economy

The team behind Revolut has launched the perpetual contract platform Extended and released the XTEN token economic description. XTEN is the native token of the Extended ecosystem, with a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, minted all at once at genesis, and the supply cap cannot be increased. The community airdrop allocates 300 million tokens, accounting for 30% of the total supply, which will be fully unlocked at the Token Generation Event (TGE). The portion unlocked at TGE accounts for approximately 32.9% of the total supply, with a maximum circulating supply of 30% of the total. XTEN staking will go live simultaneously with TGE, with League level thresholds starting from 500 XTEN.Founders, team members, and investors will collectively receive 500 million tokens, which will not be unlocked before the end of a 12-month cliff period. After the cliff period, the founders and team will release tokens linearly in 36 equal installments from the 13th month to the 48th month; investors will unlock 25% in the 12th month, with the remaining 75% released monthly until the 48th month. The ecosystem allocation is 200 million tokens, of which 150 million will enter the emission reserve as the sole source of staking rewards, and emissions will stop once this reserve is exhausted; 50 million tokens will be allocated to the ecosystem fund, with 28.589286 million tokens unlocked at TGE but stored in a public wallet, with further announcements to be made before deployment. In the community allocation, 17.384355 million tokens correspond to the internal market-making platform of the operating entity X10 Ltd., obtained according to the points system, and the tokens are owned by X10 Ltd.To receive the airdrop, users must sign the terms within the app; the signing window will be announced separately, and any unaccepted allocations before the window closes will be transferred to the ecosystem fund. The staking balance determines the discount on transaction fees, additional yield multipliers for the Vault, deposit limits, and alliance revenue multipliers, with staking discounts ranging from 5% for Pawn tier to 30% for King tier. Unstaking will have a 7-day queue, during which no rewards will be counted, and it will not affect the level. XTEN will natively support Circle's CCTP, and Extended claims it is the first third-party token to launch on Arc with native CCTP support. Due to considerations related to MiCA, XTEN will not be available for EU users on Extended at the time of spot launch, but European point holders can still claim, hold, stake, and transfer. The TGE date, claiming window, and emission schedule will be announced separately, with the issuer being Extended Ecosystem Limited, and the white paper has been reported to the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

The latest economic data from the United States is challenging Federal Reserve Chairman Waller's assessment that the economy is not yet overheating, as the market continues to bet on a rate hike in December, putting the Fed in a more complex position. Strong consumer spending and business investment have driven economic growth beyond expectations, while persistent inflation complicates the Fed's choices between sustaining growth and controlling prices.Data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annualized quarterly rate of 3.4% in the third quarter, exceeding market expectations. During the same period, consumer spending increased by 3.8%, and business equipment investment surged by 20.9%.Just a day before the data was released, Waller stated that he does not believe the U.S. economy is running hot and does not want to hinder economic expansion through excessive tightening of monetary policy. However, the latest data indicates that even as the market expects the Fed to continue raising rates, there has not been a noticeable slowdown in U.S. economic activity.

According to Be In Crypto, data from Chainalysis shows that by June 2026, the scale of South Africa's crypto economy will grow by 52% to $39.3 billion, with various tracking activities also increasing. Among them, commercial payments from South African merchants and P2P traders reached $8.34 billion, growing faster than institutional activities (which saw an inflow of $1.29 billion); the inflow of stablecoins through P2P channels in Sub-Saharan Africa reached $14.6 billion, on par with Bitcoin.On August 3, the South African Treasury and the Central Bank (SARB) released a draft for crypto asset management, proposing that individuals can only transfer crypto assets through authorized local service providers within existing offshore limits, while businesses are prohibited from cross-border transfers of crypto assets.As of March 31, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has issued licenses to 310 crypto asset service providers, but these institutions still need additional authorization from SARB. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stated that after receiving thousands of public comments, the Treasury will strive to release a revised second draft, with no timeline currently announced.

The Oxford Economic Research Institute stated that the GDP growth rate in the United States for the third quarter reached 3.4%, exceeding expectations, reflecting the ongoing investment boom in artificial intelligence.The report pointed out that private fixed investment has increased significantly, and future economic growth will unusually depend on corporate investment. The wealth effect related to artificial intelligence has supported some consumer spending, but the reliance on investment is a risk worth noting.

According to Kevin Gordon, the Chief Macro Research and Strategy Officer at Charles Schwab, the current economic backdrop remains relatively favorable for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Even as we enter multiple rate hike cycles, the U.S. economy is likely to remain robust.He pointed out that rate hike cycles are often accompanied by significant market volatility. According to historical data he cited, within 12 months of the Federal Reserve initiating a rate hike cycle, the average maximum decline of the S&P 500 index exceeds 10%.Analysis also indicates that interest rate policy is just one of the factors affecting stock prices. Currently, investments in the AI sector and inflation driven by rising oil prices seem to be the main factors driving the stock market.

a16z Frontier founding partner Chris Dixon stated that early Web2 platforms were built on fragile tacit agreements: independent creators, bloggers, news media, and community volunteers contributed high-quality content for free, while platforms provided traffic distribution, audience accumulation, and commercial revenue opportunities.He pointed out that after forming a monopoly through network effects, platforms continuously tightened algorithms, forcing creators to pay for traffic. With the advent of the generative AI era, large model companies collect long-accumulated content from the entire internet through crawlers and directly provide answers in search and Q&A interfaces, no longer diverting traffic to the original websites, thus severing the economic cycle of independent creators.Dixon believes that if this trend continues, high-quality original content may be depleted, and the internet could be flooded with low-quality machine-generated content. He proposed that verifiable data ownership could be established through blockchain protocols, allowing data calls, reasoning, and training to be traceable and automatically receive economic returns. Reshaping this contract is one of the important missions of the Frontier fund.

