1. Vitalik Buterin tests the privacy AI architecture and uses local models and three-layer mechanisms to protect personal data
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted that he is testing a private AI architecture that uses personal health and travel data to obtain diet and exercise recommendations while trying to avoid leaking privacy to remote large models. The solution is coordinated by the local model Qwen 3.8 Flash Next and reduces identity exposure through a three-layer mechanism: the local model rewrites queries to hide personal information and writing characteristics, zkAPI hides payment associations, and Tor hides network and IP information. Vitalik said the scheme is operational, but Tor latency is still about 10–100 times higher, local model speeds are about 20–30 TPS, and the tighter the privacy protection, the less information the remote model can exploit.
2. A Hong Kong woman in her sixties encountered a fake cryptocurrency investment scam and lost approximately HK$21.5 million.
Hong Kong police received a report from a 60-year-old woman on October 3. The victim had previously met a person claiming to be an "investment expert" online and was subsequently induced to invest in cryptocurrency through a fake investment website. The platform then required the investment account to pay a "security deposit" on the grounds that it proved that the investment account had not been used for money laundering. The victim made multiple transfers to designated investment accounts between April 14 and September 22, resulting in a cumulative loss of approximately HK$21.5 million (approximately US$2.74 million). Later, he suspected that he had been deceived and reported to the police. The police initially classified the case as "obtaining property by deception" and the case was followed up by the Sau Mau Ping District Criminal Investigation Team. No one has been arrested yet.
3. A Philippine court freezes 25 virtual asset wallets related to a congressman in connection with a flood project corruption investigation
The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) of the Philippines said the Court of Appeal has frozen 25 virtual asset wallets related to a congressman and related individuals and entities, along with 86 bank accounts, 4 investment accounts and 1 insurance policy. The relevant assets are alleged to be related to investigations into corruption and embezzlement of public funds in flood control projects. AMLC stated that the funds involved were transferred through virtual asset service providers and multiple virtual asset wallets, and flowed through multiple recipients and different financial channels to increase the difficulty of tracking the funds. AMLC has not disclosed the identities of the members involved and related entities; the freezing order is an asset preservation measure during the investigation phase and does not mean that the relevant persons have been convicted.
4. Japan imposes a new round of sanctions on Russia, and cryptocurrency exchange Garantex is included in the asset freeze list
The Japanese government announced a new round of sanctions against Russia on October 2, adding 33 entities and 9 individuals including the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex to the sanctions list including asset freezes, and imposing restrictions on payments to relevant objects and capital transactions. Japan also imposed service and financing restrictions on 35 ships in Russia’s “shadow fleet.” Garantex has previously been sanctioned by the United States, the European Union and other places for allegedly assisting Russian-related entities to circumvent financial sanctions.
5. DWF Labs Managing Partner: If Trump’s $5,000 universal dividend payment is realized, it may promote a 2021-style bull market in the crypto market
Andrei Grachev, managing partner at DWF Labs, said that if Republicans retain control of Congress in the U.S. midterm elections and Trump's plan to send $5,000 to every adult U.S. citizen is ultimately implemented, it could be equivalent to about 150% of a large-scale fiscal stimulus during the epidemic. Grachev believes that some funds may flow into the crypto market and promote a bull market similar to 2021, but it may also lead to a more serious economic crisis later. Trump did previously propose the $5,000 "Trump Dividend" pledge, but it is still a political commitment and has not yet been approved by Congress.
6. Popular project updates of the week: Ethereum launches zkAPI, Base mainnet upgrade Cobalt goes online, Balancer and Blast will be closed, etc. (0927–1003)
1. Tether-backed Utexo plans to issue USDT on the Bitcoin network this month link
Tether-backed Utexo plans to issue USDT on the Bitcoin network this month. Utexo co-founder Viktor Ihnatiuk said that the company has obtained a commercial license to issue USDT on Bitcoin and plans to provide APIs, SDKs and cloud infrastructure for exchanges, wallets and payment service providers. Utexo will be based on the RGB protocol and the Bitcoin UTXO model, keeping most transaction data off-chain, and focusing on supporting three types of applications: USDT private transfers, direct exchange of native BTC and USDT, and mortgage lending using native BTC without encapsulating BTC to other blockchains. USDT was first issued on the Bitcoin network through the Omni protocol in 2014, and subsequently Ethereum and Tron gradually became the main circulation networks. Utexo also plans to expand to the Lightning Network after USDT is launched on the Bitcoin network.
2. Ethereum Foundation and Open Anonymity launch zkAPI: Hide API payment identity through zero-knowledge proof link
The Ethereum Foundation and the Open Anonymity Project launched zkAPI, which uses zero-knowledge proof to separate API usage and payment identity. It has now been launched on the Ethereum main network. Users can first deposit ETH, USDC and other amounts into the on-chain Vault, and then authorize API usage for a single or a session through zero-knowledge proof. The service provider can verify the validity of the payment but cannot know the specific deposit source and payment identity, and the payment layer cannot see the request content. zkAPI supports the generation of short-term and limited API Keys for compatible interfaces such as OpenAI and Ollama, and is settled based on actual usage; funds are managed by smart contracts, and users can exit and withdraw on the chain. This solution is currently mainly used for AI inference, and can also be extended to RPC, image generation, VPN and inter-machine services. However, it cannot hide the identity-related risks caused by IP, request time and prompt word content itself.
