UK bank Griffin has raised $20 million in a Series B round to expand its card issuance and stablecoin-related services. According to PANews, Octagon Partners led the round, which valued the company at more than $100 million. Existing investors Notion Capital, A+ Ventures, NordicNinja, and Breega also participated. Griffin previously raised $24 million in March 2024 in a round led by MassMutual Ventures, NordicNinja, and Breega. The company received a full banking license at that time.

Wells Fargo & Co.-backed Norwest has raised $4 billion for its latest fund, which will invest in early-stage AI startups and sectors overlooked by much of the market, according to Bloomberg. The firm plans to announce the fund Thursday.

Foreign inflows into Indian stocks may sustain their strong momentum amid improving earnings, cheaper valuations and light positioning, BofA Global Research said, according to Bloomberg.

Lauren van Biljon, senior rates and FX portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments, said UK gilts are “attractive” and the Bank of England will likely raise interest rates again, probably not until next year, according to Bloomberg. Van Biljon made the comments on Bloomberg Television.

Nima Momeni, the man convicted of murdering Cash App founder Bob Lee, is preparing to challenge the legal outcome of the case after receiving a sentence of 16 years to life in prison.

Binance Wallet announced on X that users can claim and use a Trial Voucher for Prediction Markets through Binance App → Exchange → Markets → Prediction or Binance App → Wallet → Home → Prediction. Users should claim the voucher from the pop-up, choose an eligible match market, select a prediction, apply the Trial Voucher in the order panel and submit the order. Prediction Markets are available only to users in eligible regions and may not be available to all users.

Binance announced on X that Binance Square has launched its Leaderboard, featuring four rankings to help users identify leading traders and follow their trades.

Sequoia Capital plans to invest several hundred million dollars in Sequence Holdings, a company founded in 2025 that is pursuing acquisitions in established industries. According to Sina Finance, people familiar with the matter said Sequence recently announced a $7.7 billion insurance-sector acquisition, with Michael Dell’s family office among the co-leads. The investment would be Sequoia’s second known bet on a new type of holding company that acquires businesses in mature industries, including accounting, insurance, and homeowners association management, and uses AI to replace some manual work. The new funding could help Sequence pursue more acquisitions, people familiar with the matter said. Sequoia previously invested in Ithaca Holdings, founded by partner Ravi Gupta, which announced a $1.3 billion deal. The planned investment comes as Sequoia undergoes internal changes under Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, who took the lead last November. In recent weeks, the firm merged its early-stage and growth investment teams, closed its London office to refocus on U.S. investments, and adjusted the evergreen fund established by former leader Roelof Botha. The fund was designed to hold stakes in public startups longer than Sequoia’s usual investment period. Sequoia missed major AI investments during Botha’s tenure; this year, it has made a major push into AI, co-led Anthropic’s financing in May at a $965 billion valuation, and completed dozens of AI-related investments since last November. Representatives for Sequoia and Sequence declined to comment. Sequence has raised at least $75 million from 8VC, Lux Capital, Conviction, and others. Last month, it partnered with DFO Management, Michael Dell’s family office, to take insurance broker Baldwin Group private in a cash-and-debt transaction. Sequence has also made a minority investment in unlisted community bank BankSouth. Four industry participants said returns on these perpetual holding companies are closer to private equity, at around four times invested capital, compared with the 10-times returns sought by venture capital. Investors see their returns as more predictable and view them as another way for venture firms to return cash to limited partners. Over the past year, venture-backed AI holding companies have completed large acquisitions. Thrive Holdings, established last year by Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, raised funding from Altimeter, D1 Capital, SoftBank, and others. Last month, it agreed to acquire ADT, a 152-year-old security company, in an all-cash deal valued at $15.3 billion including debt. General Catalyst invested in holding company Long Lake in 2024; earlier this year, Long Lake took American Express Global Business Travel private for $6.3 billion. Sequence CEO Michael Lee said in a podcast interview with Sarah Guo, a partner at Conviction, that since March, AI had shortened consumer loan risk approval times by 94% and cut business loan approvals from 30 days to 11. Lee also said Sequence differs from traditional private equity by completing one major deal a year rather than making acquisitions in batches, and by involving engineers in major business decisions.

US stock index futures fell as Nvidia Corp. considers replacing CEO Jensen Huang, according to Bloomberg, with the AI chipmaker’s drop accounting for more than half of the decline in Nasdaq 100 contracts.

According to ChainCatcher, SMIC reported third-quarter revenue of 21.983 billion yuan, up 28.1% year over year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of 2.847 billion yuan, up 87.6%. Sales revenue was $3.19 billion, up 6.1% from the previous quarter, while gross margin rose 4.6 percentage points quarter over quarter to 29.9%. The company attributed the changes to higher wafer shipments, increased capacity utilization and shifts in product mix. For the first three quarters, revenue totaled 60.618 billion yuan, up 22.4%, and net profit was 7.314 billion yuan, up 91.6%. SMIC forecast fourth-quarter revenue growth of 4% to 6% quarter over quarter and a gross margin of 26% to 28%.

South Korea will allow crypto exchanges to freeze deposits and withdrawals when a hack is suspected, without waiting for confirmation, while introducing stricter security requirements. The FSC also wants all 28 registered crypto businesses to receive cybersecurity support from the Financial Security Institute, which is investigating a breach of its own systems.

A Singapore-based company that became Nvidia's largest AI chip buyer in Southeast Asia within three years is now at the center of questions over how Chinese companies continued accessing the US chipmaker's advanced computing hardware despite Washington's export restrictions.

MegaETH has invested $30 million in AI inference, attempting to make the AI ​​provided by different service providers verifiable, and then turn the AI ​​usage into tradable contracts.

PSB Bank has asked a Russian court to declare BitRiver founder Igor Runets bankrupt over unpaid debts of more than 770 million rubles (about $9.3 million), linked to a loan he guaranteed for a group subsidiary that defaulted. Runets is already in custody on tax evasion and fraud charges, and several BitRiver companies are facing bankruptcy proceedings of their own.

From MEXC to Binance and OKX, the United States is using law enforcement, investment, and dollar-denominated stablecoins to bring global cryptocurrency exchanges more deeply into its financial regulatory framework.

Jensen Huang has once again been exposed for having an extramarital affair with a direct subordinate. On Polymarket, the probability of his departure once surged to 88%. Analysts estimate that if he leaves, Nvidia's valuation may shrink by $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion.

Solana's push to establish a stronger presence in China is facing growing regulatory scrutiny, with the country's central bank preparing an investigation into the blockchain network's activities and its connections with local businesses.

Strategy stated last year that being excluded from the MSCI Global Standard Index would result in the liquidation of $2.8 billion worth of its shares and would "hit" the entire industry.

OPay halted its IPO on the eve of its listing. The prospectus revealed that more than half of its revenue in the first half of 2026 came from lending, with $979 million in deposits tied up in a microloan license, and payments being just the entry point.