CRYPTO
The Root
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Why LeBron James’ $15 Million Polymarket Partnership Is Under Fire
LeBron James just inked a new deal with Polymarket that dwarfs his contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. But his partnership with the crypto-based prediction market is drawing scrutiny, as many argue that when an …
LeBron James just inked a new deal with Polymarket that dwarfs his contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. But his partnership with the crypto-based prediction market is drawing scrutiny, as many argue that when an NBA superstar of James’ stature enters the spe… LeBron James just inked a new deal with Polymarket that dwarfs his contract with the Philadelphia 76ers. But his partnership with the crypto-based prediction market is drawing scrutiny, as many argue…
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Anthropic excludes charitable costs from profit as IPO nears $2T valuation
Anthropic has announced that it will exclude costs associated with charitable matching from its adjusted operating profit figures. This decision comes amidst concerns over shareholder dilution due to significant stock issuance used to fund …
Anthropic has announced that it will exclude costs associated with charitable matching from its adjusted operating profit figures. This decision comes amidst concerns over shareholder dilution due to significant stock issuance used to fund employee charitable donations. The company reported over $660 million in noncash expenses from these stock grants between October 2025 and March 2026. While this move may present a more favorable profit outlook, the dilution effect remains a concern as Anthropic approaches its initial public offering (IPO). Market participants are closely watching how these financial adjustments could impact Anthropic’s valuation, with its last private financing placing its value at $965 billion, and IPO materials suggesting a potential valuation above $2 trillion.
Key Takeaways
Anthropic’s decision to exclude charitable matching costs from adjusted operating profit suggests a focus on presenting a stronger financial position.
Market pricing implies potential concerns over shareholder dilution due to significant stock issuance for charitable purposes.
The impending IPO, with a possible valuation exceeding $2 trillion, remains a focal point for market participants gauging the company’s financial strategy.
What to Watch
Market participants will be monitoring any further financial disclosures from Anthropic that could affect its IPO valuation. Key developments, such as underwriter guidance or strategic investor moves, could influence market expectations. Additionally, regulatory responses and potential adjustments to the IPO timeline will be critical in shaping market sentiment. The implications of Anthropic’s financial adjustments on its market cap at IPO close will be a significant indicator of investor confidence.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
US crypto regulation hinges on bipartisan legislation after CLARITY Act rejection
The U.S. crypto regulatory landscape faces uncertainty as experts stress the need for bipartisan legislation to provide stability and protect innovation after the next election. The rejection of the CLARITY Act in the Senate …
The U.S. crypto regulatory landscape faces uncertainty as experts stress the need for bipartisan legislation to provide stability and protect innovation after the next election. The rejection of the CLARITY Act in the Senate has left the future of U.S. crypto regulation dependent on congressional action. Existing agency rules can be reversed by future administrations, which underscores the importance of legislative stability to guide the market. This context has increased focus on the potential impact of regulatory developments on the crypto market, particularly Bitcoin’s future price prospects.
Advertisement
Recent activity in the Bitcoin futures market suggests that participants are considering the implications of U.S. regulatory stability. The potential for a bipartisan legislative framework could influence market sentiment and price expectations. While the market for Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by the end of 2026 remains low at just 1% YES, the broader context of regulatory developments could alter market dynamics.
The market appears to be reacting to both the current regulatory uncertainty and potential future changes. Bitcoin’s price predictions have shown modest movement, with some sub-markets reflecting slight increases in the likelihood of reaching higher price thresholds. This activity may indicate that market participants are weighing the potential for a more stable regulatory environment in the U.S. as a factor in Bitcoin’s future valuation.
Key Takeaways
The U.S. crypto market’s future stability appears tied to the passage of bipartisan legislation, as current agency rules remain vulnerable to administrative changes.
Market activity suggests that participants are factoring in regulatory outcomes as a significant influence on Bitcoin’s future price.
Current pricing implies a low probability of Bitcoin reaching $200,000 by the end of 2026, though market sentiment could shift with legislative developments.