3. The Trump Meme Coin Holders Dinner will be held on November 22, and the first 185 holders can participate link
Fight Fight Fight, the promoter of the Trump Meme Coin TRUMP, plans to hold a coin holder dinner at Trump National Golf Club on November 22. The top 185 TRUMP holders will be eligible to participate, and Trump is listed as a guest at the event. Trump has previously participated in similar activities for TRUMP holders. The token has fallen by about 95% since its high point. The price once rose by about 9% on the day this event was announced. At the same time, Democratic lawmakers are paying attention to Trump and his family’s encryption business and have said that if they control either house of Congress after the November midterm elections, they may further investigate related business activities; the White House has previously stated that Trump is not involved in the daily management of the family business and denied that his encryption business constitutes a conflict of interest.
4. Aave Labs submits ARFC proposal to establish Aave Foundation in Cayman Islands link
Aave Labs submitted an ARFC proposal to establish a non-member Aave Foundation in the Cayman Islands to hold, protect and license Aave's trademarks, primary domain names, protocol codes and related intellectual property rights. This is the first phase, which only involves the registration of the foundation and the appointment of independent directors, supervisors and secretaries. The DAO will bear reasonable registration, legal and establishment costs, and there is no ongoing budget. Aave Labs and DAO service providers are not allowed to appoint or serve as directors or supervisors; governance rights such as protocol listing, parameter adjustment, budgeting, and service provider selection still belong to the DAO. Subsequent transfers of trademarks, domain names, and code IP will be submitted for governance review separately, and the foundation will disclose its assets, operating expenses, and related legal actions on a quarterly basis.
5. Base’s third mainnet upgrade Cobalt is online, adding Validity Transactions and multiple B20 functions link
Base's third mainnet upgrade, Cobalt, has been launched, adding Validity Transactions and multiple B20 asset functions. Validity Transactions allow users to pre-submit time-limited transactions and execute them only when the set conditions are met. The B20 standard adds new Composite Policies, which can combine KYC whitelists, sanctions blacklists and other rules through AND or OR logic; Schedule Multiplier Updates supports adjusting the asset balance display method according to plans, such as stock splits; the new seizeWithMemo function allows authorized administrators to redistribute holder balances when the asset seizure mechanism is enabled, and record the source, destination, quantity and remarks on the chain. Base said that in the coming months, it also plans to shorten the block time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds, and natively support smart accounts, gas payment and transaction batching at the protocol layer.
6. OP Enterprise supports Soneium chain operations and promises 99.9% uptime link
OP Enterprise now supports Soneium's on-chain operations. The Optimism Foundation and OP Labs will provide deployment, upgrades, sequencers, node infrastructure, daily monitoring and incident response support in a fully managed model, and set a monthly 99.9% uptime target and 7×24-hour emergency response through a service level agreement. Soneium retains ownership, roadmap control and engineering participation of its blockchain, and the team will continue to advance tokenized intellectual property and on-chain entertainment applications, including on-chain royalty distribution and AI-oriented intellectual property tools. Soneium has previously been running on OP Stack, and this cooperation only involves OP Enterprise’s fully managed operational support and does not include interoperability or cross-chain functionality.
7. Stable announces integration with Visa Direct, connecting stablecoin settlement to the global funds transfer network link
Stable has announced an integration with Visa Direct, connecting its stablecoin settlement infrastructure to Visa’s global funds transfer network, enabling real-time payments of funds to bank accounts and mobile wallets. This cooperation means that Stable's on-chain settlement can further connect traditional financial payment channels, providing cross-border payment withdrawal channels from stablecoin settlement to bank accounts and mobile wallets.
8. Balancer community orders orderly shutdown via BIP-928 approval protocol link
The Balancer community has passed BIP-928, approving the orderly shutdown of the protocol, and the fork proposal BIP-929 has not been passed. The existing fund pool will operate normally until October 30, and withdrawals are always available during this period; October 16 is the deadline for partners to apply for the designated V3 pool to be extended to November 30. From October 30, the fund pool will switch to only supporting withdrawals if the contract allows. The bug bounty program will end simultaneously, and V3 Vault will be suspended on November 30. BAL holders currently do not need to operate, and it is expected that BAL will be destroyed from the end of May 2027 and the treasury assets will be received proportionally; tetuBAL holders will receive BAL equivalent to 50% of their locked assets.
9. Blast announced that it will cease operations, and users must move their assets back to the Ethereum mainnet before October 26 link
The Ethereum Layer 2 network Blast announced that it will cease operations, saying that the current network maintenance costs have exceeded the revenue generated by L2, and there is no credible economic sustainable path. Blast requires users to move their assets back to the Ethereum mainnet, and plans to shorten the withdrawal waiting time to 24 hours; users can continue to withdraw through the normal interface before October 26, and thereafter can still retrieve assets through the Blast Bridge contract on Ethereum L1. Blast will be launched in November 2023 and has raised US$20 million in financing at launch, with investors including Paradigm, Standard Crypto and others.
10. Porsche announces the end of the Web3 project and the PIONΞERS CIRCLE community link
Porsche announced the end of the Porsche Web3 project and PIONΞERS CIRCLE community activities. PORSCHΞ 911 NFT will continue to be retained by the holder and exist on the blockchain. The PIONΞERS Discord server will be converted to a read-only archive to preserve community history and content. The @eth_porsche X account will no longer be continuously updated.