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More →Standard Chartered-led Anchorpoint says it’s not rushing retail stablecoin
The Standard Chartered and Animoca Brands joint venture previously targeted retail access as early as the end of 2026, but its CEO declined to reaffirm that timeline. Standard Chartered-backed stablecoin venture Anchorpoint says it will take a cautious approach to opening its Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin to retail users, declining to confirm a launch date after rival HSBC rolled out RedCoin, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/business/cryptocurrency/article/3372060/standard-chartered-led-anchorpoint-plans-retail-stablecoin-hsbc-redcoin-launches" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">>according</a> to the South China Morning Post. The <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/standard-chartered-animoca-brands-hong-kong-stablecoin-license" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">venture</a> released its institutional stablecoin product in August and previously <a href="https://anchorpoint.hk/faqs/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">>indicated</a> a retail offering could arrive as early as the end of 2026. Anchorpoint CEO Dominic Maffei declined to confirm that timeline at a Friday press conference, saying the company would take a prudent approach. “We believe it’s important to build the market out in a long-term, sustainable manner,” Maffei said, adding that rushing a launch “does not make sense.” The update comes after <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/hsbc-launches-redcoin-hong-kong-dollar-stablecoin-payme" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">HSBC launched its Hong Kong dollar-backed RedCoin</a> on Friday for the 3.3 million users of its PayMe app. <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/standard-chartered-animoca-brands-hong-kong-stablecoin-license" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Anchorpoint grew out of a partnership</a> between Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands and telecommunications provider HKT, which was announced in February 2025, following their joint participation in Hong Kong’s stablecoin issuer sandbox in July 2024. Animoca’s role is to bring its blockchain expertise and industry network to the venture and help develop uses for the stablecoin across the Web3 ecosystem. <em><strong>Related: </strong></em><a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/hashkey-begins-beta-distribution-of-hong-kong-regulated-hkdap-stablecoin" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><em><strong>HashKey begins beta distribution of Hong Kong-regulated HKDAP stablecoin</strong></em></a>
Brazil’s Stock Market Crashes After Lula’s Upset Victory
Brazil’s stock market lost more than $200 billion in value at the open on Monday after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in Sunday’s runoff, a result that prediction markets had priced at roughly a one in five chance. The iShares MSCI Brazil ETF, ticker EWZ, a basket of Brazilian stocks that trades in New York like a single share, fell as much as 26% from Friday’s close of about $42.60, touching $31.40 before trimming the loss to about 23% at $32.84 by 10:38 a.m. ET. That is memecoin-sized volatility for a fund built around Brazil’s biggest companies, and it leaves EWZ roughly where it started 2026 after a 34% gain through Friday. The dollar rose as much as 12% against the real on Friday, while the Ibovespa, Brazil’s benchmark stock index, fell as much as 17% to about 170,000 points. For a dollar-based investor, those moves at their worst combine to a loss of about 26%, in line with the ETF’s low. B3, the São Paulo exchange, halted trading for 30 minutes after the Ibovespa fell 10% from Friday’s close, its first circuit breaker since the COVID-19 pandemic. A circuit breaker is an automatic pause meant to slow panic selling, but the index kept sliding after trading resumed. Investors had been positioning for the opposite result since Bolsonaro unexpectedly finished first in the Oct. 4 first round, with 47.03% of valid votes to Lula’s 45.16%. The Ibovespa jumped 7.85% the next day and EWZ gained more than 10% on bets that Bolsonaro would tighten public finances and open the way to lower interest rates. Monday’s drop erased that rally and, at its lows, left the Ibovespa about 11% below its Oct. 2 close. But Lula didn’t just beat Bolsonaro, he also beat prediction markets. Polymarket gave Bolsonaro an<a href="https://x.com/Polymarket/status/2114003200017575948" target="_blank" rel="nofollow external noopener" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS">> 82% chance</a> of winning the day before the vote, and Kalshi had him near 80% on Sunday morning. Both platforms are<a href="https://decrypt.co/resources/what-are-decentralized-prediction-markets-myriad-polymarket-kalshi" target="_blank" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS" rel="nofollow"> prediction markets</a>, where a contract that pays $1 if a candidate wins trades at 80 cents when traders see an 80% chance. Polling pointed to a coin flip rather than a favorite, with the latest Datafolha survey tied at 50% each among valid votes and CNT/MDA showing Bolsonaro ahead 50.5% to 49.5% in mid-October. Lula won 51.79% to 48.21%, a margin of about 4.4 million votes, according to Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court. Bolsonaro said on Sunday night that he does not recognize the result and will ask the courts to annul the election, after pledging in August to respect the outcome. He objected to Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin’s decision to extend voting until 7 p.m. at the request of Lula’s campaign, which he said changed the rules midgame. His own campaign had separately asked for extr
Google Quietly Updates Privacy Policy to Let Gmail and Photos Data Feed Ads
