bloomingbit

<Today’s Key Economic Events>
▶︎ Sept. 29 (Tue): △ US July S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index (11 p.m. Korea Standard Time) △ US August Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS (midnight Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ US September Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index (midnight Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ US September Dallas Fed Services Index (12:30 a.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman to speak (1 a.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr to speak (2:40 a.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee to speak (3 a.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ New York Fed President John Williams to speak (4 a.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30) △ Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller to speak (5 a.m. Korea Standard Time on Sept. 30)
<Today’s Key Cryptocurrency Events>
▶︎ Sept. 29 (Tue): △ No major events

OpenAI has scrapped plans to release a next-generation artificial intelligence model after safety testing uncovered problems.
Bloomberg reported on September 28 that OpenAI canceled the launch of its latest AI model, GPT-6.1 Astra, which had been scheduled for release in October.
Sachi Jain, the OpenAI executive in charge of safety systems, told The Wall Street Journal that the model showed weaker performance than its predecessor in two areas of safety evaluation and was not yet ready for release. The report did not specify which areas were affected.
The decision comes as concerns about the controllability of AI models have grown after a series of incidents in which OpenAI's AI agents bypassed the security of external systems.
OpenAI said last week that it would temporarily halt training for its highest-performing models on tasks involving the use of external tools. The move followed additional incidents in which AI models escaped secure execution environments.
The company also said at the time that it would not resume training for a specific model that left a secure environment with internet access blocked and queried an external chatbot.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Bloomberg's request for comment on the canceled launch.

Strategy, the largest publicly traded corporate holder of Bitcoin, bought 1,665 more tokens for about $142.7 million.
According to a filing submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on September 28, the company bought the Bitcoin between September 21 and September 27 at an average price of $85,681 per token.
The purchase raised Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 847,666 BTC. That is more than 4% of Bitcoin’s maximum supply of 21 million tokens. Including fees and expenses, the company’s cumulative Bitcoin purchases total about $64 billion, with an average purchase price of $75,437.
Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor said the company’s Bitcoin holdings are now valued at about $70.6 billion, giving it roughly $6.6 billion in unrealized gains.
Strategy funded the latest purchase through common stock sales and cash-equivalent assets. Last week, it sold about 1,469,165 shares of common stock and raised $246.2 million. Of that amount, it used $103.5 million, along with $48.1 million in cash on hand, to buy Bitcoin. As of September 27, the company still had about $18.84 billion of common stock available for future issuance and sale.
Over the same period, the company spent about $151.7 million to repurchase STRC preferred shares and used another $22.1 million to pay preferred dividends. As of September 27, its dollar reserves and cash balance stood at $5.02 billion and $1 billion, respectively.
Separately, Strategy recently proposed changing dividend payments for four series of preferred shares — STRC, STRD, STRF and STRK — to a daily schedule. Shareholders are set to vote on the proposal at a general meeting on October 28. If approved, the revised dividend schedule will first apply to STRC.

South Korean financial institutions need to build wallet-centered service strategies and secure interoperability for on-chain finance as the country prepares to formalize digital-asset regulations.
That was the message from a panel at EastPoint: Seoul 2026, a global private Web3 conference held on September 28 at the Westin Seoul Parnas in Samseong-dong, Seoul. The discussion featured Lee Jeong-hwa, a director at LG CNS, Justin Kim, Avalanche's head of Asia-Pacific, and Wang Jing, co-founder and chief executive officer of OP Labs.
Lee said domestic financial institutions are fleshing out business strategies in step with regulatory developments, including the proposed Digital Asset Basic Act. Early efforts mainly focused on proof-of-concept projects reviewing stablecoin business models and partnership structures. More recently, attention has shifted to preparing for a swift service launch once the regulatory framework is in place.
Lee pointed to digital-asset wallets as a key area for financial institutions to watch. He said wallets can become a core touchpoint for new financial services rather than simply a tool for holding assets. Combining wallets with existing financial superapps and linking them to a range of on-chain financial services will be important, he said.
He also said interoperability will be essential as financial services expand into deposit tokens, tokenized securities, on-chain payments and stablecoins. LG CNS is testing interoperability technology designed to connect different blockchains and financial systems. Once related rules are in place, demand in South Korea for on-chain financial infrastructure will expand, Lee added.
Kim said diversity among financial institutions participating as validators and privacy for transaction data will be critical in the tokenized-securities market. Using a structure in which domestic financial institutions participate as validators, a certain level of decentralization can still be achieved even without a fully open blockchain, he said. South Korea's tokenized-securities policy is also aligned with that direction, he added.

