Ethereum Institutional has completed its ecosystem funding round, led by BitMine, SharpLink, and Ethereum co-founders.

Insight: Beating AI News Flash – After Trump rebranded Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence, he unexpectedly sparked a boom in Slovenia’s national domain .si. On September 22, Trump announced at the UN General Assembly that the U.S. would rename AI to "Super Intelligence (SI)". Coincidentally, .si is Slovenia’s country-code domain, leading to an immediate surge in registrations. In August, .si saw only around 3,500 new registrations; after Trump’s announcement, average daily new registrations hit roughly 3,700 – a single day’s volume exceeded the entire month of August. As of September 29, total .si domain registrations surpassed 220,000. Domain speculators were clearly ahead of the curve here. Netcraft found that between September 19, when Trump first discussed the AI rebrand, and September 22, when he formally proposed "SI" at the UN, roughly 52% of the .si domains registered via Dynadot were quickly listed for resale on secondary markets. In the 25 hours following Trump’s announcement, new .si registrations even outpaced .ai – Anguilla’s country-code domain that has been popularized by the AI industry for years. The previous AI boom boosted demand for .ai; now Trump’s rebranding of AI to SI has delivered a new wave of domain business to Slovenia.

On Wednesday, a serious incident unfolded on Dubai Air Flight FZ1073, which was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The passenger jet first sent the general emergency code "7700", then the "7500" code for unlawful interference or potential hijacking, before plummeting sharply over Saudi Arabia. Israel initially treated the flight as a suspected hijacking and scrambled fighter jets. The plane ultimately landed safely at Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia. After landing, Dubai Air confirmed that an "incident" occurred during Flight FZ1073, and all passengers had landed safely and completed identity checks. Meanwhile, Israel gradually ruled out the possibility of an external hijacking or security attack. Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the two pilots had an argument in the cockpit that escalated into a physical altercation. CNN cited sources saying a "violent" conflict broke out between the pair. Reuters quoted an unnamed Israeli official as stating that after the two pilots engaged in a physical fight, the crew sent emergency signals, though it remains unclear whether either pilot intentionally triggered the relevant codes. Israel’s Channel 13 also reported that the two pilots involved have been taken into custody by Saudi authorities for investigation. Preliminary assessments indicate one is Russian or of Russian origin, while the other is Ukrainian or of Ukrainian origin.

Reuters cited confidential IPO documents from Anthropic, revealing that the company’s computing power agreement with SpaceX’s xAI involves potential spending of up to $84.5 billion by 2029 for accessing Nvidia chip-based computing resources. Most of the agreement can be canceled with 90 days’ prior notice, and the related amounts are not locked-in revenue. Earlier, SpaceX’s Starship completed its first Earth orbital flight during the 14th test flight, successfully deploying 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, though the mission ended earlier than planned. According to TradingBeats monitoring, the marked price of the SPCX perpetual contract on Hyperliquid stands at $149.50, up roughly 2.01% in 24 hours, with trading volume of approximately $52.65 million over the same period, and current open interest nominal value is around $118 million.

Iranian government spokesperson: Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi has informed Iran’s cabinet that he has received a U.S. proposal. Earlier reports said Araghchi and his team held talks with Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday evening. Araghchi received the U.S.’s feedback on the seven-day plan and will discuss the matter in Tehran on Wednesday. The document under negotiation outlines a seven-day initiative aimed at building mutual trust and returning to an enhanced version of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the U.S. and Iran in June. The main point of contention between the two sides lies in the sequence of implementing measures under the seven-day plan, rather than the specific content included in the plan.

Standard Chartered has initiated coverage of Ethena’s token ENA, projecting it will appreciate to $2 by the end of 2028. The bank’s report notes that Ethena sits at the intersection of perpetual contracts, tokenization, and stablecoins, with ENA set to benefit from growth in these sectors and its newly launched buyback program. It adds that Ethena is currently the fourth-largest stablecoin issuer globally, trailing only Tether, Circle, and Sky, and the second-largest interest-bearing stablecoin issuer after Sky. Its USDe stablecoin holds the record for reaching a $10 billion market cap the fastest.

Beating AI News Flash: ByteDance’s Doubao is developing a personal AI assistant product named “Xiaodou” and plans to launch a standalone app. “Xiaodou” was not a last-minute initiative launched after Muse’s viral rise; the name was finalized this summer. Doubao kicked off internal beta testing for its personal assistant project codenamed “Spell” back in April this year, initially led by Doubao’s mobile assistant team. Recently, the project has started further integration with Doubao’s existing products, and is now jointly managed by the Spell project team and Doubao’s dialogue team. ByteDance is accelerating the push to bring its existing personal assistant projects to official product status. The main Doubao app will remain the general AI entry point, “Doubao Work” is positioned for office use, while “Xiaodou” targets consumer-grade personal assistants.