💸 Musk Giving Tops $445 Million in Midterm Election Push for GOP

With a fresh infusion of cash to his super political action committee in the first two weeks of October, Elon Musk has now given more than $445 million in the current election cycle and become one of the biggest-ever contributors to such groups.

The world’s richest person put $77 million into America PAC, Federal Election Commission filings show, in an effort to elect Republicans in November midterm contests.

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🤑 OpenZeppelin Brings Confidential Balances and Transfers to Stellar

As part of an ongoing partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation, OpenZeppelin is delivering the next major addition to its Stellar library: Confidential Token contracts.

💸 OpenZeppelin's contracts already run as core infrastructure on Stellar with more than $1.7B in total value locked across the network.

👉 Bringing confidential token primitives to the network extends that foundation into institutional and commercial applications. It gives regulated activity something it has largely gone without: the ability to transact without putting every balance and amount in public view.

👉 The contracts are audited by OpenZeppelin and ready to be deployed on Stellar mainnet. They implement the ERC-7984 confidential token interface, aligning this work with the shared standard the Confidential Token Association is driving across ecosystems, with Stellar and OpenZeppelin among its members.

OpenZeppelin Contracts for Stellar v0.8 is live, introducing the Confidential Token. 🚀

#Stellar

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⚔️ The Pentagon is quietly building an elite new tech sabotage agency

The Pentagon has quietly created a secretive agency, the Technology Support Office (TSO), to develop cyberattacks, supply-chain sabotage and deception tactics aimed at slowing adversaries’ military technology programs, particularly those of China.

Led by Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, the agency could oversee more than $1.5 billion in classified contracts.

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⚡️🤑 Ascend and M1X Global Complete First Institutional Repo on Stellar Using USDM1 Secured Sovereign Bond

Ascend Markets, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of PSG Digital Labs, Inc. (“Ascend”), and M1X Global today announced the successful completion of the first institutional repurchase agreement (repo) on the Stellar network. 🎉

❗️The transaction utilized USDM1, a US dollar-denominated sovereign bond issued natively onchain and secured 1:1 by short-duration US Treasuries, and marks a milestone in bringing institutional secured financing onto the Stellar network, expanding the network’s established payments and transfer infrastructure into programmable repo markets.

🗓 Executed through Ascend’s institutional credit facility using the Stellar network’s smart contracts, the repo included 72 consecutive programmatic hourly rolls between October 16 and 19, including overnight and weekend financing without manual intervention.

⚪️The transaction was priced at SOFR plus 10 basis points, equivalent to an annualized financing rate of 3.98%, with interest accruing daily, a 2% collateral haircut and a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 98%.

⚪️The repo concluded with repayment and return of USDM1 collateral, with all aspects of the closing process completing successfully. The trade is a demonstration of the capital efficiency of tokenized sovereign collateral and Ascend’s support for the asset class.

The first completed institutional repo on the Stellar network establishes an operational foundation for additional institutional repo and secured financing activity. 🚀

#Stellar

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🤖 SpaceX Works With Apollo, Nvidia on New Grok Partnership Program

SpaceX is working with Apollo Global Management, Nvidia Corp. and dozens of other firms on a new partnership program to deploy and improve its Grok AI systems, part of a bid to bolster business adoption of its AI offerings.

More than 130 companies gained early access to the Super Intelligence Partner Network, including tech firms like Snowflake Inc. and Databricks Inc. as well as consultancies such as Bain & Co. and Booz Allen Hamilton. Galatiq, a firm that provides forward-deployed engineers to help bring Grok’s technology to companies, is also part of the program.

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🇸🇬🇲🇾🇹🇭Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand central banks expand cross-border stablecoin initiative involving Ripple, Visa and Mastercard

The central banks of Malaysia and Thailand are joining Singapore's BLOOM (Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency) initiative to work on cross-border payments involving stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

Singapore's Monetary Authority (MAS) confirmed Friday that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand had joined as policymaker members. Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, and the World Bank Group are also among the initiative's participants, alongside Circle, Coinbase, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, and Stripe.

BLOOM began in October last year, with MAS bringing together banks and technology firms to test payments using tokenized bank money and regulated stablecoins. Singapore has separately tested a wholesale central bank digital currency.