Greater utility in countries with weak interbank networks
Fintechs and overseas users to drive broader adoption
Mirae Asset Global Investments is expanding its digital-asset business through a partnership with Ondo Finance, a global real-world asset tokenization platform. Starting with exchange-traded funds, the firm plans to broaden tokenization to a wider range of financial products.
Park Gu-bin, a managing director at Mirae Asset Global Investments, said at EastPoint: Seoul 2026 in Seoul on Sept. 28 that he wants to bring all of Mirae Asset’s products on-chain, even if the goal is ambitious.
Mirae Asset is pursuing financial-product tokenization through Global X, its overseas ETF manager. Fifteen of Global X’s US-listed ETFs have been tokenized through Ondo Finance. Across Ondo’s platform, 27 global ETFs are currently available on-chain. The total could top 30 by year-end if the business expands into Europe.
Park cited a shifting regulatory environment, stronger related infrastructure and rising investor demand as reasons for entering the tokenization business. Regulations in countries around the world have become more supportive than in the past, and infrastructure has matured, he said. Tangible demand from investors seeking tokenized products is also beginning to emerge. Rather than stop at discussion alone, the company decided it needed to build direct experience tokenizing and operating ETFs, he added.
The two companies said broader access is the biggest advantage of tokenized financial products. Their goal is to allow investors to access financial products without time or geographic constraints while preserving the liquidity and settlement stability of traditional financial markets.
Mathieu de Varenne, Ondo Finance’s head of global institutional business, said traditional financial markets have spent decades building deep liquidity and reliable settlement finality. Ondo is trying to connect that liquidity with the accessibility of on-chain markets, he said.
From an asset manager’s perspective, the underlying ETF itself does not change, but the way investors access and use the product does, Park said. Tokenized ETFs can trade around the clock, allow fractional investment and could eventually be combined with other on-chain financial services. Using ETF tokens as collateral or linking them to blockchain-based lending and trading services could create new use cases not available in existing markets, he said.
Mirae Asset is building experience in tokenization in markets where the relevant frameworks are already in place, including the US, Hong Kong and Europe. It is using a wrapper structure that distributes Global X ETFs in token form, Hong Kong’s digital twin model and interval funds managed by its US unit.
The company approached tokenization from a global perspective from the outset, Park said. It is expanding the business by applying experience and know-how accumulated in one market to other regions.
The companies plan to broaden their partnership by combining Mirae Asset’s product-development and asset-management capabilities with Ondo Finance’s tokenization infrastructure and distribution network. Their plans go beyond tokenizing existing ETFs and include jointly developing new structures for on-chain financial products.
Ondo Finance has more than 1 million cumulative users and a distribution network connected to major global exchanges and wallets, de Varenne said. He described the partnership as a first step and said he wants to build new products together going forward.
Mirae Asset manages about $280 billion in assets and has product-structuring capabilities, a custody network and business bases in major markets, Park said. Because neither side can build the market alone, combining the two companies’ strengths is critical, he added.
Cho Mi-hyun / Jin Wook, Bloomingbit reporter

"Most companies will use digital assets in the future. As institutional adoption increases, custody will become essential infrastructure."
Moses Lee, Anchorage Digital's head of Asia-Pacific, made the remarks on September 28 at EastPoint: Seoul 2026, held at the Westin Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Samseong-dong. He said artificial intelligence and digital assets will eventually be used across corporate activity, much as all companies use the internet today.
Yoo Min-ho, chief strategy officer at iotrust, offered a similar view. He said most companies will eventually handle virtual assets and digital assets, with some relying on custody by specialized institutions and others adopting self-custody.
Speakers also said corporate use of digital assets could expand in earnest in South Korea once related legislation is put in place. Cho Jin-seok, chief executive of Korea Digital Asset, or KODA, said domestic corporations are currently limited to simple storage of digital assets, but more diverse use cases could emerge if the Digital Asset Basic Act is established.
As more companies and institutions enter the market, the importance of the custody industry is also set to grow. Lee called custody the most fundamental part of the digital-asset industry and said Anchorage's federal charter in the U.S. showed that digital assets can be handled safely within the existing banking regulatory framework.
Speakers cited segregation of client assets and clear accountability in the event of an incident as core requirements for institutional-grade custody services. Beyond technical security, they said custodians must have structures in place to legally protect client assets if the institution goes bankrupt or suffers a hack or other incident.
Chris Park, BitGo's Asia CEO, said the most important standard is accountability rather than technology. He said clients should examine whether their assets are clearly separated from a custodian's proprietary assets and whether they can safely recover those assets in the event of an incident or bankruptcy.
Participants also said regulators need to establish secure custody frameworks as institutional use of digital assets expands. At the same time, they said the pace of technological change makes it difficult to rely solely on regulation for every detailed risk response, and that custodians need their own risk-management capabilities.
Wai Lum Kwok, an executive director at Abu Dhabi Global Market, said that when ADGM created its digital-asset regulatory framework in 2018, it built a safe foundation for custody by extending traditional financial rules into the digital-asset sector. More recently, however, technological development has accelerated to the point where regulators cannot realistically respond to every change one by one.
He added that custodians need internal controls and governance systems that allow them to conduct ongoing monitoring, stress tests and penetration tests, and to respond independently to new technological risks.
Reporter Park Si-on / Jinwook, Bloomingbit reporter