What to Watch
The focus will be on the U.S. Congress and upcoming elections, as these could shape the trajectory of crypto regulation. Watch for any movements toward bipartisan agreement on comprehensive crypto legislation, which would be consistent with increased stability and potentially supportive of higher Bitcoin prices. Additionally, any significant announcements regarding crypto regulation from key government figures or institutions may influence market sentiment and price expectations.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Edge Markets wants to stop prediction market liquidations that happen while banks sleep
The New York fintech's EDGE Pro platform aims to let institutions pre-authorize capital so margin calls get covered around the clock Prediction markets never close. Banks, despite decades of hints, still do. Edge Markets, …
The New York fintech's EDGE Pro platform aims to let institutions pre-authorize capital so margin calls get covered around the clock
Prediction markets never close. Banks, despite decades of hints, still do.
Edge Markets, a New York-based fintech founded by Seni Thomas, is building a system to close that gap. The aim is to let institutions automatically cover margin calls on prediction markets, even after traditional banking hours end.
A margin call at 2 a.m. on a Sunday does not wait for a wire desk to open on Monday.
How EDGE Pro is supposed to work
The product is called EDGE Pro. It is designed to let financial institutions and market makers pre-authorize capital deployment to prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
When a margin call hits, the system is built to route funds automatically to meet it. The stated goal is fewer avoidable liquidations, especially during the hours when banks are offline.
The plumbing underneath is a payment rail called EDGE Connect. It integrates with real-time payment networks like FedNow, which allows instant settlement rather than the multi-day shuffle of legacy transfers.
Advertisement
EDGE Pro also handles post-execution settlement across regulated venues. Under certain conditions, it allows real-time deposits of up to $10 million per day.
For institutional participants, real-time funding can reach up to $1 million per day or higher, with no deposit fees. The company says the setup is meant to stay within compliance standards set by the CFTC.
AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. Email address Subscribe free We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
Edge Markets raised $29.2 million in a Series A round on June 8, 2026, with investors including CoinFund. That brings total funding to approximately $46–51 million. The new capital is earmarked for developing EDGE Pro, and the company is expected to roll out its features later in 2026.
Thomas framed the problem bluntly.
“Clearing houses should not have to tie up hundreds of millions of dollars simply because a margin call happens outside banking hours.”
The banking hours problem
A margin call is a demand for more collateral when a leveraged position moves against you. If the collateral does not arrive in time, the position can be liquidated, meaning it gets forcibly closed, often at a bad price.
The friction gets worse during high-volume stretches, such as the launch of new perpetual contracts.
There is also a fragmentation issue. Capital tends to sit siloed across multiple venues, each with its own funding process. EDGE Connect is pitched as a way to link activity across those separate platforms. Partnerships with River Markets, ParlayX and ProphetX are expected to expand its real-time funding reach.
What this means for traders, venues and investors
Edge Markets is positioning itself as connective tissue between always-on trading and slower regulated finance. Using FedNow while staying inside CFTC compliance standards is an attempt to borrow the speed of one world without the regulatory headaches of the other.
Pre-authorized, automated funding means capital can move without a human signing off in the moment, so the quality of the rules and controls matters a great deal.
Daily limits also matter. Caps of $1 million or higher for institutions, and up to $10 million under certain conditions, may cover many situations, but large books in a fast market could test them.
The features are not expected to arrive until later in 2026. What to watch next: the actual launch date, which venues go live with EDGE Pro first, and whether those funding limits scale as institutional demand grows.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Robinhood Chain memecoin trading hit $443M a day, then fell 96%
Memecoins paired with tokenized stocks briefly took over Robinhood's new layer-2 network before trading volume evaporated Robinhood built a blockchain to bring Wall Street onchain. Within weeks, traders were using it to pair cat-themed …
Memecoins paired with tokenized stocks briefly took over Robinhood's new layer-2 network before trading volume evaporated
Robinhood built a blockchain to bring Wall Street onchain. Within weeks, traders were using it to pair cat-themed memecoins with tokenized shares of real companies.
Daily trading volume in memecoin-stock token pairs on Robinhood Chain climbed to $443 million in early September, according to CryptoQuant. Trading activity has since dropped 96%, which tells you how long the party lasted.
From zero to $443 million and back again
Robinhood Chain went live in July. At launch, volume in memecoin-stock token pairs was essentially nonexistent.
By early September, that figure had reached $443 million per day, CryptoQuant data shows.
The hybrid pairs briefly outpaced the product Robinhood actually set out to sell. On September 2, memecoin-stock token pairs recorded $217 million in volume. Direct stock token trading came in at $127 million that same day.
