European Central Bank’s Zigmann: Rate hike possible as early as the next meeting

Circle plans to gradually reduce the burn limit for the legacy Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP V1) starting October 31, 2026, and suspend the associated contracts on December 1, at which point USDC cross-chain transfers via the old route will no longer be possible. The new CCTP (formerly CCTP V2) uses independent contracts and APIs and is not backward compatible, so applications, wallets, and bridging services using the legacy version must proactively update their integrations. Circle stated it will maintain sufficient minting allowances to ensure all proven pending transfers are completed before the suspension, though specific limit tiers and intermediate adjustment dates have not been disclosed. Additionally, the Noble chain will not be integrated with the new CCTP; Circle plans to suspend its USDC contracts and remaining cross-chain routes on January 12, 2027. USDC holders on the Noble chain must withdraw their funds by that date. Circle will take a snapshot of remaining balances on the suspension day and launch manual redemptions starting January 13, with applicants required to meet compliance and security requirements and hold assets in self-custody wallets.

Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said during the third-quarter earnings call that the company can leverage its existing balance sheet to generate up to $30 billion in digital credit for additional Bitcoin purchases, without issuing new common stock for financing or relying on further Bitcoin price gains. Saylor noted the company is capable of creating $10 billion, $20 billion, or even $30 billion in digital credit. Strategy CEO Phong Le stated that issuing digital credit will be the company’s primary method to acquire more Bitcoin. If the company raises $1 billion to $2 billion via STRC preferred stock within a month, it will allocate part of the funds to dollar reserves and the rest to Bitcoin purchases. The earnings report showed Strategy’s third-quarter net profit was $19.53 billion, mainly driven by a $20.91 billion increase in the value of its digital assets. As of October 25, the company holds 848,517 BTC, with a 26% increase in holdings year-to-date. It should be noted that the $30 billion figure represents potential financing capacity, not an announced financing target. Additionally, Strategy disclosed that CFO Andrew Kang will step down on November 5 for personal reasons. Financial functions will be overseen by Phong Le until new CFO Reza Virasteh takes office on January 1, 2027.

According to TradingBeats, US-listed Intel (INTC) saw its pre-market shares plunge more than 25%. The second-largest on-chain short seller of INTC has added approximately $1.93 million in short positions, bringing its total position to around $7.81 million, with an unrealized profit of roughly $1.68 million. The whale is shorting with 10x leverage, with a liquidation price of $84.33. The initial position was opened on September 4 at $93.08, and after several additional position increases, it is now the second-largest INTC short on Hyperliquid.

Coinbase announced that it acquired an additional 643 Bitcoin in the third quarter, boosting its total holdings to 17,954 BTC.

London-based robotics spin-off Machenta from Imperial College London has closed a $40 million seed funding round co-led by Creandum and Union Square Ventures. This is reportedly the largest seed round ever for a UK robotics company. The firm emerged from stealth mode this week, has a team of around 10 members, and currently has no commercial products on the market. Founded by Imperial’s Robotics Learning Lab Professor Edward Johns and his PhD student Vitalis Vosylius, Machenta’s base model is fully pre-trained in a simulated environment, eliminating the need for real-world demonstration data. Post-deployment, the robot only requires one demonstration to carry out new physical tasks such as packing and organizing. The capital will be used to scale the model and expand the team based in London’s King’s Cross area.

According to TradingBeats' monitoring, a whale with an address starting with 0xefe4 has been continuously shorting NVIDIA and Oracle in batches since this morning. As of press time, the combined notional value of the two short positions stands at approximately $10.42 million. Specifically, the NVIDIA short position amounts to around 39,500 contracts, valued at about $8.24 million, with an average entry price of $208.58; the Oracle short position is roughly 16,300 contracts, worth approximately $2.19 million, at an average entry price of $134.06. The whale continued adding short positions in the afternoon, with its notional size expanding by around 24.7% in the past hour.