Convergence Between Traditional Finance and Digital Assets to Accelerate
Global digital-asset industry executives said deeper liquidity and a systematic risk-management framework are essential to broaden institutional participation in the market. They also said the industry needs execution systems that can connect liquidity fragmented across venues and handle large orders reliably.
A panel discussion titled "Institutional Trading Stack: Liquidity, Execution, Prime Brokerage" was held on Sept. 28 at the global Web3 private conference EastPoint: Seoul 2026 at the Westin Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Samseong-dong.
The panel featured Samar Sen, head of international markets at Talos; Benjamin Stani, head of Asia-Pacific institutional sales at FalconX; Jean-David Péquignot, head of Asia-Pacific institutional markets at Deribit by Coinbase; and CJ Hetherington, co-founder and chief executive officer of Limitless.
Sen called liquidity the most underestimated factor in bringing institutional investors into digital assets. For institutions to execute large trades smoothly, liquidity spread across multiple markets must be connected efficiently.
He added that trading systems used by traditional financial firms alone are not sufficient to navigate the digital-asset market's complex liquidity structure. What is needed, he said, are algorithmic execution systems that integrate trading routes across centralized exchanges, over-the-counter markets and decentralized exchanges, while splitting orders according to market conditions.
Panelists also said the market needs a broader set of financial products to manage portfolio risk for institutional investors. Hetherington said traditional finance uses a range of risk-management tools, including interest-rate swaps and credit-default swaps, yet many areas still lack suitable hedging products.
He cited the fast-growing private-credit market as one example. Default risk tied to lending to private companies is rising, but there are still too few products that allow that risk to be transferred to or distributed among other investors. Digital-asset-based contracts could become a tool for managing risks that have been difficult to address with traditional financial products, he said.
The convergence of traditional finance and digital assets was another major theme of the discussion. Panelists said more financial firms are investing in digital-asset companies or building their own trading and custody infrastructure. They added that the licenses, client bases and trust with regulators that established financial institutions already possess could prove to be competitive strengths as the two markets converge.
Changes in the US regulatory environment were also cited as a factor that could speed that convergence. Still, panelists said other countries also need to accelerate regulatory preparation if the trend is not to become concentrated in the US.
Oh Yu-rim, Bloomingbit reporter / Lee Su-hyun, Bloomingbit reporter

"South Korea has yet to enact even a basic law on virtual assets, or cryptocurrencies. I don't think it is right to impose taxes before that framework is in place."
Min Byung-duk, a lawmaker with the Democratic Party of Korea, made the remarks on Sept. 28 at the Web3 private conference EastPoint: Seoul 2026 at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Gangnam district. He later took the stage for a panel discussion with Kang Byung-jin, head of legal at Hashed.
Min said implementing virtual-asset taxation early next year would be premature. The principle that income should be taxed is valid, he said, but authorities must be able to determine exactly how income was generated and how much was earned. Proper taxation also requires a clear grasp of both domestic and overseas transactions, he added, and overseas trades are not easy to track accurately.
He also raised the need for a tax-loss carryforward system that would allow investment losses to be deducted from future gains. Min has recently said that, if virtual-asset taxation is introduced, losses should be allowed to be carried forward for at least five years. If an investor incurred losses last year but posted gains this year, there also needs to be a system for reflecting those losses, he said. Taxing only gains generated in a given year without recognizing losses could strike investors as unfair.
On won-denominated stablecoins, Min said they are "absolutely necessary." Stablecoins are tied to monetary sovereignty, he said, and a won stablecoin could help safeguard the stability of South Korea's financial system while expanding payment use cases overseas.
He said demand would be sufficient. Large companies such as Samsung conduct numerous international remittances and settlements with overseas affiliates within their groups, he said. Converting even Korean companies' international transfers into won stablecoins could deliver significant cost savings. He added that stablecoins could sharply reduce card-fee burdens for small merchants and self-employed business owners. If the stablecoin market opens in earnest, new businesses and services that are difficult to imagine today could also emerge, he said.
Min also took aim at the so-called "51% rule," under which stablecoin issuance would be limited to entities controlled by the banking sector. A stablecoin does not become safe simply because a bank holds a 50% plus one-share stake, he said. The core of stability lies in how reserve assets are managed and how risks are supervised.
The digital-asset market can develop more fully only if banks and fintech companies each take on the roles they do best and adopt one another's strengths, Min said. If banks approach the market solely from the standpoint of protecting their existing turf, it will be difficult to build global competitiveness, he added.
Bae Tae-woong, Korea Economic Daily reporter / Lee Jun-hyung, Bloomingbit reporter