#Stellar

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🛸 White House Releases New UFO Files on Black Triangle Sightings

The White House unveiled 28 new declassified UFO documents, focusing on recent sightings of silent, seamless black triangular craft near a western U.S. military site. Witnesses described the objects hovering for 20 seconds before accelerating to about 1,800 mph with no exhaust, engines, or heat variations — details that don't match known U.S. technology. 👀

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🏦 US banks scramble to restrict AI agent activity

Major U.S. banks are detecting unauthorized third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts, with some agents attempting to take actions that appear to be independent of user instructions. Banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and others are racing to contain agent risks.

These are generally situations when an agent or AI assistant accesses a human's account with the user's permission and login credentials. Even if permitted by the user, this goes against the guidelines of most banks requiring that humans log in to their own accounts.

One bank executive said they struggle to differentiate between agents, as well as whether an agent has been authorized by a user or has gone rogue and gained access to a customer account.

Banks are investing in preventing worst-case scenarios, but they are also preparing in case they do happen, including with "day after" scenario planning that would allow them to quickly secure or restore customer access.

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💊 Alnylam says Huntington’s drug shows promise in early study

An experimental Huntington’s drug from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals showed promise in a small study, suggesting it can partially silence the mutant gene that drives the devastating neurological disorder.

Patients who received the highest dose of the drug, called brezosiran, saw the levels of mutant huntingtin in their spinal fluid fall by 60% or 64% on average, depending on the type of assay used. The company described the safety profile as “encouraging” and said it planned to start a placebo-controlled study next year to prove the drug can actually slow the disease.

Huntington’s disease is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the HTT gene. Typically manifesting between ages 30 and 50, it causes widespread neuronal loss, motor dysfunction, cognitive decline, and psychiatric symptoms.

Currently, no approved disease-modifying therapies can slow or halt its progression.

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🇨🇳 China Sets 2030 Target for National Blockchain Network in New Five-Year Informatization Plan

China has codified in an official document its goal of largely completing the construction of a national blockchain network by 2030. The move reflects a push to elevate blockchain — long designated a national priority sector — to the level of core infrastructure.

The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the digital policy body under the Chinese Communist Party, released the "15th Five-Year Plan for National Informatization," which explicitly sets the goal of largely completing the national blockchain network by 2030.

The plan is notable for allocating blockchain applications by region. In the Yangtze River Delta region, blockchain use will be expanded in trade and finance, while in southwestern areas such as Chengdu and Chongqing it will be deployed on a large scale in manufacturing and agriculture.

The plan also sets out tasks to strengthen blockchain technical standards and broaden applications in data circulation and trading.

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🤖 Microsoft Teams to get AI-powered, context-aware phishing detection

Microsoft says Teams will begin using AI-powered phishing detection in early November 2026 to detect malicious behavior in messages. The rollout is part of a targeted release phase expected to end by mid-November, with the new security feature likely reaching general availability worldwide between early and mid-December.

"The capability analyzes conversation context to identify suspicious behavior that may not include traditional indicators such as malicious links or files," —  the company said in a Microsoft 365 Message Center update.

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🪙 Heatbit Introduces Bitwater: A Water Heater Element That Mines Bitcoin

It screws into the electric tank you already have. A regular element heats water through a resistance wire. Bitwater does it with 20 Bitcoin mining chips instead. Same heat, same electricity, plus bitcoin.

First deliveries are expected in Q1 2027.

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🏠🤑 CryptEscrow and Ripple Announce Strategic Partnership to Advance Crypto-Powered Real Estate Settlement

CryptEscrow, a leading provider of compliant cryptocurrency settlement solutions for real estate transactions, announced a strategic partnership with Ripple to help advance the use of digital assets and blockchain-based payment infrastructure across the real estate market.

The collaboration is designed to make it easier to move value between digital assets and traditional financial systems during major real estate transactions, particularly where buyers hold significant wealth in cryptocurrency. 🤝

❗️For CryptEscrow, the partnership represents another step toward making crypto-funded real estate purchases operate more smoothly within the existing closing system.

Rather than requiring sellers, developers, title companies, or other parties to handle cryptocurrency directly, CryptEscrow provides a regulated conversion and settlement layer that connects digital assets with conventional real estate transactions.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Ripple as we continue building the infrastructure needed to connect crypto wealth with the real estate market,” — said CryptEscrow founder and CEO John Ioannou, Jr.

