Absa becomes the first bank on the African continent to offer digital asset custody services.

S&P Global has announced the completion of its acquisition of on-chain security firm OpenZeppelin. The deal was first unveiled on September 17, 2026, with specific financial terms undisclosed. S&P Global stated that the acquisition will complement its digital asset risk assessment business, helping traditional financial institutions and on-chain finance companies evaluate smart contract and underlying technology risks. Founded in 2015, OpenZeppelin offers smart contract security audits, secure development services, and open-source contract libraries. Its security team has completed over 900 audit projects, uncovering more than 10,000 vulnerabilities before product launches; its open-source smart contract library OpenZeppelin Contracts has supported cumulative value transfers exceeding $38 trillion, covering multiple major stablecoins and tokenized funds. Post-acquisition, OpenZeppelin will operate as an independent business unit, with founder Demian Brener remaining in his role and reporting to Yann Le Pallec, President of S&P Global Ratings. The firm confirmed that OpenZeppelin Contracts will continue to be open-source, free, and publicly maintained. S&P Global believes that as more financial assets and capital market activities shift on-chain, smart contract and underlying technology risk assessment will grow increasingly important. The acquisition aims to combine OpenZeppelin’s on-chain security technology with S&P Global’s institutional client network and global distribution capabilities to expand its digital asset risk assessment services.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor said in a post that the company repurchased $205 million worth of STRC last week, and currently holds 848,517 bitcoins and $5.1 billion in U.S. dollar assets. STRC is a perpetual preferred stock issued by Strategy. The repurchase and latest asset data reflect that the company is adjusting its capital structure while maintaining a large-scale bitcoin position. STRC was down 0.02% in pre-market trading, trading at $99.35.

According to an official announcement, Bitget has launched a new Standard+ trading mode for its CFD products, further enriching users’ diversified trading options. Under this mode, no fixed trading fees are charged—only standard overnight fees apply, and an integrated spread mechanism is used. All trading instruments carry a .p suffix (e.g., XAUUSD.p), covering all product types. The underlying configurations such as tiered leverage and contract size remain consistent with the ECN mode. Users can switch to this mode for trading only when their account has no open positions or pending orders. Web users can access the switching pop-up via "Account Preferences" > "Account Mode"; App users need to update their Bitget App to version 2.95.0 or higher, then tap "Account Mode" on the trading page to switch. Currently, Bitget’s CFD platform supports four account modes: Standard+, ECN, 0-Fee, and Pro, enabling users to choose flexibly based on their trading frequency and strategy requirements.

IOSG Ventures has announced an investment in Fun, a global financial infrastructure provider targeting the internet market. Fun offers fiat transactions, payment routing, and cross-chain settlement services for prediction markets, on-chain perpetual contract platforms, and DeFi applications, enabling users to transfer funds across various fiat currencies, digital assets, and blockchain networks. According to IOSG, Polymarket’s fiat transactions are all processed via Fun, and platforms including Lighter and Aave also utilize its services. Currently, Fun’s annualized transaction volume stands at $100 billion, with operations spanning over 150 countries and regions and supporting more than 50 payment methods. IOSG noted that as prediction markets, on-chain trading platforms, and tokenized asset applications expand, the smooth flow of funds in and out will directly affect user conversion rates and platform growth. Fun aims to reduce the complexity for platforms of independently integrating fiat onramps, wallets, stablecoins, and multiple blockchains through a unified fund access layer. The company was founded by Alex Fine in 2022.

Key pre-market news for US stocks on Monday is as follows: 1. Strategy did not increase its Bitcoin holdings over the past week. 2. Strive purchased 6,182 Bitcoin at an average price of approximately $82,732 (including fees and charges) over the past week. 3. Bitmine increased its Ethereum holdings by 10,452 ETH last week. 4. Per South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo: SK Hynix plans to distribute a special dividend totaling 16 trillion won (equivalent to about $120 billion). 5. SK Hynix is considering multiple shareholder return policies and has not made any decisions yet. 6. Samsung and SK Hynix will mass-produce and deliver HBM4 to Nvidia in Q2 next year. 7. Meta Platforms has launched a $22 billion Class A common stock offering and a 250 million share preferred stock depositary share offering. 8. Market sources: Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom are interested in purchasing up to $50 billion worth of Meta Platforms stock. 9. SpaceX and Apollo signed a $40 billion GPU financing agreement. 10. Fox Business, citing sources, reports that Anthropic is expected to file its S-1 registration document at 21:00 Beijing time (09:00 ET) tonight.

Strategy didn't buy any $BTC last week, while #Strive bought 6,182 $BTC ($511.4M) at an average price of $82,732.