South Korea Strong at Commercializing New Technologies
"South Korea is strong not at inventing new technologies first, but at quickly commercializing technologies that emerge elsewhere and generating profits from them," Lee Jun-seok, a lawmaker from the minor Reform Party, said on September 28. "Crypto regulation should also be internationally compatible so foreign investors and companies can understand it easily."
Lee spoke at EastPoint: Seoul 2026, held at the Westin Josun Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Samseong-dong. While it may be difficult to unify crypto regulations across countries, he said common standards are still needed so companies can compare and anticipate each market's regulatory system.
A panel discussion at the event was held under the theme, "One Market, Many Rules: Finding Common Ground in a Borderless Market." Participants included Lee; Caroline Pham, chief executive officer of MoonPay Institutional; David Katz, Circle's vice president for strategy and policy in Asia-Pacific; Yuval Rooz, chief executive officer of the Canton Network; and Kirk Cullimore, Republican majority leader of the Utah State Senate.
Lee said South Korea has the technological capability and market demand to rapidly commercialize blockchain-based services, including stablecoins. He added that the country is strong at adopting new technologies and turning them into real-world services, and said standards should be made clear so global companies and investors can easily understand South Korean regulation and compare it with other markets.
He also said regulation focused only on the domestic market could hinder the entry of foreign capital and companies. Even if countries retain policy sovereignty, basic regulatory frameworks such as crypto-asset classifications and service-provider requirements should be connected to international markets, he said.
Cullimore said state and local governments, which are closer to businesses than central governments, may be better placed to provide testing grounds for new technologies. With technological development moving faster than legislation and regulatory updates, he said new business models should first be tested through measures such as regulatory exemptions.
"Companies can generally access state and local governments more easily than the federal government," he said. "Regulatory sandboxes and temporary regulatory relief can allow new technologies to be tested safely." If several states adopt similar systems and produce results, that could also influence federal policy, he added.
He also said blockchain's use should not be limited to crypto trading. It can also be applied to administrative areas overseen by state governments, including real estate transactions and vehicle title management. Still, he said, the entity with control authority must also bear the responsibility that comes with it, making clear accountability essential.
Pham said policymakers should be cautious about creating separate regulations each time a new technology emerges. Rules should be based on a financial product's function and risks, rather than the form of the technology itself, she said.
"A token is simply a technological wrapper for a financial product," she said. "Tokenizing a security does not make it something other than a security." The same activity carries the same risks, and the same risks should be subject to the same regulation, she added. What is needed is a technology-neutral, principles-based framework.
Katz said building trust in the market must come before linking financial networks across borders. "Interoperability matters, but the more fundamental condition is that users believe the market is operating fairly and that they are protected," he said.
Rooz said a single global regulatory framework is unlikely to emerge quickly because rules on currencies and data privacy differ across countries. "We cannot wait until every country has identical regulations," he said. "We need a structure that allows blockchain and financial networks operating under different rules to connect safely."
Kim Soo-hyun, Hankyung.com reporter / Hwang Doo-hyun, Bloomingbit reporter ksoohyun@hankyung.com

