Hong Kong just took bank settlement off the clock. Its monetary authority moved EnsembleTX to 24/7 real-value settlement — tokenised deposits settling in central-bank money, beyond banking hours. It also completed secondary-market trials in tokenised Exchange Fund Bills, and regulated stablecoins are next in the trials. This is not a retail coin launch. It is the plumbing: money moving when markets do, not when offices open. Bitcoin sits near $76,900 while Hong Kong rewires settlement itself — the question is which financial centre follows first.

Bitcoin just did something it has never done at a midterm election. It is trading above its 200-day moving average — near $76,400, against an average around $73,169. In 2014, 2018 and 2022, Bitcoin went into the midterms 35%, 9% and 22% BELOW that same line. The selloff is real — early results knocked it under $77,000, and prediction markets now price a Democratic sweep near 95%. But the long-term trend line hasn't broken. The question is whether election night is a dip in an uptrend — or the start of the break.

Early midterm results are in — and crypto just blinked. Bitcoin slipped below $77,000 as early results pointed to Democratic gains in Congress, reversing part of its November 3 recovery. The worry in the market: a shift in House control could further delay crypto legislation, including the CLARITY Act. The backdrop was already fragile — Bitcoin and Ether ETFs saw about $1.3 billion in combined outflows over two trading days. The votes were the trigger. The question now is what the new House does with crypto's rulebook.

The XRP Ledger is closing a loophole today — one that could let tokens be created by accounts only allowed to destroy them. The fix, called fixCleanup3_4_0, targets November 4, with activation estimated around 14:46 UTC if validator support holds. Support is strong: 33 of 35 tracked trusted validators back it, about 94%, well above the 80% needed. The flaw hit issued tokens and stablecoins on the ledger — not XRP's own supply. And the warning stands until it lands: account owners are advised not to grant that burn permission in the meantime. Bitcoin sits near $77,800 while a quiet network upgrade does what headlines rarely do — fix the plumbing before it breaks.

AMD just beat on every headline number — and the market still found a catch. Revenue hit a record $13.38 billion in Q3, up 45% from a year earlier, beating the $13.10 billion expected. Data centre sales nearly doubled, up 97% to $8.5 billion. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.09 a share, above the $1.95 consensus. Then the guide: about $17 billion for Q4, above the roughly $16.3 billion expected — and the stock rose about 7% after hours, to about $519. The catch: free cash flow fell to $554 million, down from $1.53 billion a year earlier. Bitcoin sits near $77,900 while the chip trade asks a sharper question — is this growth, or growth bought on credit?

Bitcoin's chart just flashed a red signal — and it is not about price. CoinDesk reports the Guppy Multiple Moving Average has turned bearish: Bitcoin's price has dropped below both moving-average bundles, and the short-term bundle has slipped below the long-term one. The long-term lines are now squeezing together and starting to slope downward. That is the textbook shape of a trend losing its floor, not a single bad day. Bitcoin sits near $76,800, down about 1.8% on the day, after slipping below $77,000. A red GMMA does not call the bottom. It says the trend itself has flipped — and traders now wait for the chart to prove it wrong.

BlackRock's Bitcoin fund just saw its biggest exit since June. IBIT recorded $405.3 million in net outflows on Monday, November 2 — its largest single-day withdrawal since June 26, when $444.5 million left. The twist: total US spot Bitcoin ETF outflows that day were $398.6 million — less than IBIT alone. Fidelity's FBTC actually took in $6.7 million, partly offsetting the exit. So this was not every fund bleeding at once. It was the biggest fund doing the bleeding, while a smaller one still attracted money. Bitcoin sits near $76,700, down about 2% on the day. When the market's largest Bitcoin vehicle sees its heaviest exit in four months, the question is whether holders are leaving Bitcoin — or just leaving IBIT.

Strategy just bought Bitcoin at $80,846 — and Bitcoin now sits near $77,000. The company bought 811 BTC between October 26 and November 1 for about $65.5 million, per its November 2 SEC filing. That latest tranche is already underwater. But the full stack tells a different story: 849,327 BTC at an average cost of $75,451 — still below today's price. So the newest buy is losing, while the long-held stack is still ahead. The twist: in the same week, Strategy spent $208.2 million buying back its own preferred stock — more than three times what it spent on Bitcoin. The biggest corporate Bitcoin buyer is still buying. It just spent more defending its own stock than adding to the stack.

AMD reports after today's close — on Election Day itself. Wall Street expects revenue near $13.1 billion, up about 42% from a year ago, with earnings of $1.95 a share, up from $1.20. The setup is bruised: the stock fell almost 11% on Friday to $504.80 after Intel's weak outlook rattled chip names. Options traders are pricing a move of about 9% in either direction after the print. The number that matters most isn't the quarter just ended — it's whether data-center growth accelerates, and what AMD guides for the holiday quarter.

Apple's new CEO faces his first earnings test after today's close — and the test isn't demand. Analysts expect $113.4 billion in revenue, up about 11%, with iPhone sales near $56.5 billion, up about 15%. But profit growth is expected to slow to its weakest pace in six quarters — because memory-chip costs are rising, squeezing margins to 47–48% from 50.1%. The catch: the quarter holds only nine days of new iPhone 18 Pro sales. The real verdict comes with the holiday-quarter outlook. Strong sales, thinner margins. Tonight's report is about what Apple keeps, not just what it sells.