Advertisement
A token called CASHCAT hit a market capitalization of $250 million on August 27.
Then the volume disappeared. Activity in these pairs has fallen 96% from its peak.
The news moving money, markets, and the world—before your day starts. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. Email address Subscribe free We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
The decline coincided with reports of coordinated rug-pull activity on the chain.
What Robinhood Chain was built to do
Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2 network that runs on the Arbitrum Orbit stack. Mainnet launched on July 1, 2026.
The network’s stated purpose is tokenized real-world assets, with stock tokens front and center. These tokens offer 1:1 price exposure to US equities and ETFs.
Stock tokens are issued as debt securities and are not available to US persons.
The chain also has no native token. Gas fees are paid in ETH.
Activity looked strong, but durability is the question
Total value locked on the chain has stayed near $1 billion even as trading numbers dropped.
During high-fee periods, revenue frequently fell 80% to 97% from its peaks.
What this means for Robinhood and the tokenization push
On September 2, direct stock token trading reached $127 million, which shows genuine appetite for onchain equity exposure among the non-US users who can access it.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Imperial reportedly raises $1.5 million seed round for Solana perps platform
The Solana trading terminal routes orders across several perpetual futures venues and is rolling out a low-fee liquidity product called Armada Imperial, a Solana-based trading terminal for perpetual futures, raised $1.5 million in a …
The Solana trading terminal routes orders across several perpetual futures venues and is rolling out a low-fee liquidity product called Armada
Imperial, a Solana-based trading terminal for perpetual futures, raised $1.5 million in a seed round to expand its platform, according to a report from SolanaFloor.
The funding picture is murkier than a tidy press release would suggest. Public statements tied to the project have stressed backing from B&J Studios rather than outside venture capital, and no investor list or deal documentation has surfaced to confirm a raise.
That matters because figures between $1.5 million and $2 million have circulated around the project. Without paperwork, the round remains a reported number rather than a confirmed one.
What Imperial actually does
Imperial operates as both a trading terminal and an order router. The router sends orders to venues including Phoenix, FlashTrade, GMTrade, and Jupiter Perps.
On top of routing, the platform offers features aimed at active traders. These include advanced order types, detailed profit and loss tracking, and a community points program that rewards trading activity.
Armada and the 1 basis point fee
The more notable product update is Armada, which Imperial describes as a PropAMM. It is designed to provide low-cost liquidity while keeping every transaction on the Solana blockchain.
Advertisement
Armada is actively rolling out with taker fees of 1 basis point. A basis point is one hundredth of a percent, so a taker pays 0.01% of the trade’s value.
The fully onchain design is also a deliberate choice. Plenty of trading products move parts of their operations off the blockchain to gain speed. Armada keeps the activity on Solana, which preserves transparency for anyone inspecting the flow.
AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. Email address Subscribe free We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
The people behind the terminal
Imperial is led by Jordan Prince, who serves as CEO. Prince previously worked at Citadel, the trading firm, and contributed to the Metaplex standard, a widely used framework for digital assets on Solana.
Hunter Simmons is the project’s CTO. Simmons previously worked on Teleport, a project that attracted $15 million in funding.
As of May 2026, Imperial is backed by B&J Studios, with no confirmed external seed funding on the record. The project has publicly signaled a conscious decision to delay outside fundraising.
Why the funding question is worth watching
If the reported $1.5 million round is confirmed, it would mark a shift from that stance. If it is not, Imperial continues as a rare example of a Solana perps project growing without a headline raise.
Either way, the reported figure is modest by crypto standards. It is a fraction of the $15 million that Simmons’ previous project, Teleport, drew.
What this means for Solana perps traders
Armada’s 1 basis point taker fee adds pressure. A low-fee liquidity source sitting inside a routing product could pull volume toward Imperial’s own pool if execution holds up.
The risk is on the execution side. Low fees only matter if liquidity is deep enough to fill orders without significant slippage, which is the gap between expected and actual price.
There is also a structural question for the venues Imperial routes to. A router that also operates its own liquidity has an obvious incentive to favor that liquidity. How Imperial handles that tension will shape whether other venues view it as a partner or a competitor.