In the AI Era, the Speed of Failure Is National Competitiveness
"The cost of trying new ideas has fallen sharply with the advance of artificial intelligence. Regulators also need to present clear standards and timelines so innovative experiments can move forward."
Kim Seo-jun, chief executive of Hashed, made the remarks during a keynote speech at EastPoint: Seoul 2026, held on Sept. 28 at the Westin Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Samseong-dong. In an era with no single right answer, he said, the speed at which countries and companies can be wrong has become a source of competitiveness.
Kim said advances in AI have sharply reduced the time and money needed to test new businesses and ideas. "Experiments that once took weeks or even years can now be run by individuals overnight," he said. As the opportunity cost of failure falls, optimism that does not fear repeated failure can become a rational strategy for both individuals and companies.
He cited open-source development, accumulated data, the emergence of AI that understands natural language and lower trial-and-error costs as the forces behind the shift. The massive uncertainty of the past is now being compressed into experiments lasting only a few hours, he said.
Kim said trust will become a new business opportunity in a world where AI agents carry out economic activity on behalf of humans. That will require systems that can prove who instructed an agent, what authority it has and how far it is allowed to act.
"The cost of proving who an AI agent represents and how far it can work remains high," Kim said. Verifying an AI's identity, permissions and the reliability of its activity will grow into a new industry.
He said blockchain could become the core infrastructure supporting that shift. "The digital-asset ecosystem has been inconvenient for humans, but machines are familiar with the environment of smart contracts," Kim said. "The first real users of blockchain and digital assets may be machines, not humans."
Kim also said blockchain-based changes in capital markets are beginning in earnest. "Tokenized products tracking shares of Korean companies have begun trading around the clock on blockchains and decentralized exchanges," he said. "This is moving beyond simply transferring existing ledgers onto blockchains. A new financial infrastructure is being built around tokens."
He said South Korea could hold an advantageous position in that transition. The country has high interest in digital assets, along with an industrial base in AI and robotics. It also sits between the world's two biggest economic blocs, the US and China, which could help it shape rules for the emerging digital economy.
"If South Korea can secure a position trusted by both the US and China, its value could rise further," Kim said. "If global AI agents can verify identity and make payments in Seoul, South Korea can move beyond being a country that follows rules and become one that creates new ones."
Kim said regulators need to give the market a predictable timeline. "Rather than simply saying no, they need to clearly state what is restricted until when and what becomes possible from when," he said. That would allow companies to prepare for the future. In an era when machines can perform much of the work, the role left to humans is to start first, he added.
Cho Mi-hyun, Hankyung.com reporter / Jin Uk, Bloomingbit reporter mwise@hankyung.com

Launch of 'Bloomingbit Terminal'
Bloomingbit, Hankyung Media Group's digital-asset news outlet, has unveiled Bloomingbit Terminal, a platform for institutional investors aimed at reducing information asymmetry in digital-asset investing.
Kim San-ha, chief executive of Bloomingbit, introduced the platform on September 28 at EastPoint: Seoul 2026, a global private Web3 conference held at the Westin Josun? Wait no.
Kim said Bloomingbit had spent the past five years focused on solving problems for more than 1 million retail investors, but came to recognize that institutional investors also face fragmented information, unreliable data and information asymmetry.
He said institutional investors entering the digital-asset market face a lack of fundamentals needed for investment decisions and limited access to nonpublic information. Unlike stocks, digital assets lack traditional valuation metrics such as earnings and financial statements, making investors more reliant on unstructured information including on-chain data, fund flows, regulatory developments and social media, he said.
Bloomingbit Terminal, unveiled for the first time at the event, was developed through an exclusive partnership with New York-based digital-asset data firm The Tie. It combines The Tie's global institutional-investor data with Bloomingbit's market information on Korea and Asia. Built on data covering about 1,600 digital assets, 5,400 companies and 8,500 investment firms, the platform is designed to let institutions quickly identify assets to watch and capital flows by sector.
The platform also includes real-time information analysis powered by artificial intelligence and an anonymous communication function for institutional investors. AI analyzes a range of sources in real time, including news, regulatory developments, US Securities and Exchange Commission filings and X, to provide information for investment decisions. Unlike general-purpose generative AI tools, it generates answers based on a separate database used by institutional investors and also supports a messenger function that allows verified institutional investors to exchange views anonymously.
Kim also highlighted the importance of EastPoint. Information available online quickly converges as AI systems read the same data and summarize the same news, he said. The most valuable information, he added, comes from meeting the people making decisions in person. In the AI era, networks that provide direct access to decision-makers will become even more valuable, which is why EastPoint exists, he said.
Kim also pointed to broader institutional participation in South Korea's digital-asset market. Under the Financial Services Commission's roadmap for corporate participation in the market, about 3,500 listed companies and professional investment firms are expected to enter. Bloomingbit plans to develop Bloomingbit Terminal into a core information platform for institutional investors in Korea and across Asia.
Park Si-on / Lee Soo-hyun, Bloomingbit reporter

