Wall Street buys "insurance" for AI debt: AI-related firms raised $466 billion this year, credit default swap (CDS) costs for Meta and Nvidia hit all-time highs.

As SpaceX and Tesla prepare to release their third-quarter financial results, Wall Street is stepping up efforts to evaluate the valuation and financing arrangements for a potential merger of the two companies. However, Musk and his related firms have not officially announced any merger plans yet. Barclays analysts predict the two sides may announce a deal before the end of this year. If the merger is all-stock, Musk would hold around 37% of the combined company’s equity and approximately 56% of voting rights. RBC analysts put forward a hypothetical transaction price of $480 per share; according to their calculations, original SpaceX shareholders would hold roughly 52% of the combined company’s shares. All related analyses do not represent actual transaction arrangements. AI business is seen as the main rationale for potential integration. SpaceX absorbed Musk’s AI firm xAI in February this year, and has built out its presence in rocket launches, Starlink satellite internet, and AI computing infrastructure. Tesla, meanwhile, focuses on autonomous driving, robotaxis, and humanoid robots, and the two companies are also jointly advancing the Terafab chip manufacturing project. That said, SpaceX’s AI investments have led to massive financing needs. Reports indicate the company generated $7.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter, with a net loss of $541 million, and AI capital expenditures reached $15.8 billion. Morgan Stanley analysts expect SpaceX may need to issue around $80 billion in debt next year. At the same time, Starlink expansion and spectrum acquisitions will also increase capital outlays. This week’s earnings reports will serve as a key window for the market to assess SpaceX’s financing pressure, Starlink’s profitability, and the feasibility of a potential integration of the two companies.

Beating AI News Flash: AI computing firm Tenstorrent has closed a $1.5 billion Series E funding round, with participation from Tether Capital and other investors, valuing the company at $6.2 billion. Led by chip architect Jim Keller, Tenstorrent develops high-performance AI processors, servers and software, aiming to provide more open AI computing infrastructure for developers and enterprises. The company plans to use the funds to scale production and deployment of its Galaxy server system, advance AI and CPU technology R&D, and expand global commercial operations. Its technology already serves clients including Samsung and LG, with applications spanning large language models, video generation and other fields. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated that AI should not rely on a small number of tech companies for computing power, noting that open computing infrastructure will help expand AI accessibility. This investment also continues Tether’s footprint in the AI sector; its open-source AI platform QVAC is dedicated to enabling AI to run directly on user devices, reducing reliance on centralized cloud services.

Coinbase has released a report titled "The Always-On Dollar", which notes that in Q3 2026, the average hourly transaction volume of organic stablecoin transfers exceeded $400 million. For the 12-month period ending July 31, approximately 73% of screened stablecoin transfer volume occurred outside U.S. banking hours, highlighting the demand for always-on stablecoin payments. The report shows that adjusted quarterly stablecoin transfer volume has quadrupled since early 2023, reaching $891 billion in Q3 2026. At the current growth rate, this figure is expected to hit $1.5 trillion by the end of 2027. The report also points out that sending $200 via USDC on the Base network saves around 86% in fees compared to traditional payment channels. Additionally, if 80% of global international transactions shift to stablecoin payment networks, global annual GDP could rise by an extra $155 billion. Looking ahead, the report positions stablecoins as a critical payment infrastructure for the AI agent economy. McKinsey forecasts that by 2030, AI agents will drive $3 trillion to $5 trillion in global B2C transactions, and stablecoins can support small transactions including paying task fees between agents, purchasing API calls, and accessing data and computing power on demand.

Crypto market analyst Darkfost noted that the Bitcoin market is currently in a phase of low investor confidence and hesitation among both buyers and sellers. The current profit supply ratio has dropped from its earlier brief break above 60% to 53.8%, approaching the 50% break-even line. This metric excludes Bitcoin held for more than 10 years to better reflect the current state of the circulating market. Such a scenario is not uncommon in the late stages of a bear market. After the market goes through sell-offs and capitulation phases, and the profit supply ratio falls below 40%, it typically takes time for the metric to climb back above 50%. The recovery of investor confidence and the formation of new demand will take time; the market still needs to wait for investor behavior to gradually stabilize to drive a sustained improvement in profit conditions.

Reuters survey shows that all 100 surveyed economists expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December 2026, with a likely pause in October. Among them, 94 economists forecast the federal funds rate will rise to 4.00%–4.25% by the end of 2026. By contrast, only 29 economists held that expectation in the September survey, which had 76 respondents.

Real World Assets (RWA) platform tx has launched USTX, a U.S. dollar stablecoin, for use on its wallet and upcoming tokenized stock trading marketplace. Users can mint USTX using USDC or redeem USTX back to USDC, with support for deposits from 8 blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, and Base. USTX is issued, its reserves managed, and minting and redemption services provided by fintech platform Brale. tx co-founder and chief legal officer Ashley Ebersole stated that USTX is not a USDC-backed wrapped token nor a synthetic representation of USDC, but instead features an independent 1:1 reserve structure. According to tx, each USTX is backed by $1 worth of assets including cash, bank deposits, government money market funds, and short-term U.S. Treasuries. tx added that eligible USTX users can earn rewards via its wallet incentive program. However, the U.S. GENIUS Act prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying interest or returns to users solely for holding, using, or retaining payment stablecoins. Ebersole said tx’s overall incentive program was designed under legal guidance to ensure compliance with relevant regulatory requirements.