Ethereum Surges Above $4300 This Morning, with a 24-hour Gain of 6.88%

Crypto analyst Darkfost posted that despite Ethereum (ETH) recently pulling back from $2,775 to roughly $2,500, a nearly 10% drop, the notional value of Binance’s ETH futures open interest fell by about $600 million over the same period. However, when measured in ETH quantity, its open interest has rebounded to the level at the end of September, standing at around 2.46 million ETH. Between October 8 and 9, the market liquidated approximately $345 million worth of ETH long positions in a 24-hour window. Even so, Binance’s share of total ETH futures open interest across major centralized exchanges has climbed to nearly 49%, a new high since 2023. Darkfost noted that this means that despite ETH’s price correction and some leveraged positions being liquidated, the amount of ETH traders have deployed to Binance’s futures market has not decreased notably, further strengthening Binance’s dominance in the ETH derivatives market.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday accused Russia of violating the Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire announced by former U.S. President Donald Trump, saying Russian forces attacked a thermal power plant in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and urged the U.S. to take action to ensure Russia abides by the deal. Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine has not yet received the specific terms of the energy ceasefire, adding that he learned about Trump’s announcement of the bilateral ceasefire only through media reports. He said Russian forces have carried out more than 200 attacks on Ukraine’s power generation and transmission facilities over the past week, plus 17 attacks targeting oil and gas facilities, and noted that Ukrainian forces did not strike Russian refineries on Sunday night. European officials have taken a cautious stance on whether the ceasefire can be implemented. French President Emmanuel Macron said no signs of Russia complying with the energy ceasefire have been observed in the past 48 hours. EU foreign ministers on Monday approved adding nearly 1,600 new entries to the sanctions list targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex, with more than half related to the ballistic missile production chain. Separately, Reuters cited sources familiar with the matter as reporting that the U.S. had threatened to suspend intelligence sharing with Ukraine and halt weapons deliveries via relevant mechanisms to pressure Kyiv to stop attacking Russian energy facilities. Russia has not yet responded to the ceasefire arrangement.

Goldman Sachs has upgraded its allocation rating for stocks over the next three months to "overweight" and for bonds over the next 12 months to "overweight". The bank stated that improved valuations, resilient corporate earnings, and easing inflationary pressures will support market trends, with these favorable factors expected to persist through 2027. In terms of allocation, Goldman Sachs favors AI-related stocks and selectively focuses on high-dividend securities. However, the bank warned that rising bond yields and geopolitical tensions could still exacerbate market volatility.

Standard Chartered Dubai has launched custody services for Ripple’s USD stablecoin RLUSD for eligible institutional clients, supporting RLUSD issued on the XRP Ledger. The bank also plans to collaborate with Ripple and institutional trading platform LMAX Group, allowing clients to use RLUSD held with Standard Chartered as collateral for trades on LMAX’s platform, without transferring the stablecoin to the trading venue. Standard Chartered noted that the collateral arrangement has not yet gone live, as it still needs to complete document signing, testing, regulatory compliance, and internal approvals. This model separates asset custody from trade execution, enabling institutional clients to hold stablecoins with the bank while using them as trading collateral. In January this year, Ripple provided LMAX with $150 million in financing to integrate RLUSD into its institutional trading infrastructure. If the partnership is implemented, it will further expand RLUSD’s applications in institutional trading collateral scenarios. Additionally, Standard Chartered has been expanding its digital asset custody business, and last week announced plans to offer custody services for select cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets to institutional clients in Singapore.

According to Bloomberg, DeepSeek is set to lead the Series A funding round for robotics AI startup Winverse AI, which totals tens of millions of dollars. Upon deal closure, Winverse AI is projected to have a valuation of around $400 million, with other backers including Meituan’s Long-Z Investments also committed to participating. However, the transaction has not been finalized, and the funding valuation and investor roster remain subject to change. Winverse AI was founded in 2026 by Hu Han, a former top scientist at Tencent. Hu Han previously served as chief scientist of Tencent’s Vision-Language and Embodied Foundation Model team, and has also held roles at Microsoft Research Asia and Baidu. This investment will mark one of the largest startup investments since DeepSeek’s establishment, and signals the firm’s business expansion from foundation model training to real-world applications such as embodied intelligence and robotics. Bloomberg previously reported that DeepSeek is nearing the completion of a new funding round of at least 80 billion yuan (roughly $120 billion), with the funds primarily allocated to model training and data center construction.

HashKey Holdings (3887.HK) announced on October 12 that it has been selected for the "China Industry Pioneer 30" (Value Industry Benchmark 30) in the 2026 Barron's China Value List, becoming the only digital asset financial services company among the 30 selected enterprises this year. According to the introduction, the list is initiated by Barron's China, focusing on evaluating enterprises' capital efficiency, risk control, governance transparency and long-term fundamentals, aiming to select benchmark enterprises with industry influence across various vertical sectors. HashKey stated that this selection recognizes its compliance practices, business layout and global expansion in the digital asset financial services field. Going forward, the company will continue to enhance its licensed trading, on-chain services and asset management businesses, and promote traditional financial capital to enter the digital asset sector.