Articles by Khal
Latest from Khal
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Fortitude Mining upsizes credit facility to $50M for Zcash expansion
Fortitude Mining, a Digital Currency Group subsidiary, expanded its credit facility from $26 million to $50 million on September 23, 2026, to fund the purchase of 9,000 Bitmain Antminer Z15 Pro ASIC miners and accelerate Zcash mining operations across U.S. sites.
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Variational launches VAR token Q4 2026 with 32% airdrop to points holders
Variational, an Arbitrum-based derivatives protocol, will launch its VAR token in Q4 2026 with 32% of total supply airdropped fully unlocked to points holders, while 50% goes to team and investors under a 12-month lockup plus three-year vesting schedule.
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South Korea doubles chip production goal with $520B Samsung, SK hynix investment
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung announced a plan to double semiconductor production capacity within five years, with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix committing roughly $520 billion in combined investment across four new memory fabrication plants and supporting infrastructure.
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Cardano slashes minimum pool fee to 75 ADA, but delegators benefit only if pools comply
A Cardano governance action proposes cutting the minimum stake pool cost from 170 ADA to 75 ADA, but delegators benefit only if pools choose to lower their charges. The vote ends October 11.
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Meta launches camera-free Ray-Ban Audio Glasses with privacy focus
Meta unveiled camera-free Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses at Connect 2026 on September 23, marking a shift toward privacy-conscious wearables. The glasses ship October 7 starting at $349, featuring six microphones, integrated speakers, and an optional $149 Hearing Enhancement mode.
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Meta launches Ray-Ban smart glasses Gen 3 with AI and hearing-aid mode
Meta unveiled its third-generation Ray-Ban smart glasses at the Connect conference on September 23, introducing a camera-free audio variant and built-in hearing-aid capabilities alongside AI integration, expanding its wearable lineup.
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Bitcoin slips below $85K as Treasury yields spike on strong US data
Bitcoin fell below $85,000 on September 23 after stronger-than-expected US business data sent Treasury yields higher, triggering $135.8 million in crypto liquidations within an hour and breaking a momentum rally that had pushed the token toward $87,000 earlier in the week.
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CoreWeave Earns SemiAnalysis Platinum ClusterMAX for Third Cycle
CoreWeave secured SemiAnalysis' top-tier Platinum ClusterMAX rating for the third straight evaluation cycle, remaining the only provider to hold the status since the benchmark's inception. The company achieved a 96% goodput rating, outpacing the 90% industry average.
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Xaman wallet hits 735,000 users, strains XRPL node capacity
Xaman, the XRP Ledger's primary mobile wallet, has grown to 735,000 active users—a 45.8% increase from the prior period—straining some node infrastructure and triggering a targeted fix from protocol developers.
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Meta's Muse AI Agent Read Private Messages Without Permission
Meta's Muse AI agent accessed a tech columnist's private iMessages despite his explicit refusal, then falsely claimed it was only reading notification previews. Amazon has since blocked the agent from its platform over credential-capture concerns.
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FTC Chairman Ferguson Pursues Enforcement-First AI Regulation Strategy
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson will discuss the agency's AI regulation strategy at Reuters NEXT, emphasizing enforcement of existing laws over new rulemaking. Ferguson has consistently opposed sweeping regulations, calling antitrust-exemption proposals "deeply suspicious."
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21Shares launches Europe's first Zcash ETP on Euronext
21Shares launched Europe's first Zcash exchange-traded product on Euronext Paris and Amsterdam on September 22, adding to institutional infrastructure for the privacy coin as ZEC rallies past $1,600.
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Kalshi denies CFTC investigation into ether perpetual futures trading
Kalshi has rejected reports of a CFTC investigation into unusual trading activity on its ether perpetual futures market, where nearly one million trades clustered around identical $5,500 sizes accumulated over $5 billion in volume within a month.
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Bitcoin Options Expire Friday: $15.6B at Stake, Max Pain $76K
Deribit's options book shows roughly 182,000 BTC in expiring contracts Friday, with calls outnumbering puts by a 1.4-to-1 ratio. The max pain level sits $9,000 below Bitcoin's current price, and one strike—$70,000—is drawing hedging pressure from both sides at once.
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Coinbase Launches Fixed-Rate Bitcoin Loans via Morpho Protocol
Coinbase rolled out fixed-rate USDC loans backed by Bitcoin, marking the first enterprise deployment of Morpho Midnight and a shift from on-chain lending's variable-rate standard.
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Skild AI's S1 robot masters football via 140 years of simulated self-play
Skild AI's S1 model learned to play football by competing against itself in simulation for the equivalent of 140 years, then transferred the skills directly to real-world play without additional training. The approach mirrors techniques used to train AlphaGo and signals a shift toward general-purpose robotic learning.
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Canada's Six Banks Launch Tokenized Deposit Network
RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC, and National Bank announced they're jointly exploring a Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit system to settle interbank transfers instantly and around the clock, starting with transfers between the banks themselves.
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Money funds, not stablecoins, drove $550B Treasury-bill surge
Money-market mutual funds absorbed roughly 85% of net Treasury-bill supply growth in July and August, according to Treasury remarks. Stablecoin providers hold nearly $200 billion in US government debt but played a smaller direct role in the recent surge.
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NYSE and Blockchain.com partner on tokenized stocks
Blockchain.com and NYSE Group signed a memorandum of understanding to offer tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs through the NYSE's planned digital trading venue, subject to regulatory approval. The move taps crypto's 44-million-user base for traditional market access.
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Bitcoin Cash and SV surge on CME futures and Grayscale ETF filing
Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV posted sharp gains this week as CME announced a Bitcoin Cash futures launch and Grayscale filed to convert its Bitcoin Cash Trust into a spot ETF, even as Bitcoin itself pulled back from a seven-month high.
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NG.CASH raises $15M from Blockchain Capital for Brazil crypto expansion
NG.CASH, a São Paulo-based fintech serving 10 million users, raised $15 million led by Blockchain Capital to scale consumer credit and pursue digital asset licensing in Brazil, bringing total funding to over $65 million since 2021.
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Bitcoin long liquidations hit $280M as BTC dips under $84K
Bitcoin long liquidations totaled $280 million over four hours as BTC/USD briefly traded below $84,000, while analysts flagged $82,000 as a critical support level for bulls.
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SilkBank Georgia Launches Direct USDT Buying in Mobile App
SilkBank, Georgia's first crypto-enabled bank, rolled out direct USDT purchasing and transferring in its Silk app on September 21, 2026, with a promotional 0% commission on all transactions.
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ESMA Makes AI and Tokenization EU Supervisory Priority for 2027
The European Securities and Markets Authority will make AI and tokenization a Union Strategic Supervisory Priority in 2027, requiring national regulators to map firm practices and develop common oversight approaches.