This Week’s Key Economic Events
▶︎Sept. 28 (Mon.): △Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks (10:15 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. September Dallas Fed manufacturing index (12:30 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 29) △Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks (3:25 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 29) △Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks (3:30 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 29)
▶︎Sept. 29 (Tue.): △U.S. July S&P/Case-Shiller home price index (11 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. August Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS (12 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △U.S. September Conference Board consumer confidence index (12 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △U.S. September Dallas Fed services index (12:30 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △Fed Governor Michelle Bowman speaks (1 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △Fed Vice Chair Michael Barr speaks (2:40 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks (3 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △New York Fed President John Williams speaks (4 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30) △Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks (5 a.m. Korea time on Sept. 30)
▶︎Sept. 30 (Wed.): △U.S. September ADP private employment report (10:15 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. August personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index (10:30 p.m. Korea time) △Final reading of U.S. second-quarter gross domestic product growth (10:30 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. crude oil inventories (12:30 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 1) △Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks (3:30 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 1) △Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee speaks (7:10 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 1) △Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari speaks (8 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 1)
▶︎Oct. 1 (Thu.): △U.S. weekly jobless claims (10:30 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. September S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers' index, or PMI (10:45 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. September ISM manufacturing PMI (11 p.m. Korea time) △Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin speaks (11:05 p.m. Korea time) △Boston Fed President Susan Collins speaks (11:05 p.m. Korea time) △Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks (12 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 2) △Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson speaks (3:30 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 2) △Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks (5 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 2) △New York Fed President John Williams speaks (5:30 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 2) △Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks (5:30 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 2) △Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan speaks (8:45 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 2)
▶︎Oct. 2 (Fri.): △U.S. September nonfarm payrolls report (10:30 p.m. Korea time) △U.S. September unemployment rate (10:30 p.m. Korea time) △Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan speaks (12 a.m. Korea time on Oct. 3)
This Week’s Key Cryptocurrency Events
▶︎Sept. 28 (Mon.): △Solana (SOL) Alpenglow testnet launch
▶︎Sept. 29 (Tue.): △No major events
▶︎Sept. 30 (Wed.): △Injective (INJ) buyback and burn
▶︎Oct. 1 (Thu.): △No major events
▶︎Oct. 2 (Fri.): △DoubleZero (2Z) token unlock

Iran said it will maintain its existing conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s rejection of the proposal, and will await a formal response from Washington.
Bloomberg reported on September 27 that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state broadcaster IRIB a day earlier that the U.S. final position had not yet been conveyed through mediators Qatar and Pakistan. While acknowledging Trump’s remarks, he said only a negotiated settlement could break the deadlock over the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators had previously discussed a plan under which Iran would reopen the strait in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, according to the report. The proposal was similar to a memorandum of understanding the two sides reached in mid-June, though the ceasefire tied to that agreement later collapsed.
Trump, however, told reporters as he left the White House on September 26 that he had rejected Iran’s proposal. He said Iran was seeking an immediate agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after finding itself at a disadvantage in the war. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump doubts Iran’s willingness to carry out any agreement and is considering the possibility of resuming airstrikes on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections in November.
Military tensions in the Middle East have continued as talks remain deadlocked. The Saudi-backed coalition in Yemen said on September 26 that it intercepted two drones launched by Houthi rebels toward the capital, Riyadh, and one ballistic missile aimed at the southern city of Khamis Mushait. About a week earlier, missile fire triggered an air raid alert in Riyadh.
Iran is also holding to its existing position on restoring normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz and on its nuclear program. President Masoud Pezeshkian said at the United Nations General Assembly last week that Iran would not allow free navigation through the strait as long as U.S. sanctions and the blockade remain in place. He also said Iran would not give up its right to develop nuclear technology for economic purposes.
The U.S. and Iran could still continue negotiations over reopening the strait and lifting the blockade, but tensions in the Middle East are persisting as the two sides have yet to narrow their differences over the terms.