#Stellar

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🇺🇸 Trump says he asked Google CEO to rename Atlantic Ocean on Maps

I called Google, and I sent him a picture of the Atlantic Ocean. It's true.

I said, "Sundar, I want to change the name of the Atlantic Ocean to American Ocean, and while you are at it, I want to change the name of the Strait of Hormuz to Trump Strait."

Sundar said, "Sir, I can't do it anymore. I've had it. I cannot do oceans, sir. I am not doing the damn Atlantic Ocean, okay?"

I said, "Sundar, I'm only kidding." 😁

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🦮 Palmer Luckey unveils start-up to breed ‘genetically enhanced’ dogs for military

A startup backed by Colossal Biosciences wants to change how the U.S. military sources its working dogs. Warhound has emerged from stealth with $200 million in funding and a $1.2 billion valuation. Its plan involves genetically engineering dogs for dangerous missions, including explosives detection and specialized search operations.

Warhound aims to combine genetic engineering with protective equipment and digital systems designed to support dogs and their human handlers. The company enters a specialized market with a domestic supply problem. Warhound says more than 80% of working dogs used by the U.S. military come from Europe. It also claims fewer than half of those dogs qualify for service.

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🤑 $200M in USDT0 volume on Stellar in under 10 weeks.

Made to move 📈

#Stellar

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🇰🇷 South Korea to amend forex law to regulate stablecoins as payment instruments

South Korea’s government and the Bank of Korea plan to revise the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act this year to regulate stablecoins as payment instruments, according to local news outlet Digital Asset.

The Bank of Korea said it is coordinating with the government on measures to regulate cross-border transactions in digital assets.

The central bank stated that it intends to jointly prepare a bill with the government within this year that amends the forex law to regulate stablecoins as a means of payment, alongside a monitoring framework for virtual assets.

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🤑 🤑 Ripple and Stellar are prime candidates to help achieve the G20’s 2027 cross-border payment goals

The G20 has set forth ambitious goals for elevating cross-border payments, including a target that by the close of 2027, at least 75% of these transactions should occur within an hour, and retail payment costs should dwindle to 1% or less.

❗️Amidst these high expectations, XRP emerges as a critical player, catalyzing these essential metrics by facilitating swift transactions and minimizing costs.

🏆 Observers highlight the XRP Ledger and Stellar networks as prime candidates to achieve these G20 objectives.

Their capacity for rapid and cost-efficient transactions places them in the spotlight as financial institutions strive to align with the benchmarks set by global economic leaders. 🚀

#Stellar

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💻 OpenAI says it will no longer train its AI models on the live internet, citing “significant risks”

OpenAI said that it will train its models using cached copies and simulated versions of the internet instead of the live web because the models are too unpredictable to be trusted with live internet access.

“Based on the current state of alignment research, monitoring systems, and the security of internet infrastructure, we believe the responsible approach is to conduct frontier model training with no internet access,” — the company said in a blog post.

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🤖 UK Vows £100 Million for Biosecurity Lab With OpenAI, Anthropic

The UK announced £100 million ($134 million) for a AI Biosecurity Lab which will be supported by OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, part of a raft of measures designed to improve the government’s ability to understand and tackle the risks posed by the technology.

The lab will use AI to detect and monitor biological threats, with the funding coming alongside up to £200 million in AI model credits from OpenAI and Anthropic, according to a government statement. The lab will also work in partnership with Google DeepMind and life sciences company Basecamp Research, while the government announced a separate £65 million for developing countermeasures for pathogens.

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🤑 Franklin Templeton adds $150 million in fund shares to XRP Ledger, all in one wallet

Franklin Templeton added $150 million worth of shares in its tokenized money market fund to the XRP Ledger, with every new share went to one wallet which now holds the fund’s entire token balance on the network.

👉 That wallet and Franklin’s issuing account authorize the identical eight signing addresses. Any two can jointly approve a transaction.

👉 The wallet holds nearly 193 million sgBENJI shares, up from about 48 million before Thursday. At the $1.039 share price recorded in the transactions, that is worth about $200 million.

Each token represents a share of the Singapore-domiciled Franklin OnChain U.S. Dollar Short-Term Money Market Fund. It invests in short-term dollar debt and money-market instruments, including government paper, commercial paper and bank deposits. Returns accumulate in the share price.

#Stellar

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