Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo said the next soft fork, aimed at patching four legacy bugs, is as much about rebuilding the community’s coordination muscle memory as it is about maintenance. The upgrade is being framed as a practice run for future protocol changes. Corallo’s comments underscore the technical and social work involved in changing Bitcoin’s code.

TREE NEWS update: US President Donald Trump said he does believe launching war with Iran was worth it, calling the Iran issue something that had to be done and vowing to continue. He also said it is true that Republicans broadly lost the midterms because of the Iran war, but attributed the losses to prices rather than the war, and said he would deal decently with Democrats while denying he asked Speaker Mike Johnson to drop his bid for House Republican leadership.

TREE NEWS reports: OECD data show negotiators resolved a record number of cross-border tax disputes through the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) in 2025, with nearly two-thirds of cases closed last year eliminating double taxation entirely. The figures also show an increase in advance pricing arrangements (APAs), through which taxpayers obtain pre-approval of their transfer pricing arrangements for a set period to gain certainty.

TREE NEWS update: A single vessel paid up to $5.2 million to transit the Panama Canal this year, the canal authority’s administrator said. About three liquefied natural gas carriers now pass through the waterway each week, compared with two per day before the war.

TREE NEWS reports: Circle is turning to payments fees and future staking rewards to diversify revenue as lower yields and rising competition pressure its core stablecoin business, with the ARC token sale lifting earnings. The company’s USDC income is being weighed down by the softer rate environment, prompting a push beyond stablecoin reserves into payments and staking.

TREE NEWS update: The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a new industry advisory warning firms about the risk of transacting with vessels that may be falsely flagged. Treasury said falsely flagged ships enjoy no valid protection or insurance and could cause billions of dollars in losses to the countries where they operate.

TREE NEWS update: Coinbase’s x402 protocol activates the web’s long-unused HTTP 402 status code so AI agents and applications can pay for APIs and data in stablecoins such as USDC. The protocol is designed to let autonomous software settle payments directly over the web without human intervention. The 402 code, originally reserved for “Payment Required,” had gone largely unused since it was defined.

TREE NEWS reports: Emerging-market currency index touched a fresh intraday high as the dollar weakened following the release of US midterm election results. The move reflects broad dollar softness against developing-nation currencies after the vote outcome. No further details were provided.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s ambassador to Poland met Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday to report on the embassy’s latest work, the state of bilateral relations and priority items on the Tehran-Warsaw agenda, Iran’s foreign ministry said. The meeting was disclosed in a ministry statement that gave no further details on the issues discussed.

TREE NEWS reports: World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token fell about 7% and the Trump-named meme coin dropped about 17% over the past 24 hours.com data, as a Democratic landslide in the US midterm elections hit digital-asset markets. Trump Media & Technology Group shares plunged as much as 17% to an intraday record low, while the DJTU leveraged ETF tumbled 32%. A Texas governor elected on a platform to curb data-center development also threatens plans to convert crypto mining sites into AI data-center campuses.

TREE NEWS update: The Panama Canal Authority is keeping its quota at 33 deep-draft vessel transits per day, the canal administrator said, citing recent rainfall that replenished the waterway. Daily authorized transits are expected to stay in a range of 32 to 33 through the end of the dry season. The maximum authorized vessel draft may be adjusted depending on rainfall over the coming months.

TREE NEWS reports: Strategy’s STRC preferred stock traded above $100 for the first time since May, recovering after roughly $2.25 billion of buybacks. The move brings the preferred back to Strategy’s stated minimum price for new issuance.

TREE NEWS reports: LME copper closed $25 lower at $14,011 a ton, while nickel rose $432 to $15,779 a ton in the latest session. Aluminum added $2 to $3,047 and zinc gained $16 to $3,807, while lead slipped $2 to $1,882. Tin dropped $440 to $46,995 and cobalt was unchanged at $33,525 a ton.

TREE NEWS update: White House press pool was notified to gather at the Palm Room entrance for President Donald Trump’s first on-camera appearance since the midterm election results came in. Trump is expected to comment on the election outcome. No further details on the timing or format of the remarks were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: France’s 10-year government bond yield dropped 18.4 basis points to 4.768% in late European trading on Wednesday, November 4, approaching its October 15 low of 4.723%. The two-year yield fell 13.6 bps to 3.514% and the 30-year yield declined 15.2 bps to 5.319%. Italian, Spanish and Greek 10-year yields also fell, by 15.5, 10.8 and 14.9 bps respectively.

TREE NEWS update: Saudi Arabia and Syria signed cooperation agreements covering energy and military affairs. The agreements mark a formal step in ties between Riyadh and Damascus. No further details on the scope, value or timing of the deals were provided in the announcement.

TREE NEWS reports: Brent crude futures deepened their slide to 10% on the day, approaching $93 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate fell 9.0% intraday to trade at $87.38 a barrel. The sharp move marks a steep single-session drop in both benchmarks.

TREE NEWS update: Stripe launched a public preview allowing US businesses to send stablecoins to wallets in more than 160 markets, funded from a Treasury balance. The feature supports USDC and Open USD. Businesses based in New York are excluded from the rollout.

TREE NEWS update: President Donald Trump said the U.S. stock market has just set another all-time high, marking its 91st record in under two years. In a post, Trump said 401(k) retirement accounts have risen substantially and are all at record levels. No specific index level, date or data source was given.

TREE NEWS update: Meta Platforms is seeking to raise €9 billion through a bond sale that drew €53 billion in investor orders, the largest order book ever recorded for a single corporate issuer in the European debt market. The offering underscores strong demand for investment-grade corporate debt from the Facebook and Instagram parent.