US PCE, jobs; China PMI, trade talks
Inflation or growth? Key indicators for New York and Shanghai stocks
Wall Street's direction this week, from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2, will likely hinge on follow-up announcements from the U.S.-China summit, the August personal consumption expenditures price index and the September employment report.
The U.S. is set to release additional details on the outcome of its trade talks with China on Sept. 28. Investors will focus on which non-sensitive goods will be included in the reciprocal tariff cuts covering $30 billion agreed at the summit, when the measures will take effect, whether agricultural market access will be expanded and China's plan to buy U.S. coal.
Among economic releases, the PCE price index due on Sept. 30 will be a key focus for investors. The PCE price index is the inflation gauge the Fed uses as its benchmark. Economists expect the August reading to rise 0.3% from the previous month and 3.7% from a year earlier. Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, is forecast to increase 0.3% on the month and 3.3% on the year.
The key question is how far the data deviates from forecasts. If the PCE reading comes in above expectations, concerns could grow that inflation pressure, which has recently picked up again, is becoming entrenched, bringing the prospect of additional rate hikes back into focus. A hotter-than-expected report could also lift Treasury yields further and strengthen the dollar, weighing on technology and growth stocks.
The September employment report, due on Oct. 2, is also expected to draw close attention. The unemployment rate is forecast at 4.1%, while nonfarm payrolls are estimated to have increased by 80,300 from the previous month. In August, nonfarm payrolls jumped by 162,000, reaffirming the strength of the labor market.
If September job growth significantly exceeds market expectations and the unemployment rate stays at 4.1% or lower, investors would likely interpret that as a sign the labor market remains firm. That would give the Fed more room to stay focused on curbing inflation.
In China, the main event for stock investors will be the official September manufacturing purchasing managers index due on Sept. 30. China's manufacturing PMI rose to 49.8 in August from 49.2 the previous month.
If the September PMI climbs above 50, markets could take that as a sign that China's manufacturing sector has returned to expansion. In particular, if new orders, output and export orders all improve, investor sentiment could recover, especially in cyclical shares, industrials and materials stocks.
If the PMI falls back to the low-49 range or new orders weaken, concerns could intensify that the recovery in domestic demand is being delayed. That could also revive expectations for additional stimulus.
As in New York, details of the U.S.-China trade talks due on Sept. 28 will be a key driver of the near-term direction of Chinese stocks. If the tariff-cut list is broader than expected, implementation comes sooner and plans to expand trade in agricultural products, energy and consumer goods are spelled out, sentiment could improve, led by exporters and cyclical shares.
If the announcement merely reaffirms the existing agreement, or if there is no progress on core issues such as rare earths and restrictions on advanced technology, disappointment-driven selling could emerge.
China's stock market will be closed for the National Day holiday from Oct. 1 through Oct. 7.
Kim Eun-jung, Beijing correspondent kej@hankyung.com

President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war, while Tehran urged a negotiated diplomatic solution.
Reuters reported on September 26 that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post that the strait could be reopened only if Iran’s conditions were met. “Only a negotiated solution can break the deadlock,” he wrote, emphasizing diplomacy.
Iran had presented a peace plan at last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York and passed it to the U.S. through Qatari mediators. Under the proposal, if an agreement were reached, the Strait of Hormuz would reopen after a seven-day preparation period and fighting in the region would stop. Tehran has said additional negotiations could then proceed on an agenda agreed by both sides.
Trump told reporters at the White House on September 26 that he had rejected the proposal. He argued that Iran was seeking a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz immediately because it had been put at a disadvantage in the war. Araghchi said, however, that he had not received formal notice from the mediating countries that the U.S. had rejected the offer and was still waiting for Washington’s final position.
The two sides also remain apart on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump has said he cannot allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons. A senior Iranian official said Tehran would not compromise on its right to enrich uranium or on the issue of sending highly enriched uranium abroad, even if the peace plan were accepted. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he was ready for talks, including on the nuclear issue, but would not accept coercive demands.
The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, has now entered its seventh month. The U.S. has imposed an economic blockade to halt Iranian attacks on shipping, and vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen sharply. Retaliatory attacks by Iran and Yemen’s Houthi rebels have also continued, raising tensions across the Middle East.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump is skeptical Iran would carry out any agreement and is considering the possibility of resuming airstrikes after the U.S. midterm elections in November. Still, negotiations through mediating countries are continuing, leaving open the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough.

Expectations for continued strength in U.S. employment and consumer spending are sharpening focus on the possibility of another Federal Reserve interest-rate increase.
Bloomberg reported on September 26 that economists expect U.S. nonfarm payrolls to increase by about 90,000 in September, according to data due on October 2. The unemployment rate is forecast to hold at 4.1%, the lowest level in a year. Expanded corporate capital investment and a recovery in consumer spending are seen supporting the labor market.
Another key release is the August personal consumption expenditures report, due on September 30. Real personal spending, which excludes inflation, is projected to rise 0.5% from the previous month, marking the biggest gain in more than a year. The PCE price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, and the core PCE price index, which excludes food and energy, are also projected to accelerate from a month earlier.
The combination of firm growth and mounting price pressure is also increasing the likelihood of further Fed tightening. Markets are giving greater weight to the possibility that the Fed, after raising its benchmark rate this month, could deliver another 0.25 percentage-point increase at its October meeting. Investors will look to the latest jobs and inflation data for clues on the path of monetary policy.
In Asia, investors are also watching interest-rate decisions and inflation data from major economies. The Reserve Bank of Australia will hold a policy meeting on September 29, while Indonesia and South Korea will release inflation data on October 1 and October 2, respectively. A key variable is how rising global oil prices tied to the Middle East conflict and food-price instability linked to El Niño affect inflation.
Europe is also expected to face stronger inflation pressure. Euro-area inflation data due on October 2 is forecast to show a 3.7% increase, which would mark the highest level in three years. Rising energy prices are pushing up consumer prices and fueling speculation that the European Central Bank could deliver its third interest-rate increase of the year.
In the U.S., the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey is due on September 29, followed by the Institute for Supply Management's September manufacturing index on October 1. The run of economic reports is expected to test the durability of the U.S. expansion and inflation pressure, potentially increasing volatility across global financial markets.

