US Stock Futures Dive Further

1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz said that since its founding in 2019, the decentralized exchange aggregator has processed a cumulative token swap volume of around $809 billion, though the company has yet to turn a profit. Kunz noted that the current DeFi market size remains insufficient to support platforms generating large-scale revenue by capturing value, so rather than chasing short-term profits, the firm will focus on continuing to build its infrastructure. Kunz revealed that 1inch is addressing the problem of DeFi liquidity fragmentation via its newly launched shared liquidity protocol Aqua. A study commissioned by 1inch from Dune shows that in the first half of 2026, roughly 85% of concentrated liquidity on major decentralized exchanges was underutilized. Of the $1.84 billion in liquidity tracked, approximately $1.6 billion was not fully utilized, leading to an estimated $150 million in annual trading fees going uncaptured. Aqua allows liquidity providers to avoid depositing assets into liquidity pools, instead supporting multiple trading pairs via their wallet balances, with trade settlements handled by compliance-audited market makers. On its launch day, the protocol saw around $25 million in capital deployed, with incentives including 10 million 1INCH tokens and 500,000 USDC. To date, 1inch has partnered with major platforms including Coinbase, while Robinhood has also named it a partner of Robinhood Chain. Kunz stated that 1inch prioritizes building infrastructure first, and will pursue commercialization opportunities after traditional finance and larger-scale capital enter the space.

Beating AI News Brief: Alibaba’s Agent Platform Qoder Unveils New Built-in Model Sonus Sonus focuses on long-duration autonomous tasks, complex knowledge work, and programming, with a key enhancement in Computer Use capabilities. Working with the new Qoder Desktop, it can directly operate computers and professional software to complete tasks such as coding, financial modeling, research, and spreadsheets. Sonus is now accessible on Qoder, IDE, CLI, JetBrains plugins, QoderWake, and Cloud Agents, with a billing rate of 3.2x. Qoder previously launched another built-in model, Cantus, which also carries a 3.2x billing multiple and targets long autonomous tasks; this time, Sonus elevates computer operation as its core capability.

Beating AI News Flash: Anthropic has released an economic study simulating how AI could impact the U.S. economy by 2030. The study first sets parameters including how many jobs AI can perform and the rate of enterprise adoption, then calculates corresponding GDP, wages, and unemployment rates. In the most aggressive scenario, AI would affect approximately 30% of all economic tasks. U.S. GDP would be 32.4% higher than it would be without AI, but the unemployment rate for knowledge workers would rise to 17.9%, while the overall unemployment rate would reach 11.9%. Wages for knowledge workers would also drop by 11.5%. Changes in income distribution are also significant: the share of labor income would fall from 60% to 45.2%, while capital income would rise to 54.8%. Although the economy would expand by nearly one-third, total labor income would only increase by 0.5%, whereas capital income would surge by 81.4%. However, under a set of less aggressive assumptions, the results would be far more moderate. Typical responses from U.S. public surveys align more closely with the middle scenario, projecting GDP to be around 10% higher by 2030 than it would be without AI, with an overall unemployment rate of approximately 5%.

Bank of Japan (BOJ) Policy Board member Masu Kazuyuki said Thursday that Japan is no longer in deflation, and the central bank must resolve its negative real interest rate issue as soon as possible while further raising policy rates. He warned that if underlying inflation significantly exceeds 2%, the BOJ may need to accelerate its pace of rate hikes. Markets are widely expecting the BOJ to raise rates by 25 basis points to 1.25% at next week’s policy meeting, with some traders even betting the central bank will signal another hike in October. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously said he is "quite familiar" with the BOJ’s next moves, further boosting market expectations for a Japanese rate hike. Meanwhile, the yen has rebounded from a July low near 164 to around 153.5, hitting a six-month high. Stefan Angrick, Moody’s Asia-Pacific Chief Economist, noted that Masu Kazuyuki’s hawkish comments are another sign the BOJ is moving toward rate hikes, and expects the central bank may lift its rate hike frequency to once every three months going forward. In the bond market, Japan’s 10-year government bond yield has topped 3%, hitting a roughly 30-year high, as markets accelerate a reassessment of the asset pricing impacts from Japan’s monetary policy normalization.

QCP released its September 10 macro theme report, noting the yen has recently rallied sharply from near 160 to around 154, driven primarily by the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy normalization, carry trade unwinding, and a weaker U.S. dollar. Japan’s August foreign exchange reserves fell by $87.8 billion, with securities holdings declining by the same amount—likely tied to yen intervention funding arrangements, leaving the market on guard for further intervention risks. On inflation, QCP attributes this spring’s PCE inflation surge mainly to energy prices. From February to May, non-durable goods contributed roughly 0.85 percentage points to core PCE year-over-year growth, while energy alone accounted for about 0.89 percentage points; by July, energy’s contribution had dropped to 0.48 percentage points. Still, core PCE remains at 3.3%, meaning falling energy prices have not fully eased the Federal Reserve’s concerns over broad inflationary pressures. The labor market retains resilience: U.S. August non-farm payrolls added 162,000 jobs, far outpacing market expectations, with a combined downward revision of 55,000 jobs for June and July; the three-month average monthly job gain stands at around 71,000. QCP holds that the labor market has not shown clear signs of stalling, supporting the "soft landing" narrative, though household financing costs stay elevated. Meanwhile, shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz leave the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at just ~286.6 million barrels, near historical lows, meaning inflation risks from energy supply shocks remain persistent. Brent crude has recently rebounded above $100 per barrel. QCP poses a key question: If employment continues to hold resilient and inflation is driven mainly by energy, can the Federal Reserve keep policy rates on hold for the rest of the year? Should core inflation stay stubborn, expectations of policy tightening could heat up again.

According to market data from BIT (bit.com), crypto-related stocks in pre-market trading on US equities are broadly lower, with: MSTR down 0.66%, CRCL down 1.19%, COIN down 0.46%, BMNR down 0.41%, SBET down 0.12%, HOOD down 0.62%, and PURR down 1.58%.