The Polkadot community has proposed reducing the active validator set from 600 to 320 through three referendums, while also discussing changes to validator rewards. According to Foresight News, the reductions would proceed in stages to 500, 400 and 320, with one week between each vote, and are targeted for completion by the end of 2026. The first on-chain referendum, Ref 1966, has been submitted; each step requires Fellowship whitelisting and approval by token holders. A separate discussion proposal would keep each validator’s budget at about 57.7 DOT per day during the reductions, while lowering validator incentives’ share of the allocation pool from 22.6% to about 12.1%. The remaining funds would stay in the pool as a reserve. Validators are also expected to become Metanodes, providing block production and RPC services for Asset Hub and People Chain in addition to validating on the relay chain. The proposal recommends increasing validator budgets after Metanodes launch, with one portion covering operating costs at $2,000 per node per month and another rewarding validators based on their own DOT stake. It uses 30,000 DOT in self-stake and a 30% annual rate as reference figures. Both portions would initially be paid in DOT. The reward plan remains under discussion and would require approval through a governance vote.

France's National Assembly passed an amendment requiring taxpayers to report self-custodied crypto assets worth at least €100,000 to tax authorities. According to Odaily, the measure passed with 150 votes in favor, 44 against and eight abstentions; asset values would be assessed as of December 31 of the relevant tax year. The reporting requirement is part of the 2027 finance bill and will take effect only if retained in the final legislation. The National Assembly must complete its first reading of the bill by November 17, with Senate debate scheduled to begin November 20.

The US Treasury updated guidance on sales of notes and bonds that it had used since early 2024, while keeping auctions steady. New language in its quarterly refunding announcement may allow cuts to issuance of the longest-dated debt in 2027, Bloomberg reported.

LayerZero and 21X AG completed a joint technical pilot running a fully on-chain central limit order book on LayerZero’s Zero blockchain. According to Foresight News, the month-long pilot used tokenized U.S. stocks and ran on a private, permissioned instance of Zero, matching up to 10,000 orders per second, with room for further improvement. That throughput was up to 45 times higher than the L2 EVM network benchmark, and matching and settlement occurred in the same transaction without off-chain matching. 21X AG holds a DLT trading and settlement system license under the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime and operates trading and settlement for tokenized securities under the supervision of Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Zero is an EVM-compatible blockchain launched this February by LayerZero with Citadel Securities, DTCC, ARK Invest, and Intercontinental Exchange. Its private, permissioned instance lets institutions control network participation and data visibility while remaining compatible with the wider multichain ecosystem.

Meta Chief Data Officer Alex Schultz said society urgently needs AI-driven productivity gains in the face of a coming “population collapse.” According to Sina Finance, Schultz made the remarks Wednesday at an AI Future Summit hosted by a British media outlet, saying falling birth rates could leave the global population substantially smaller in 50 years. He asked how society would care for older people and make full use of the available workforce. The global population is expected to peak as early as 2064, while the working-age population is projected to shrink faster as lifespans lengthen and birth rates fall. Schultz said AI is already speeding up software engineering and helping lawyers save time by anticipating courtroom questions. At Meta, AI agents can autonomously handle more than 10% of tasks involving routine data warehouse alert monitoring. He also said fewer than half the people on his team use AI effectively, and that some users consume tokens without producing clear value. Meta has invested billions of dollars in AI as it pursues industry leaders OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Last month, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Meta’s MuseWonder model had caught up with competitors and joined the frontier-model ranks. The company’s consumer-facing Muse agent has been downloaded millions of times since launching in September. Last week, Meta announced plans to raise an additional $95 billion to support higher spending. Schultz said he was slow to adopt AI before OpenClaw popularized vibe coding earlier this year. Responding to concerns that AI will cause widespread job losses, he said tools change the content of jobs rather than eliminate them, and that productivity gains can create new work. Opposition to AI data-center construction in U.S. communities was among the factors behind voters rejecting Republican incumbents in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Riot Platforms shares rose more than 21% in premarket trading. According to Odaily, the company reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $181 million, up 1% year over year, and net income of $4.03 million, compared with $104 million in the same period last year.

Riot Platforms sold 8,962 BTC to fund data center development and repay debt, leaving the listed Bitcoin mining company with 2,418 BTC. According to Odaily, Bitcoin Treasuries reported the sale in a post on X.

AI data security company Sentra raised $150 million in a Series C round led by Capital One Ventures, with existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Zeev Ventures, Standard Investments, Munich Re Ventures and Key1 Capital also participating; Capital One will appoint a representative to Sentra’s board. According to ChainCatcher, Sentra reported year-over-year growth of more than 300% over the past year and has raised more than $250 million to date. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its data access controls for AI agents and its protection of data at rest, and to enter new markets.

According to Jin10, the U.S. Treasury changed its wording on future auction sizes on Wednesday, a move analysts expect could pave the way for increased short- and medium-term Treasury issuance and possibly smaller long-term auctions. The Treasury removed the word “at least” from its guidance, saying it expects to keep floating-rate note and fixed-rate coupon security auction sizes unchanged for the next several quarters. Many analysts interpret “several” as two quarters, meaning changes could come in the first half of 2027. Auctions of 20-year and 30-year Treasuries, which have sometimes struggled to attract demand, are considered the most likely to be cut. Increases in fixed-rate coupon auction sizes may focus mainly on 2- to 7-year securities, with possible increases for 10-year Treasuries as well. The Treasury said it will assess potential future auction-size adjustments based on trends in structural demand and the potential costs and risks of different issuance structures. That assessment will include communicating with market participants to better understand changing Treasury supply-and-demand dynamics. The government also aims to raise funds at the lowest cost over the long term. The Treasury said it will issue $125 billion in securities next week, including $58 billion in 3-year notes, $42 billion in 10-year notes and $25 billion in 30-year bonds.

OFAC has added 10 individuals and 1 entity to its sanctions list to crack down on North Korea’s overseas IT personnel network and its cryptocurrency transfer channels.

The Democratic Party won both houses of Congress in the US midterm elections, marking Trump's worst political defeat since taking office.

Intel's stock price plummeted 28.58% in a single day, retreating more than half from its peak, dragging down the global semiconductor sector. The AI ​​narrative is shifting from buying computing power to demanding returns.

Initial reports of the $6.34 billion theft from Binance point to a fake interview, which North Korea denies, but the real mystery lies in the attackers' ten-day infiltration.

Wang Yongli explained the legislative process for stablecoins in the United States and pointed out that China should not follow suit by issuing RMB stablecoins, but should adhere to the main theme of digital RMB.

A meticulously planned fake interview allowed hackers to infiltrate Binance's core wallet from employee computers over nearly five months, resulting in the theft of $6.34 billion in assets.

During its earnings call, Robinhood listed its stock token TVL, on-chain financial applications, and US users as its real KPIs, while Meme token trading was just the first phase of demand.

Dollar stablecoins have been regarded as a strategic export by Washington, but the on-chain distribution network that meets the needs of hundreds of millions of users has already been laid out by the market. Native issuance is the underlying track for dollar output.

Following the midterm elections, the crypto industry faces a Democratic takeover, the defeat of key allies, and a new round of intense scrutiny from Washington.

Memecoins using the name and photographs of Spanish footballer Jesús de Miguel began circulating shortly after his death, triggering outrage among crypto traders and renewing questions about the ethics of speculation in the rapidly expanding token market.