R3 Co-founder: Banks’ blockchain deployment has shifted from cost reduction to revenue generation, with fixed income and alternative assets set to emerge as new hotspots for tokenization.

Injective has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korean digital asset custodian BDACS, with plans to integrate the South Korean won stablecoin KRW1 into Injective’s tokenized asset market and designate it as the exclusive KRW settlement asset for real-world assets (RWA) on the platform. This will allow institutions to directly trade and settle tokenized assets using KRW, reducing reliance on U.S. dollar stablecoins. BDACS noted that KRW1 is fully backed by KRW reserves, with minting and redemption initially limited to approved institutional partners; specific implementation remains subject to regulatory approval. The collaboration comes as South Korea advances its regulatory framework for won stablecoins, with the government targeting completion of legislation related to the Digital Asset Basic Act by the end of 2026. Separately, industry data shows that as of June this year, South Korea’s five largest crypto exchanges have recorded net stablecoin outflows for 18 consecutive months. The global stablecoin market remains dominated by U.S. dollar stablecoins, which account for over 99% of total supply.

Intel announced that AMD and Intel have reached an agreement to adopt oneDNN as the default open-source library for x86 acceleration in PyTorch. The collaboration will simplify developers' AI development workflows on x86 CPUs and further optimize AI computing support for related platforms.

Coinbase is adding support for Axis Labs (AXIS). Users can now generate AXIS deposit addresses on coinbase.com, the Coinbase app, and Coinbase Exchange, in regions where trading for the asset is supported. AXIS deposits will not be available until the asset issuer unlocks transfers.

Mastercard announced the early access launch of its AI agent payment system, Agent Pay for Machines, and demonstrated live transactions at the Cloudflare Connect conference. The system allows AI agents to autonomously discover services, negotiate transaction terms, and complete payments, all bounded by pre-set human-defined budget caps. Built on the open x402 protocol, when an AI agent accesses a paid service and receives a "402 Payment Required" response, it generates a digitally signed payment token, which is validated by the service provider to grant service access. These tokens can be settled in batches, enabling AI agents to complete multiple transactions rapidly. For the demonstration, a marketing agent planned an ad campaign for a protein bar product, processing 9 payments to two separate merchants under a single budget—no individual account registrations or separate invoice management were required. Coinbase provides wallet services, Base handles on-chain settlement, and BVNK supports fiat or stablecoin payments and settlements via Mastercard’s Global Money Platform. Mastercard will also offer developers buyer and seller APIs, SDKs, and test environments, and has rolled out end-to-end pilots with partners including Cloudflare, AWS, and Coinbase.

Ethereum's staked ETH has risen to a record high of 43.8 million ETH, accounting for 35.9% of the total ETH supply. Meanwhile, both the staking yield rate and the number of validators have declined.

Glassnode noted in a publication that Bitcoin’s key fourth-quarter price level is currently holding steady. The firm previously pointed out in the "Charting Crypto" report, co-authored with Colin Basco and the Coinbase Institutional team, that BTC faces resistance in the $87,000 to $87,800 range. Since then, Bitcoin’s price has been blocked at this level and has continued to consolidate below it. Glassnode believes that if Bitcoin breaks out of its current consolidation range, significant market volatility may occur, but a major sell-off pressure zone remains around the $90,000 mark.