.2 million over the same period, edging out Stellar’s weekly gain.
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Issuer-level figures in the research reportedly credit J.P. Morgan with $81.4 million in T-bill growth. Franklin Templeton reportedly contributed $72.6 million.
From side project to a $3.47 billion base
The network’s market cap for these assets grew from an estimated $500 million in early 2025 to more than $3 billion by June 2026.
As of early October 2026, distributed real-world assets on Stellar stood at approximately $3.47 billion.
Franklin Templeton’s BENJI product has been central to the narrative. It launched on Stellar in April 2021, long before tokenization became a standard line in bank strategy decks.
What the inflows mean for the tokenization race
Ethereum still holds the overall lead in total Treasury token volumes, according to the research, and it outgrew Stellar in the October 5 reporting week.
Weekly market cap figures can swing as funds rebalance, redeem, or shift between chains, so a single strong week does not guarantee a trend line.
When a handful of large issuers account for much of the growth, a strategy change at one firm could noticeably dent a network’s numbers.