Oracle's Q1 results beat expectations, climbing more than 5% in after-hours trading.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released its latest risk report, stating that major prediction market platforms including Polymarket and Kalshi currently lack the required authorization to offer event contracts to EU users under normal circumstances. ESMA noted that the regulatory nature of event contracts depends on the specific product, which may be classified as financial instruments, crypto assets subject to the MiCA framework, or fall under gambling regulations of EU member states. If categorized as financial instruments, they typically qualify as derivatives and may be subject to EU retail restrictions on binary options. ESMA also questioned the current EU region restrictions imposed by Polymarket and Kalshi, pointing out that the two platforms only restrict access to some member states, and it remains unclear why all EU countries have not been included in the restricted list, while there is also a risk of VPNs being used to bypass geographic restrictions. In July this year, France ordered internet service providers to block Polymarket. In addition, ESMA warned that the AI boom could become a new risk transmission channel for the crypto market. If AI investment returns fall short of expectations or there is a sell-off in tech stocks, large investors may sell highly liquid risky assets including crypto assets to raise cash. ESMA data shows that Bitcoin fell 35% in the first half of 2026, with outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs exceeding $5.5 billion over the same period. ESMA has previously clarified that if event contracts are classified as financial instruments, their distribution in the EU requires an investment firm license and may be subject to retail bans on binary options.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently proposed reforms to rules for registered transfer agents, aiming to explicitly allow electronic databases—including blockchain—as official records of securities ownership. Currently, tokenized securities often have both on-chain token ledgers and off-chain official shareholder registers; the need to continuously reconcile these two systems increases operational costs and legal risks. If the new rules are approved, blockchain is expected to serve as the primary record for securities, eliminating the need for tokenized securities to maintain duplicate off-chain ownership records. SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that the reforms aim to align transfer agent rules with advancements in electronic record-keeping and blockchain technology. However, this does not mean tokenized securities will become fully permissionless assets. Issuers and transfer agents must still comply with regulatory requirements such as investor identity verification, transfer restrictions, succession protocols, and shareholder notifications; blockchain will primarily function as a legally recognized ownership record infrastructure. The SEC previously noted that, provided they meet federal securities laws’ requirements for record-keeping, reporting, and audits, registered transfer agents may use distributed ledgers as official shareholder registers without maintaining additional off-chain "digital twin" records. The rule proposal is open for public comment for 60 days. If finalized, blockchain will further evolve from a "technical shell" for tokenized securities to a core component of U.S. securities market infrastructure, removing key legal and operational barriers to the full on-chain migration of traditional assets like stocks and funds.

On September 10, the Trump administration announced it would issue a one-time $500 "refund" to nearly 1 million enrollees in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), with disbursements scheduled for October—just weeks ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Eligible consumers are primarily those who purchased Obamacare plans via HealthCare.gov, have incomes roughly four times the federal poverty level, and did not receive federal subsidies, covering 30 states. The White House said the funds are refunds for unused health insurance marketplace operating fees previously collected by the federal government, arguing these costs were ultimately passed on to consumers. However, the policy has sparked controversy. Health policy experts point out that the Biden administration actually lowered ACA marketplace user rates, and such fees are not the main driver of this year’s sharp premium hikes. Meanwhile, after additional health insurance subsidies expired, many consumers face thousands of dollars in premium increases this year, with the $500 refund covering only a small portion of that cost. Notably, Trump’s refund announcement comes as midterm elections near. Earlier, he also proposed that if the Republican Party holds onto control of Congress in the November midterms, it would distribute $5,000 "dividends" to U.S. households. As healthcare, cost of living and other issues remain top voter concerns, the Trump administration is ramping up policies that directly deliver economic benefits to the public.

Beating AI Express News: OpenAI Codex product lead Tibo stated, "To ensure existing users get an excellent experience and can continue using Astra, we are pausing new subscriptions to the $200 monthly Pro plan. This plan puts the most strain on our systems, so we want to make the smallest adjustment possible to keep access open to as many users as we can. All other plans and API services remain fully operational. Existing accounts will not be affected at all, and we are working to add more capacity as quickly as possible."

US stocks closed Thursday: The Dow Jones fell 0.6%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.58%, and the Nasdaq declined 0.65%. Nvidia (NVDA.O) fell 2.2%, Intel (INTC.O) dropped 5.5%, SK Hynix (SKHY.O) declined 5.2%, while Apple (AAPL.O) gained 3.5%. Among crypto-related concept stocks: MSTR fell 3.12%, CRCL dropped 2.82%, COIN declined 1.40%, SBET fell 1.29%, PURR plunged 8.49%, and HOOD fell 1.69%.

Beating AI News Brief: OpenAI officially launches the Agents API beta, making available to all developers the agent framework and infrastructure previously used to power Codex and enterprise ChatGPT. Developers can directly build production-grade AI agents via the API, with billing based on token consumption and tool call volume. The Agents API prioritizes long-running and complex task execution: developers only need to specify the task, model, tools, and runtime environment in a single API call to create an agent. Its core capabilities include automatic context compression, parallel tool calls, and multi-agent collaboration, supporting agents to run continuously for hours or even days. OpenAI disclosed customer cases showing SafetyKit cut per-case processing costs by 60% after integration, Hypha reduced agent response failure rates by 86%, Cirridae’s evaluation score rose from 0.71 to 0.85, and latency dropped 4x. For infrastructure, the Agents API uses the same sandbox environment as Codex and ChatGPT, and has integrated partners including Blaxel, Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, Oracle, and Vercel, supporting various CPUs, GPUs, memory, and deployment environments. OpenAI added that the Agents API is built on the open-source Codex execution framework, and supports tools such as MCP, custom functions, and web search. This launch marks OpenAI’s expansion of Codex from an AI programming product into a developer-focused agent infrastructure platform.