The things to watch are straightforward. Whether the reported seed round gets confirmed with named investors, how quickly Armada completes its rollout, and whether the points program translates into sustained trading volume rather than a short burst of farming activity.
CRYPTO
Biztoc.com
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Only Five Coins Have Gained Over the Past Year: What Do They Have in Common While Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP Have Plummeted?
The post Only Five Coins Have Gained Over the Past Year: What Do They Have in Common While Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP Have Plummeted? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St.. Among the largest cryptocurrencies …
The post Only Five Coins Have Gained Over the Past Year: What Do They Have in Common While Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP Have Plummeted? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..
Among the largest cryptocurrencies by market value, Zcash (CRYPTO:ZEC), Hyperliquid (CRYPTO:… The post Only Five Coins Have Gained Over the Past Year: What Do They Have in Common While Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP Have Plummeted? appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..Among the largest cryptocurrencie…
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Bloomberg Terminal integrates 24/7 Hyperliquid prices for enhanced market data
Bloomberg has integrated 24/7 Hyperliquid perpetual prices for stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies into its Terminal platform. This development, reported by @DefiantNews, allows users to access real-time market-data monitoring for over 100 markets, enhancing the …
Bloomberg has integrated 24/7 Hyperliquid perpetual prices for stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies into its Terminal platform. This development, reported by @DefiantNews, allows users to access real-time market-data monitoring for over 100 markets, enhancing the Terminal’s existing financial data offerings. The integration does not permit execution or asset custody through the Terminal but places Hyperliquid’s decentralized derivatives alongside traditional financial references like Bitcoin, Nvidia, and the S&P 500. This move is expected to increase visibility and confidence in Hyperliquid’s market presence.
Key Takeaways
Bloomberg’s integration of Hyperliquid prices appears consistent with increased market visibility for the decentralized protocol.
Market pricing suggests participants view this as supportive of a potential increase in Hyperliquid’s valuation.
The introduction of round-the-clock pricing could indicate enhanced interest and confidence in Hyperliquid’s financial products.
What to Watch
Markets will likely reflect how this integration impacts Hyperliquid’s visibility and valuation in the coming months. Key indicators could include any major partnerships or increased institutional interest in Hyperliquid. Observers should watch for any changes in market confidence reflected in the Polymarket odds, particularly as the December 31, 2026, deadline approaches for Hyperliquid to reach $100.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Aptos unveils MonoMove, claiming up to 55x faster smart contract execution
The Move VM redesign posts big gains on replayed DecibelTrade transactions, but mainnet is not planned until 2027 and still needs governance approval Aptos has introduced MonoMove, a new execution engine it says can …
The Move VM redesign posts big gains on replayed DecibelTrade transactions, but mainnet is not planned until 2027 and still needs governance approval
Aptos has introduced MonoMove, a new execution engine it says can run smart contracts up to 55 times faster for onchain markets.
Blockchains usually market speed through transactions-per-second figures. MonoMove targets a quieter bottleneck: how fast the virtual machine actually processes the code inside each transaction.
What MonoMove actually changes
MonoMove is a complete redesign of the Move virtual machine (VM) and the execution stack around it. Aptos is building a new one rather than tuning the old one.
The redesign has two goals. The first is better single-thread performance, meaning how fast one processor core gets through a job. The second is parallelism, meaning how many jobs can run side by side without stepping on each other.
Two technical choices drive the design. MonoMove uses monomorphized micro-ops and a register-based interpreter.
Monomorphization means generating specialized versions of code ahead of time. The engine then avoids figuring out data types on the fly while a transaction runs. A register-based interpreter works with values held in named slots instead of constantly pushing and popping them from a stack. Both approaches aim to cut wasted work from every instruction.
MonoMove has already been integrated into Aptos’s block executor, the component that processes transactions in each block. Development is moving through numerous GitHub pull requests over the course of 2026.
The benchmark numbers
The headline figures come from internal benchmarks. Aptos replayed real mainnet transactions from DecibelTrade and compared MonoMove against the previous VM.
Advertisement
The results, by transaction type:
Collateral withdrawals: up to 55x faster
Vault requests: up to 40x faster
Perpetual market requests: up to 38x faster
Order placements: up to 22x faster
End-to-end benchmarks showed throughput gains of 3-8x across workloads. Order-book matching improved approximately 7x. Liquidity-pool swaps improved 5-7x. Lending markets were also part of the tested workloads.
