Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin ETF MSBT has total holdings worth over $400 million.

，中国人民银行行长潘功胜在参加 2026 金融街论坛年会开幕式时表示，全球人工智能快速发展，对生产力、投资、就业、收入分配、金融稳定等产生深刻影响。从人民银行的角度，将密切跟踪研判人工智能发展的宏观影响，做好金融支持人工智能产业发展工作，稳妥推进人工智能在金融领域的应用。

Middle East crude oil exports continue to recover, but surging transportation and insurance costs are sharply squeezing the profits of Asian refiners. Data from HiLo Analytics shows that Asian refiners have an average gross profit of around $40 per barrel. After deducting roughly $33 in freight costs, net profit shrinks to just about $7 per barrel, with freight eating up approximately 82% of gross profit. In contrast, this figure is only around 16% for refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Northwestern Europe. On the supply side, data from Kpler indicates that Middle East crude oil exports rebounded to 15.4 million barrels per day in September, roughly 90% of pre-war levels. Asia’s crude oil imports in October are projected to hit 23.5 million barrels per day, the highest level since February this year. However, Iran’s attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz continue to drive up freight and insurance costs, with transportation costs on some routes reaching several times pre-war levels. To attract Asian buyers, Middle East oil producers have been forced to slash crude oil prices significantly, with some discounts reaching up to $30 per barrel. But this strategy of trading lower prices for higher volumes still struggles to offset the pressure from logistics costs. If refiners further cut operating rates or switch to other crude oil sources, the recovery in Middle East exports could be hampered again.

Beating AI News, a crypto and blockchain news outlet, reports that renowned developer DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) introduced his self-developed Linux desktop system Omarchy at the GOSIM conference in Shenzhen on October 17, and later attended a developer gathering with over 500 registrants. The next day, he praised Huawei’s MateBook Fold foldable device as futuristic, but in the evening criticized Chinese software as overly crude, naming WeChat, Alipay, and HarmonyOS. DHH stated that while he greatly admires China’s AI models and hardware, its software design remains confusing to him. He elaborated that the issues center on interface aesthetics, user workflows, and detail refinement, citing problems like insufficient white space, inconsistent margins, jarring page transitions, rough animations, and disorganized information architecture. DHH noted that large Silicon Valley apps still hold a clear lead in these areas. Some netizens pushed back, arguing that WeChat and Alipay integrate a wide range of lifestyle services including payments and transportation, reducing the need for users to switch between apps, so complex interfaces are unavoidable. DHH disagreed, asserting that rich functionality and refined design can coexist, and there is no excuse for super apps to be so crude. Others in the comment section pointed out that the complexity of domestic apps is tied to commercialization: splash-screen shake-to-open ads, loan portals, and short video recommendations are increasingly crowding out core functional interfaces. One developer analogized this to adding loan features to X and stuffing TikTok into Stripe.

According to market data, South Korea Bull 3X ETF (KORUB) rose nearly 18% in 24 hours, with its market capitalization reaching $22.65 million and 24-hour trading volume hitting $53.11 million. KORUB is a tokenized bStock that grants users economic exposure to the South Korea Bull 3X ETF; each token is fully backed by the corresponding underlying stocks held by the issuer at a U.S.-regulated broker-dealer. South Korea’s stock market has recently experienced a sharp slump. On October 16, the South Korean Ministry of Finance issued a response, stating it will closely monitor whether stock market volatility spreads to the bond, foreign exchange, and money markets. The government and relevant agencies will enhance stock market monitoring and strictly address any acts that disrupt market order. The statement noted that strong economic growth expectations, current account surpluses, and solid corporate earnings confirm that South Korea’s stock market fundamentals remain sound.

According to TradingBeats' monitoring, the ETH short position at address 0xb15b…dbae saw another partial liquidation in the afternoon, with around 1,416 ETH forcibly liquidated, a liquidation turnover of approximately $3.46 million, and a corresponding realized spread loss of about $112,000. Earlier that day, the address had already undergone three partial liquidations, totaling roughly 6,747 ETH liquidated, with a total liquidation turnover of $16.32 million. As of press time, the address still holds around 5,663 ETH short positions, with a position value of approximately $13.76 million, an average entry price of $2,365.86, and an unrealized loss of roughly $362,000. The current position uses 25x full leverage, with a liquidation price of about $2,452.74.

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood recently stated that memory chips have entered a buy zone, adding that the rapid rise in memory prices and the impact of falling electronics sales have already been partially priced into stocks. In contrast, Michael Hartnett, Chief Investment Strategist at Bank of America Global Research, pointed out that the end of market sell signals does not mark the arrival of a buying opportunity, as two key prerequisites for a return to risk assets remain unmet. The surge in memory chip prices is mainly driven by AI servers crowding out production capacity, with original manufacturers shifting more output to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server DDR5, resulting in tightened supply for consumer-grade memory. According to TrendForce data, DRAM contract prices are projected to rise 90%–95% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026 and 58%–63% in Q2 2026, while NAND Flash contract prices will increase 55%–60% and 70%–75% respectively in the same periods. Soaring memory costs have also begun to impact the consumer electronics supply chain. Citing IDC data, global smartphone shipments in Q3 2026 fell 22% year-on-year to 255.3 million units. Memory original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) benefit from the price hikes, while end-device brands face the dual challenges of rising costs and weak sales. Key areas to monitor going forward include whether DRAM/NAND contract price gains continue to narrow, whether declines in smartphone and PC shipments improve, whether memory’s share of end-device material costs has peaked, and whether memory OEMs will reallocate production capacity to consumer-grade products.