U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds posted their biggest weekly net inflow since October 2025, pushing cumulative flows for this year back into positive territory.
The Block, citing SoSoValue data on Sept. 26, reported that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a combined $2.4 billion in net inflows during the week of Sept. 21 to Sept. 25. That marked the largest weekly inflow since the $2.7 billion posted in the week of Oct. 10, 2025.
The latest inflows lifted year-to-date net inflows to about $934.1 million. As of July 13, cumulative net outflows for the year had totaled about $5.8 billion, but the trend reversed in a little over two months.
On a daily basis, Monday, Sept. 21, led the week with $999 million in inflows. That was followed by $714.7 million on Tuesday, Sept. 22, $347 million on Wednesday, Sept. 23, $190.6 million on Thursday, Sept. 24, and $134.5 million on Friday, Sept. 25. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have now posted net inflows for seven consecutive trading sessions, with cumulative inflows of about $3 billion over that period.
By fund, BlackRock's IBIT drew the most money at about $1.2 billion. Fidelity's FBTC took in $701.7 million, while ARK Invest and 21Shares' ARKB attracted $294.7 million. Morgan Stanley's MSBT also posted weekly net inflows of $203.3 million, its largest since the fund launched in April.
Spot Ether ETFs also rebounded, shifting from about $140 million in net outflows a week earlier to $689.9 million in net inflows. BlackRock's ETHA brought in $326.2 million, Fidelity's FETH drew $174 million, and Grayscale's Ethereum Mini Trust added $100.3 million.
Spot Solana ETFs recorded $188.2 million in net inflows over the same period. On Sept. 25, they posted a record one-day inflow of $86.7 million since launch, while total net assets rose to an all-time high of $1.5 billion. Spot XRP ETFs also logged $75.6 million in weekly net inflows.

A hacker who stole about $83 million worth of XRP from global digital-asset exchange Bitget has moved the tokens to other wallets, CoinDesk reported. Because of XRP’s structure, Ripple is unable to freeze the holdings in the hacker’s possession.
CoinDesk reported on Sept. 26 that the Bitget hacker transferred about $83 million worth of XRP from three wallets to external addresses.
The problem is that Ripple cannot directly freeze assets that remain in the hacker’s wallet. The XRP Ledger allows companies and other issuers to freeze tokens they issue directly on the network. That function does not apply to XRP, the network’s native asset.
That means Ripple cannot forcibly move or freeze the stolen tokens as long as the hacker keeps the XRP in a private wallet. If the stolen XRP is sent to a centralized exchange, however, that exchange can restrict accounts linked to the hacker and block withdrawals.
Bitget estimates the total damage from the hack at about $387.5 million. The exchange said its protection fund can cover the losses, leaving customer assets unaffected. Bitcoin withdrawals are scheduled to resume on Sept. 28, Ether on Sept. 29 and Tether on Sept. 30, in sequence.

The Federal Reserve has moved to draw up follow-on rules to implement the GENIUS Act, the U.S. stablecoin law.
On September 26, the Fed said it had released two proposed rules to build a regulatory framework for payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act and had begun soliciting public comment.
The first proposal would require stablecoin issuers supervised by the Fed to fully back their outstanding issuance with permitted high-liquidity assets such as short-term U.S. Treasuries. It also would establish standardized capital requirements and risk-management standards to address credit and operational risks. The proposal includes rules for Fed-supervised institutions that hold reserve assets.
The second proposal would create a separate application process for banks seeking to issue stablecoins. Banks that want to issue the tokens would be required to submit business plans and financial information to the Fed. The framework also includes procedures for appeals and hearings on application decisions.
The Fed will accept comments from market participants and others for 60 days after the two proposals are published. The GENIUS Act was enacted in July last year and established a federal regulatory framework for U.S. payment stablecoins.

Fidelity said Bitcoin has entered a new cyclical bull market after holding the $60,000 level. It also laid out a long-term target of $300,000.
On September 26, Jurrien Timmer, Fidelity's director of global macro, presented Bitcoin's "Power Law" model, saying it continues to mathematically indicate that a new cyclical bull market has been underway since Bitcoin defended $60,000.
The data showed that Bitcoin has repeatedly fallen toward its long-term trend line during major bear markets before entering a new upcycle. Timmer identified the area around $60,000 as a key support level in the current cycle.
He added that Bitcoin could rise to about $300,000 by 2029 if the long-term trend continues.