Meta secretly rolls out new model? OpenRouter adds mysterious Crouton Alpha, offers free access to 1 million context window

Beating AI Express News reports that Adam Fry, OpenAI’s head of consumer products, revealed ChatGPT’s search query volume has reached roughly 20% of Google’s, with weekly active users rising from 1 billion to 1.2 billion in two months. However, this figure is OpenAI’s own estimate, with specific query counts and comparison metrics not disclosed. Google’s search business has not slowed down, though: in Q3 2026, its search query year-over-year growth hit a five-year high, and search ad revenue rose 12% to around $63.3 billion. Similarweb data shows that 93.7% of users who visited ChatGPT.com in September 2026 also accessed Google.com, indicating most people still rely on Google even after adopting ChatGPT.

According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has broken through the $77,000 mark, currently trading at $77,060.65, with a 0.51% intraday gain.

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a prominent election forecasting organization, projects that Democrat Adam Hamilton has flipped a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas. Hamilton capitalized on voter discontent over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and public anger sparked by surging fuel prices tied to tensions with Iran, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the Great Plains state since 1932. According to preliminary vote counts, with 84% of ballots tallied, Hamilton leads Republican incumbent Senator Roger Marshall by a 53% to 44% margin. DDHQ has called the race for Hamilton, though other television networks have yet to project a winner. Per projections from DDHQ and multiple TV outlets, Democrats have flipped five Senate seats overall, in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina. Democrats needed a net gain of just four seats to take control of the Senate, assuming the party did not lose any of its existing seats in other states.

Philip Nova analyst Priyanka Sachdeva said investors are cautiously assessing the progress of the U.S. midterm elections. Current spot gold prices are under pressure, having once fallen to $3,900 per ounce before a minor rebound. The critical question is whether the election results will have a sufficiently large impact on the broader macroeconomic environment to drive a gold price reversal, or merely add new uncertainty to the already volatile investment landscape. While the pullback in oil prices has eased inflation concerns to some extent, persistently high U.S. Treasury yields, a relatively strong U.S. dollar, and market expectations of further monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve continue to cap gold’s upside. Against the backdrop of a generally weak market environment, as midterm election results become clearer, some investors may gradually enter the market, forming more solid buying interest. Before that, many investors may still prefer to stay on the sidelines temporarily, waiting for U.S. Treasury yields, dollar movements, and market risk sentiment to clarify before deploying new capital.

According to CNN data, the Democratic Party secured 50 seats in the U.S. Senate elections, while the Republican Party won just 37 seats, giving Democrats a net gain of 5 seats. Earlier estimates had indicated that Democrats needed a net flip of 4 seats to retake the Senate majority. This Senate election saw 5 seat flips: Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, and the most surprising upset, Texas. CNN predicts Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton will also defeat Republican incumbent Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas. For the House of Representatives elections, 234 seats have been called so far, with Democrats winning 141 seats (a flip of 9 seats) and Republicans taking 93 seats. Election forecaster Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) has projected that the Democratic Party will win control of the U.S. House of Representatives, regaining the majority after four years as the minority party, ushering in a new era of divided government in the U.S.

According to TradingBeats monitoring, between 07:37 and 07:41 Beijing Time today, a crypto whale rapidly built a short position of roughly $3.034 million in Nasdaq 100 (XYZ100) contracts. The position utilized 30x leverage, with an average entry price of $28,283. At the time the short was opened, Georgia – a key U.S. swing state – had about 18 minutes left until local polls closed at 08:00, as the state’s Senate race is a pivotal battle for both parties vying for control of Congress. After the position was established, the market immediately moved lower. Half an hour later, XYZ100 fell from $28,197 to $27,929, a drop of approximately 0.95%. At 08:40, Reuters reported that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff defeated his Trump-backed opponent, successfully retaining this critical Georgia seat. XYZ100 then declined further, currently at 27,622 points, down roughly 2.34% from the whale’s average entry price. The address now holds an unrealized profit of around $71,000, translating to a 70.16% position return. Additionally, the whale also holds a S&P 500 short position valued at about $2.2532 million, with an unrealized profit of approximately $26,500.