Whop Raises $200 Million Series D Round Co-Led by Sequoia and Shopify Ventures, Valued at $5.1 Billion

According to Bithumb's announcement, the platform will suspend XPLA token deposits and withdrawals on the XPLA network starting at 15:00 KST (Korea Standard Time) on October 22 to support network upgrades and node server updates. The node server update is scheduled for 19:00 the same day, though the exact time may be adjusted based on network conditions and block generation speed. Deposits and withdrawals will resume once network stability is confirmed, with a specific resumption time to be announced separately. XPLA trading will remain unaffected during this period.

According to three people familiar with the matter, Anthropic plans to publicly file its S-1 investor prospectus as early as this Friday. The company confidentially submitted a draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June. Per SEC regulations, companies that file confidentially must disclose relevant materials to the public at least 15 calendar days before the launch of their formal investor roadshow. The public filing will clear key procedural hurdles for a potential November initial public offering (IPO), though the final timing remains dependent on factors such as market conditions. Earlier reports noted some investors are targeting a $1.5 trillion valuation for Anthropic’s upcoming IPO, a 25% decrease from the earlier $2 trillion projection. Separately, data from trading platform Entropy shows Anthropic’s over-the-counter (OTC) contract market capitalization stands at $1.957 trillion.

Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi has warned that the global cybersecurity landscape is facing a hacker wave comparable to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the crypto industry being the first to experience this trend. He argues that because on-chain attacks are the most straightforward way for hackers to generate direct profits, security breaches in crypto protocols can serve as an early warning sign of broader internet security risks. While the number of hacker attacks targeting the crypto sector has surged sharply, the annualized total value of stolen funds remains roughly on par with 2025 levels, indicating a decline in the average loss per attack. Qureshi pointed out that attackers are focusing on small DeFi protocols with weak security safeguards and inadequate maintenance, whereas large crypto protocols have begun leveraging AI tools to bolster their defenses. He predicts that this large-scale attack trend will eventually spread to the traditional internet industry.

Beating AI Express (Dongcha) reports: Bloomberg’s latest report states that DeepSeek has completed its second round of financing worth 100 billion yuan, with Tencent and CATL being among the largest investors. The round was initially targeted to raise 50 billion yuan, but its fundraising goal was raised twice afterward. Despite the financing scale doubling, DeepSeek’s pre-money valuation remains at around 500 billion yuan. At the end of June this year, DeepSeek just closed its first round of financing of approximately 51 billion yuan, with founder Liang Wenfeng contributing around 20 billion yuan personally. Calculated based on the reported scale of this round, the total financing of the two rounds amounts to roughly 150 billion yuan. In this round, new and existing shareholders will each contribute about half of the total planned investment. CATL will add around 10 billion yuan, while Tencent will also continue to invest approximately 10 billion yuan. New investors include Stone Capital, SMIC Holdings, CPE Source Capital, Legend Capital, and Geely, among others. Perfect World announced on October 22 that two funds managed by entities related to Lisi Capital and Shixiang Capital have completed fundraising, with sizes of 7.52 billion yuan and 3.65 billion yuan respectively. Perfect World has subscribed to a total of 150 million yuan, and Century Huatong has previously disclosed its participation in the investment. Both funds participated in DeepSeek’s current financing round, but the specific investment amounts have not been made public. DeepSeek is also preparing for an IPO on China’s STAR Market, planning to submit its listing application as early as the end of this year and aiming to go public in 2027.

According to Bitget market data, Hong Kong stocks have extended losses since opening today. The Hang Seng Index fell 2.7% intraday, breaking below the 23,000-point mark; the Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 4.38%, with the artificial intelligence sector slumping—Days Innovations and Zhipu AI both fell more than 9%.

According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea's Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eoguen told the National Assembly's Administrative Committee during a comprehensive audit that "various factors need to be fully considered" regarding virtual asset taxation set to take effect next year. People Power Party lawmaker Song Eon-seok on the same day questioned whether the tax should be scrapped or delayed, arguing that taxation is being advanced before the nature of digital assets and policy direction are clarified, and that the "Digital Asset Basic Act" should be prioritized for drafting. Lee responded that digital asset-related bills are in the final negotiation stage and will be pushed for discussion as soon as possible. On the taxation front, opinions from all sides are diverse and still being gathered. South Korea's virtual asset tax was introduced in 2020 via an amendment to the Income Tax Act, and has been delayed three times previously. The government is currently proceeding with administrative procedures in line with the January next year implementation schedule, but industry stakeholders and even some ruling party members argue the timing is premature due to unclear standards and insufficient infrastructure.