Google has carved out an exception to its long-standing promise not to use Gmail, Drive, and Google Photos content for advertising, quietly revising its <a href="https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US&client_theme=dark" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS">>privacy policy</a> so that data from those apps can help personalize ads when users connect it to the company’s AI features. The change, which took effect Oct. 16 and was first spotted by <a href="https://www.androidauthority.com/google-personal-intelligence-privacy-3727111/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow external" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS">>Android Authority</a>, adds a conditional clause to a pledge Google has made for years. The updated policy now reads that Google doesn’t show personalized ads based on content from Drive, Gmail, or Google Photos “unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads.” The catch hinges on Personal Intelligence, Google’s push to make its AI tools more useful by letting features like AI Mode in Search and Gemini draw on a user’s own data. Connecting Gmail, Drive or Photos to those tools delivers more tailored answers, such as surfacing a hotel reservation buried in an inbox. But under the revised wording, that same connected data can now also inform which ads a person sees. Google stressed the limits. Content from the three services still isn’t used for ad targeting by default, advertisers don’t get access to the contents of anyone’s Gmail, Drive or Photos, and the company says it won’t share personally identifying details without permission. In practice, that means Google isn’t scanning private emails and photos wholesale to sell ads, but users who opt into its AI conveniences may be trading some ad privacy for them. Users can opt out by disconnecting the apps under Connected Content apps in their Google Account’s Data & privacy settings, or by turning off personalized recommendations, though Android Authority noted that previously collected data may linger in a user’s Search history even after disconnecting. The quiet rollout echoes recent Google privacy posturing around its AI ambitions. As <i>Decrypt</i> reported in May, Google’s Chrome browser began <a href="https://decrypt.co/367060/chrome-quietly-installing-4gb-ai-model-computer" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS">>silently installing</a> a multi-gigabyte on-device AI model on users’ computers, and separately removed a privacy claim tied to its <a href="https://decrypt.co/367193/chrome-removes-privacy-claim-gemini-nano-google" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="sc-adb616fe-0 dJryYS">>Gemini Nano model</a>, both moves that drew scrutiny over how the company handles user data as it races to embed AI across its products. <span class="md:block">Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more. </span>
Canada opens consultation on draft stablecoin rules
CoinWorld news: Canada has announced the launch of consultations on draft stablecoin rules, but will still prohibit paying interest and returns to holders. The proposed framework requires: 1:1 reserves must be held at qualified Canadian financial institutions; users must be able to redeem stablecoins for cash within three business days; and fees for converting stablecoins back into cash will be capped at 1%. The 60-day consultation will end on December 23, and the rules are expected to take effect by the end of 2027.
Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees amid surge in AI spending
CoinWorld news: Microsoft has announced that, against the backdrop of surging AI spending, it will offer voluntary severance packages to approximately 60,000 employees in order to restructure its workforce and redirect spending toward AI. Key details include: 60,000 employees are eligible in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom, out of a total global workforce of 223,000 (as of June). The data center team is not included in this severance package, and eligible employees will receive benefits similar to severance pay. The key point is that Microsoft is tightening labor costs while protecting critical AI infrastructure investments, highlighting how AI spending is reshaping the employment structure of large tech companies.
Saudi Arabia faces Houthi threats as economic concerns shift from oil to non-oil sectors.
According to Bijie Network news, in the early days of the Iran war, Saudi Arabia's oil industry successfully withstood various concerns. But now, as the Houthis launch deadly attacks on Saudi Arabia, signs of disruption to economic activity are increasing, and market concerns have shifted to other sectors of the country's economy. For weeks, the Houthis have carried out intermittent attacks that have killed dozens of people, restricted air travel to Riyadh, caused some iconic events to be postponed, and effectively brought Riyadh's financial district to a standstill. Saudi stocks have fallen sharply and are now among the worst performers among global emerging markets this month. Economists say it is too early to quantify the impact of the attacks. But most believe that even considerable energy export revenue brought by rising global oil prices will hardly offset the blow to the non-oil economy from the broader war. The non-oil economy is at the heart of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic transformation plan, which aims to turn the roughly $1.4 trillion Saudi economy into a hub spanning tourism, foreign direct investment and other fields.
Ritual mainnet is live, with an initial circulating supply of 18% for RITUAL and 0.5% allocated to the airdrop.
CoinWorld news: The Ritual Foundation has announced the official launch of the mainnet of Ritual, a decentralized AI computing platform, with its native token RITUAL issued simultaneously. RITUAL can be used to pay for gas, model calls, HTTP requests, and scheduled execution, among other fees. RITUAL has an initial supply of 10 billion tokens, with no supply cap and an annual inflation rate of approximately 5%, while also adopting the EIP-1559 mechanism to burn base transaction fees. At launch, 1.8 billion tokens will be unlocked, accounting for 18% of the initial supply. In terms of token allocation, core contributors account for 29%, ecosystem growth and R&D account for 25%, network participation and future incentives account for 14%, Labs investors account for 11.3%, the Ritual Foundation accounts for 10%, and the remainder is allocated to the Labs treasury, the frontier AI grant program, and the foundation's private sale. Tokens held by core contributors and investors are locked for one year, and all tokens will be fully unlocked within four years. In addition, Ritual will airdrop 50 million RITUAL, or 0.5% of the initial supply, to eligible Infernet node operators, Frenrug users, and long-term community members, all unlocked immediately upon launch. Coinbase has announced that it will list RITUAL for spot trading today.
Faraday Future: FF EAI Robotics Ecosystem has acquired the robotics business.
According to CoinWorld news, Faraday Future announced that its FF EAI Robotics Ecosystem (FFR) has completed the acquisition of Faraday Future's robotics business and established a humanoid and biomimetic robotics platform traded on Nasdaq (ticker: FFR). FFR expects its robot sales and shipments to exceed 300 units in October.
The market predicts a 90.6% probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged on October 28.
CoinWorld data: The market predicts a 90.6% probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged on October 28.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield is at 4.96%.
CoinWorld US stock market data: The latest daily reading of the US 10-year Treasury yield is 4.96%. Compared with the same-caliber snapshot 7 days ago, it has fallen by 0.13 percentage points.