Aethir today announced a significant adjustment to the ATH token economic mechanism. Starting from November 2026, the platform will extract a portion of the network fees daily to burn ATH, with the tokens permanently sent to a public burn address (0x000...dEaD), and the scale of the burn will fluctuate based on the actual network computing power usage.At the same time, the fixed platform fee will be replaced by a floating network fee, with the rate being read in real-time through TWAP based on market conditions; in a bear market, the rate will decrease, and the proportion of the burn will increase. The Cloud Host emission schedule will not be affected, and the fees will have a cap that will never exceed the value of the Host rewards. The burn Dashboard will launch simultaneously with the first burn, and this mechanism has been audited by CertiK.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon stated in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal that the current state of the U.S. economy is strong, with significant growth in corporate profits, a low unemployment rate, and overall low leverage for businesses and consumers. He described this as a good time. Dimon also pointed out that several potential risks are accumulating beneath the surface, including persistent inflation that has lasted for five years, large fiscal deficits, and geopolitical uncertainties such as overseas wars.He emphasized that predicting the specific timing and triggers of an economic downturn is extremely difficult, as the eventual recession is often caused by a combination of factors that cannot be accurately assessed at present. When discussing how banks should respond, Dimon stated that JPMorgan Chase conducts extremely in-depth analyses of various risks to ensure that the bank can withstand shocks whether interest rates rise or fall, and whether inflation or stagflation occurs, while continuing to serve clients during difficult times. He mentioned that the bank is prepared for extreme scenarios such as a 40% drop in the stock market and a two to three times widening of bond credit spreads, rather than trying to guess when these scenarios will happen. The core principle is to be well-prepared to continuously support businesses and communities in various environments.

According to a report by the Korean News Agency, the South Korean Ministry of Finance and Economy has convened a seminar on virtual asset taxation with five exchange operators: Dunamu, Bithumb, DigitalX, Coinone, and Streami, as well as institutions like the Financial Services Commission, to discuss current taxation regulations, market environment, tax preparation work, and the possibility of delaying or abolishing the tax, but no clear decisions have been made regarding related measures.South Korea's virtual asset taxation policy was established in 2020, originally scheduled for implementation in 2022, but has since been postponed to 2023, 2025, and 2027. The National Tax Service of South Korea is currently preparing relevant details, but matters such as staking still need to be negotiated with the Ministry of Finance and Economy; if the details are announced next month, there will be only about two months left until the planned implementation date.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde stated that the 3.8% inflation rate in the Eurozone for September primarily reflects high energy costs, and the European Central Bank expects some relief next year. She pointed out that energy shocks are expected to keep Eurozone inflation above the central bank's target in the first half of 2027, but it is still appropriate to adopt a cautious policy response at this time. This statement was made on Saturday during the International Monetary Fund annual meeting.Lagarde also mentioned that the European Central Bank is designing a digital euro. She stated that in the retail payments sector, the European Central Bank is preparing to supplement cash in digital form by launching a digital euro for everyday payments. The digital euro will further stimulate innovation and competition in the retail payments sector, ensuring the continued coexistence of public and private solutions, thereby supporting Europe's strategic autonomy in the payments field.Previously, Cointelegraph reported on September 21 that the European Central Bank had launched the Pontes system, allowing financial institutions to settle wholesale tokenized asset transactions in central bank currency, providing an alternative for private settlement assets such as stablecoins. The system initially offers a set of core services, with full implementation expected by 2028.

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh stated that despite the geopolitical shocks and tightening monetary policy faced globally, G20 economies have demonstrated unexpected resilience.Speaking at the IMF and World Bank annual meeting in Bangkok, he mentioned that the U.S. economy is expected to become stronger and more solid.

Federal Reserve Chairman Waller stated that artificial intelligence will impact the economy on the demand side before affecting the supply side.

Driven by SpaceX's record-breaking initial public offering, defense spending, and the construction of space infrastructure, global space economy investments are expected to exceed $100 billion for the first time in 2026.Analysis from Space Capital shows that massive investments in the space sector and the number of unicorn companies have reached an all-time high. SpaceX's IPO may prompt investors to reassess the value of other space companies.

Ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil-producing countries met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, reaffirming their commitment to maintaining stability in the oil market through a joint mechanism. OPEC+ stated that disruptions in energy transportation have caused shipping and insurance costs to exceed one-third of the value of commodities, hindering the transportation of crude oil and refined products, and increasing inflationary pressures on the global economy. Countries will continue to monitor the situation and cooperate with international organizations to improve shipping conditions.

According to Xinhua News Agency, on October 10, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council recently issued opinions on developing new quality productivity. The opinions propose promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy, building a national integrated computing power network and a national blockchain network, improving the system for determining data property rights, market transactions, rights distribution, and interest protection, implementing pilot demonstrations for data elements, and optimizing the layout and operation of national data infrastructure.The opinions also propose improving an open, shared, and secure data element market, exploring mechanisms for efficient cross-border data flow, enhancing the policy system for digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, creating internationally competitive digital industry clusters, and establishing mechanisms for future industry investment growth and risk sharing, thereby strengthening long-term capital investment in cutting-edge hard technology.