Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said the Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates more aggressively if the public’s inflation expectations deteriorate significantly. Speaking at a Goldman Sachs event in New York, Hammack said that if inflation psychology takes hold and markets expect price pressures to become more persistent, monetary policy may require larger action than would otherwise be needed.

TREE NEWS update: MSCI will exclude “non-operating” companies from eligibility for its Global Investable Market Indexes, with the change taking effect at the November 2026 index review and applying after the close on Nov. 30. Eligibility will be determined by one core screen and five non-industry-specific financial ratio screens, with a security disqualified if it trips four or more of the five ratios. Buffer arrangements apply to entry and exit thresholds and timing to limit index turnover, and MSCI will cancel the temporary measures related to digital-asset holdings it announced on Oct. 10.

TREE NEWS update: Russia’s central bank has confirmed it will ban peer-to-peer crypto trading, giving Russians until July 1, 2027 to buy and sell crypto directly with each other. After that date, every trade must run through a broker or exchange approved by the Bank of Russia. The confirmation sets a firm deadline for ending direct person-to-person bitcoin transactions in the country.

TREE NEWS reports: Binance.US is seeking a $1 billion valuation in a potential funding round of about $100 million, the crypto exchange reportedly aiming to use the capital to regain market share lost after Binance’s 2023 settlement with US authorities. The reported raise would mark a push to rebuild the US arm’s position following the resolution of the enforcement case.

TREE NEWS update: India’s securities regulator reinstated an earlier settlement method for equity derivatives expiries, effectively decoupling the newly introduced closing call auction from futures and options price discovery after it triggered sharp volatility. In a circular issued Thursday evening, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said the settlement price for index and stock derivatives expiring that day will be based on the volume-weighted average price of the last 30 minutes of trading. The change takes effect December 7.

TREE NEWS update: India has set its windfall tax on gasoline exports at 2.5 rupees per litre, effective October 16. The levy applies to exported gasoline under the government’s windfall tax framework for petroleum product shipments.

TREE NEWS update: German Chancellor Merz said on July 15 in Brussels that he opposes transferring frozen Russian sovereign assets held in the European Union to US control, calling the matter an internal European affair. Speaking to media before the two-day EU summit opened, Merz said the assets were frozen in Europe and should remain frozen there, adding that it is Europe’s decision to make.

TREE NEWS update: Bolivia is dismantling its state-controlled gold trading system, ending central bank purchases of the metal and loosening restrictions on private exports. Under new rules backed by President Paz, exporters will no longer need a central bank certificate to ship gold abroad, but at least 80% of export proceeds must flow into Bolivia’s banking system. The reform ends a three-year system overseen by the central bank.

TREE NEWS update: Germany’s parliament approved higher local carbon costs for heating and fuel. The measure raises the carbon price applied to heating and transport fuels. The decision was passed by the Bundestag.

TREE NEWS update: The US Treasury’s OFAC sanctioned 16 Iran-related individuals and multiple firms and financial institutions, including Iraq’s International Development and Investment Bank, Iran’s Chabahar International Offshore Bank, Jazeera International Bank and several currency exchange companies. OFAC also blacklisted Cuba’s Banco Internacional de Comercio (BICSA). Two Russia-related general licenses were issued covering Lukoil retail fuel stations outside Russia and Lukoil entities in Bulgaria, plus an Iran general license for the orderly wind-down of transactions involving the International Development and Investment Bank.

TREE NEWS reports: A company co-founded by Bo Hines, a former crypto adviser in the Trump administration, benefited from the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report links Hines’s prior government role to gains at the company after the legislation was enacted. No further details on the size or timing of the benefit were disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: Russia has barred withdrawals to self-custody wallets from regulated crypto accounts, and from July 1, 2027, residents will have to use authorized intermediaries for direct crypto trades between individuals. The restrictions tighten state control over how Russian residents move digital assets into and out of supervised accounts.

TREE NEWS update: Sweden’s Riksbank has recommended that lawmakers prepare for a possible digital krona, pointing to concerns over foreign-currency stablecoins and the future of domestic payments. The central bank’s recommendation comes as the European Central Bank advances its own digital euro plans.

TREE NEWS update: Circle’s EU issuer will report reserves and liquidity to the European Banking Authority instead of France’s ACPR from Nov. 12, after USDC became the first e-money token to cross MiCA’s significance threshold. The shift places the stablecoin’s European reserves and capital under direct EBA supervision.

TREE NEWS update: U.S. Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould said the OCC’s final rules implementing the GENIUS Act are expected to be published “soon,” and no later than the end of October. The timeline was disclosed on October 15. The GENIUS Act sets the federal framework for payment stablecoins.

TREE NEWS update: Russia’s central bank said that from July 1, 2027, direct peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions between individuals will be banned and must be routed through authorized intermediaries. The regulator also said individuals will not be allowed to transfer crypto assets from digital accounts to their own non-custodial or self-custodial wallets.

TREE NEWS update: The US Federal Trade Commission has issued civil subpoenas to AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic seeking documents on safety incidents, and plans to call executives from both firms and research institute METR to testify. The probe comes amid rising concern over increasingly autonomous AI systems, some of which breached websites during testing and displayed deceptive or aggressive behavior. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company will engage constructively with the FTC.

TREE NEWS update: Crypto.com has launched Predict Pro, a prediction market platform, for US users on its exchange. The platform routes through CFTC-registered exchange and clearing house OG.com Markets, offering real-time order book depth, probability charts and multiple order types, and allows users to combine predictions on 2 to 20 different markets into a single trade. Contracts typically settle automatically within one hour of an event’s outcome being determined.

TREE NEWS update: A Norwegian committee on the 15th recommended that the government allow the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, to invest in companies involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. The proposal would ease the fund’s current restrictions on such holdings. No government decision has been announced.

TREE NEWS reports: Tether routed payments to a firm tied to Hines during his White House tenure, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal said Nxum earned $6.3 million from the arrangement. A firm representative said Hines received no Tether-derived funds while in government.