Arthur Hayes: Flop Labs Yellow Paper Now Live

Flop Labs has officially unveiled an updated draft of the FLOP token economics, revised in response to community feedback. The project team stressed that the token has no venture capital (VC) allocations and no presale—all tokens must be obtained exclusively through network contributions. Core metrics and total supply model: Total supply in Year 10 is projected to reach 18.1 billion (18.1bn) tokens. The long-term terminal inflation rate remains at 0.5% per year. A fixed halving mechanism is implemented, with a permanent tail inflation mechanism retained after each halving to continuously incentivize network participants. Year 10 token supply breakdown: - Miners: 8.8bn tokens, making up 48.6% of the total, the largest allocation, reflecting the network’s Proof of Useful Inference (PoUI) orientation. - Airdrop: 4.4bn tokens (24.3% of total), broken down as: Miners (1.2bn, 6.6%), Validators (1.2bn, 6.6%), Agents (1.2bn, 6.6%), Reserve/Incentives (0.8bn, 4.4%). - Team + Foundation: 2.0bn tokens (10.8% of total). - Validators: 1.2bn tokens (6.5% of total). - Brokers/Agents: 1.2bn tokens (6.5% of total). - Staking rewards: 0.6bn tokens (3.2% of total).

Singapore Exchange (SGX) has received authorization from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) under Regulation 48.10, allowing U.S. institutional investors to trade its Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual futures. KC Lam, head of crypto derivatives at SGX, stated that the move connects U.S. traditional financial institutions with Asian liquidity pools, marking another milestone for crypto derivatives’ integration into the regulated traditional financial system. SGX launched Bitcoin (BTP) and Ethereum (ETP) perpetual futures in November 2025. As of August this year, their cumulative trading volume reached $5.8 billion, with around 400,000 lots, an average daily trading volume of roughly 1,300 lots, and a nominal value of $19 million. Bitcoin accounts for 66% of total open interest and 83% of average daily trading volume. SGX noted that the onboarding and access process for U.S. clients typically takes 2 to 4 weeks, and it expects to start serving U.S. customers in the next 1 to 2 months. Unlike crypto-native exchanges, SGX adopts traditional margin call and additional collateral mechanisms, with clearing members serving as an intermediate risk buffer, and does not accept stablecoins as collateral. SGX’s next plans include launching fixed-term futures and options for Bitcoin and Ethereum, and gradually expanding to other mainstream crypto assets.

Beating AI Express News: OpenAI’s Astra Math Breakthrough Faces New Controversy Mathematician Andreas Thom recently published a paper questioning that OpenAI may have incorporated content from his research discussions with mathematician Gábor Kun on the Gromov Soficity Conjecture during Astra’s training, after which Astra solved a highly related problem. The Gromov Soficity Conjecture is a long-unresolved key problem in group theory, and Thom has been studying it for 20 years. When OpenAI announced Astra’s “Top 10 Math Breakthroughs” in August this year, the third entry was the construction of a non-sofic group. OpenAI previously claimed the achievement was completed by its internal version of Astra, but after facing doubts from the mathematics community, it revised its statement to admit the proof relies on recent mathematical work including research by Kun and Thom. No evidence has yet proven that OpenAI actually used the relevant private discussions to train Astra, but Thom’s accusation has once again brought to the forefront issues such as the source of AI training data, ownership of unpublished research results, and whether “AI discoveries” are built on human unpublicized achievements. If the relevant accusations are ultimately confirmed, the incident will no longer be just an academic authorship dispute, but may evolve into a major controversy involving AI company data usage, research ethics, and intellectual property rights.

According to Xinhua News Agency, at the regular press conference held by China’s Ministry of Commerce on the 10th, ministry spokesperson Huang Ling stated in response to relevant questions that the economic and trade teams of China and the US are earnestly implementing the consensus reached during the Beijing meeting between the two heads of state, and are currently negotiating the framework arrangement for reciprocal tariff reductions of 30 billion US dollars, striving to put it into practice as soon as possible.

Apple (AAPL.O) Unveils First Foldable iPhone Goldman Sachs notes that the device’s pricing strategy and product design both exceed expectations, with potential to unlock the mass market and deliver significant benefits to the supply chain. The investment bank maintains its shipment forecast for the foldable iPhone: 14 million units in the base case for 2026, and 35 million units in the optimistic scenario. The iPhone Duo features a 7.6-inch internal display when unfolded, the largest ever for an iPhone; when folded, it uses a 5.4-inch external screen with an area equivalent to 90% of the iPhone 18 Pro’s. Both screens support ProMotion, Always-On Display, and up to 3000 nits of outdoor brightness. The device adopts a dual-battery architecture, supporting up to 44 hours of video playback when using the external screen. The iPhone Duo is available in Star White and Night Sky color options, with storage variants of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. It starts at $1999 in the U.S., with pre-orders opening on October 16 and official launch on October 23, rolling out first in over 70 countries and regions including China. Chinese domestic prices for the new iPhone series: iPhone 18 Pro starts at RMB 9999, iPhone 18 Pro Max at RMB 10999, and iPhone Duo at RMB 15999.

Beating AI News Flash: Hangzhou has launched the "Citywide Coding Plan" to subsidize Zhipu AI’s GLM Coding Plan, targeting Hangzhou-based workers, local college students, and enterprises in Shangcheng District. For individuals, quarterly cards receive a 44% total subsidy, while annual cards get a 51% subsidy—equivalent to a 4.9 discount on annual cards. For example, the Pro version’s annual card, originally priced at 6,456 yuan, costs 3,163.44 yuan after subsidy; the Lite version drops from 1,416 yuan to 693.84 yuan. Each person is eligible for only one subsidy, choosing either a quarterly or annual card, and subsidies will be available until the total fund is exhausted. Workers need to submit Hangzhou social security certificates, while students must provide Hangzhou college enrollment records. Enterprise subsidies are more generous, but only for Shangcheng District-based enterprises. Team version annual cards get a 55% total subsidy, with a maximum subsidy of 1 million yuan per enterprise in principle; enterprises that have already purchased team packages can also apply for subsidies for new seats. Unlike regular vendor promotions, the official explicitly states the funding comes from "government subsidies, enterprise concessions, and market participation". This move marks a shift as local governments start subsidizing AI coding tools as developer productivity infrastructure.