Federal Reserve's Harker: May Temporarily Hold Rates Steady

Coinbase submitted an application for authorization as a virtual asset service provider to the Central Bank of Brazil on Wednesday. A spokesperson said the review of the application is not expected to require suspending existing services. Under the new regulations, existing service providers that submit applications before the deadline may continue operating during the review period; those that fail to apply by the deadline must cease operations within 30 days after the deadline. Coinbase also reiterated its plan to bring its Everything Exchange strategy to Brazil, potentially expanding into foreign exchange, payments and other businesses, though separate regulatory authorization will be required.

US initial jobless claims for the week ending October 24 came in at 194,000, against the consensus estimate of 199,000, while the prior week’s figure was revised from 194,000 to 195,000.

Google launched its Google Multi-Party Compute (MPC) custody platform at the New York Digital Asset Seminar, targeting banks and financial institutions. The platform splits private keys into shards stored across separate environments, preventing a full private key from being held in a single location. Prior to transaction signing, it can verify spending limits, whitelisted addresses, multi-party authorization and other items in line with institutional policies. The service is currently in private preview, with a commercial launch planned for early 2027. Google says multiple large financial institutions are already testing it. Alphabet has used this technology to secure digital assets on Solana and Ethereum, without disclosing specific holdings or the names of testing institutions. Google cited Chainalysis data showing that private key leaks accounted for approximately 43.8% of total crypto assets stolen in 2024. The current product is not a post-quantum solution, but its architecture can incorporate post-quantum cryptography in the future.

Prediction market platform Kalshi co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour said the company has closed a $1 billion Series G funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Wellington Management, valuing the firm at $40 billion—nearly double the valuation of rival Polymarket’s latest financing. Participants in the round include Baillie Gifford, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Coatue Management, and Andreessen Horowitz. Kalshi’s prior round in May carried a $22 billion valuation, widely regarded as its last private financing round before an initial public offering (IPO). Mansour confirmed that IPO-related discussions have taken place but declined to comment on timing or whether an IPO will proceed, adding that the funds will be used to advance its product roadmap for retail and institutional clients.

Beating AI News Flash: AI pharmaceutical company Formation Bio announced a $600 million drug development fund, with plans to acquire or in-license 10 to 15 drug candidate projects over the next 3 to 5 years. The company has already secured licenses for two such projects. Unlike developing new drugs from scratch, Formation Bio selects drugs developed by other pharma companies that have not yet completed clinical validation, focusing on Phase I and II clinical programs. It will establish a separate company for each drug, provide funding, and share its clinical R&D team and AI system to help screen indications, design trials, and advance clinical validation. After obtaining key clinical data, it will partner with large pharma companies for development or commercialization. Founder Ben Liu noted that AI is accelerating drug discovery, but clinical trials remain time-consuming and capital-intensive. Over the past decade, the number of discovered drug candidates has doubled, while the annual number of approved new drugs has not seen significant growth. Many pharma companies, even with promising drugs, lack sufficient funds and manpower to advance them. Formation Bio raised $372 million in equity financing in 2024, with investors taking company equity at the time. This time, it has set up an independent fund, allowing external investors to directly fund drug projects, while Formation Bio is responsible for development and co-investment. If a drug achieves clinical progress, returns will be generated through licensing or sale. This structure eliminates the need for the company to rely on new equity rounds for each drug acquisition, enabling it to allocate more capital to clinical trials.

According to Bybit’s official announcement, Bybit’s 2026 World Series of Trading (WSOT) global trading competition opened registration on October 29, with a total prize pool of up to 10 million USDT. The event will run until December 2. This year’s competition adds two new tracks—Global Assets and AI—expanding the competition scope from cryptocurrencies to include stocks, gold, crude oil, indices, and AI strategy trading. Participants can create or join a team, or take part in individual contests, and unlock rewards via pre-event tasks. For team rewards: the first 100 eligible team captains will each receive 100 USDT; the first 20 TradFi team captains will each get 500 USDT; and the first 200 eligible team captains will each receive 50 USDT. Per competition rules, there is no minimum account asset requirement for registration, but participants must hold at least 100 USDT in their Unified Trading Account (UTA) for a continuous five minutes to qualify for rankings on the profit/loss amount and profit/loss percentage leaderboards. The 2025 WSOT attracted 520,451 participants and set the Guinness World Record for the most participants in an online trading competition within 24 hours. Details and entry rules for the 2026 event are available on Bybit’s official page.