The gap between 55x and 3-8x is worth understanding. Execution is only one stage of processing a transaction.
AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. Email address Subscribe free We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
A 3-8x throughput improvement also compares favorably with the roughly 2x gains Aptos got in 2025 from Loader V2, an earlier performance upgrade.
The road to mainnet
MonoMove is not live for users yet, and the timeline runs past this year.
The development plan moves in stages. It starts with sequential execution, where transactions run one after another. It then builds toward advanced parallel support.
Several features still have to be built along the way. These include native function ports, reentrancy checks, and gas instrumentation.
Reentrancy checks guard against a classic exploit in which a contract gets called back into before it finishes its first job. Gas instrumentation is the metering system that measures how much computation a transaction uses, so users pay for what they consume.
Aptos is targeting completion of the full feature set by the end of 2026. A mainnet rollout is planned for 2027, contingent on governance approval.
To make sure the new engine behaves exactly like the old one, Aptos has set out plans for differential testing and formal verification against the legacy AptosVM. Differential testing feeds identical inputs to both engines and flags any mismatch. Formal verification uses mathematical proofs to confirm the code does what it claims.
The redesign is also meant to stay within Move’s resource-oriented safety model while adding runtime checks. Move treats digital assets as resources that cannot be copied or accidentally destroyed.
What this means for Aptos and onchain trading
The benchmark choice says a lot about where Aptos is aiming. Collateral withdrawals, vault requests, perpetual market orders, and order placements are the core plumbing of onchain derivatives and trading venues.
Several risks deserve attention. The 55x figure is an upper bound from internal tests on one application’s replayed transactions, not an independent audit. Production conditions could look different once the full feature set, including gas metering and reentrancy protection, adds its own overhead.
Feature completeness by the end of 2026 is a target, not a guarantee.
Watchers have a few concrete milestones to track. One is the pace of MonoMove pull requests through 2026. Another is whether parallel execution support lands on schedule. A third is the results of differential testing against the legacy AptosVM. The final checkpoint is the governance proposal that would bring MonoMove to mainnet in 2027.
CRYPTO
Crypto Briefing
07 Oct 2026 · 10:45
Nvidia’s valuation lead over Apple stretches toward $1 trillion
The AI chipmaker now sits nearly a trillion dollars clear of the iPhone maker in the race for the world's most valuable company Nvidia is now worth so much more than Apple that the …
The AI chipmaker now sits nearly a trillion dollars clear of the iPhone maker in the race for the world's most valuable company
Nvidia is now worth so much more than Apple that the gap alone would rank among the largest companies on the planet. A widely circulated post on X put the difference at $1 trillion.
Market data as of October 6, 2026 shows Nvidia at approximately $5.786 trillion and Apple at $4.889 trillion. That works out to a gap of about $897 billion.
How the numbers stack up
Nvidia holds the title of the world’s most valuable company. The engine behind it is artificial intelligence. Nvidia’s chips power the data centers that train and run AI models, and demand for that hardware has been relentless.
That demand shows up in the revenue line. Nvidia reported more than $96 billion in revenue in a recent quarter, representing growth of more than 100% year over year.
Advertisement
Nvidia’s stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of around 15-17 times.
Apple’s stock was up 22% year to date in 2026, lifted by demand for iPhones and its services business.
AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. Email address Subscribe free We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.
A rivalry with plot twists
Nvidia first overtook Apple in mid-2025. A few months later, in October 2025, it became the first company ever to reach a $5 trillion market cap.
In July 2026, Apple briefly reclaimed the crown, reaching a market cap close to $4.95 trillion versus Nvidia’s $4.76 trillion. Nvidia then retook first place and has since pulled ahead by a wide margin.
Nvidia’s market capitalization sat below $20 billion in 2015. Apple has reached the $1 trillion, $2 trillion and $3 trillion marks in market value.
What this means for investors
The July 2026 flip showed that investor preference for Apple’s steadier profile can matter, at least temporarily.
That relatively modest forward P/E of around 15-17 times suggests the market is not pricing in endless hypergrowth. It also means the stock’s performance depends heavily on earnings estimates proving accurate, so any slowdown in AI spending could ripple through quickly.