layer

Goldman Sachs Research released a viewpoint on September 18, stating that AI is transitioning from the experimental phase to the implementation phase, with the rise of consumer-grade AI agents marking the emergence of the platform layer. At the Communacopia + Technology Conference held in San Francisco, most companies showcased cases from experimentation to implementation. Goldman Sachs expects that by 2027, capital expenditures for U.S. mega-cap companies will reach $1.4 trillion, exceeding Wall Street consensus.Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan stated that consumer-grade AI agents are shifting from conversational relationships to action-oriented tasks. If consumers overcome trust and security issues, they could execute complex tasks such as purchasing tickets and booking hotels. The monetization of such agents in the mass market will be similar to search, achieved through advertising and subscriptions. AI is evolving from the infrastructure layer to the platform layer and application layer, with declining token unit pricing and increased utility being key drivers of mass adoption.During the conference, concerns about AI risks became a major topic, but Goldman Sachs believes this will not slow down infrastructure construction, as demand for computing power still exceeds supply and most projects have already been contracted. Supply chain constraints such as memory chips, electricity, and land may pose resistance, but the capital expenditure cycle is expected to remain high through 2027.

The ZetaChain community passed Proposal 68 with a support rate of 99.4%, deciding to shut down its Layer 1 blockchain and migrate ZETA to Solana. The voter participation rate was 58%, exceeding the 40% quorum threshold, with both opposing and abstaining votes at 0.3%.ZetaChain stated that the project will focus on the AI application Anuma, launched in February this year, and believes that it is no longer necessary to maintain an independent Layer 1 based on Cosmos SDK. Anuma currently reports having over 300,000 users and has processed 1 million requests from 35 AI models.According to the proposal, ZETA will be converted to Solana's native SPL token at a 1:1 ratio, retaining the original ticker and total supply, with the existing unlocking plan unchanged, but excluding ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain. This vote did not determine the shutdown time; a second vote will be needed to confirm the balance snapshot block, shutdown block, and token redemption and asset withdrawal plans; the project team will not initiate the second vote until the exchange arrangements are confirmed. During this period, ZETA staking will continue.

According to official news, Matrix has completed a $6.5 million financing round, with participation from AC Capital, UZ Capital, and others.Matrix is an Unstoppable Execution Rollup built on top of BNB Chain L1. The project utilizes the Facet technology stack to reconstruct and deeply adapt the PoSA consensus, significantly enhancing ecological throughput capacity through an independent high-performance execution environment while fully inheriting BNB's ordering, data availability, and finality.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction event "LoL: IG vs JDG LPL Regional Finals Playoffs" on Polymarket, the "Yes" option for the sub-market "Any Player Quadra Kill" has experienced a sharp fluctuation in win rate, soaring from 27.5% an hour ago to the current 50% (a fluctuation of 22.5%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Binance will support the merger of Stargate Finance (STG) into LayerZero (ZRO). Binance will stop STG spot trading pairs on October 6, 2026, at 11:00 and will suspend deposits and withdrawals of the old STG tokens at 11:30.All STG tokens will be exchanged for ZRO tokens at a ratio of 1 STG = 0.08634 ZRO. Users should manage their positions and assets before the relevant time.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the market prediction event "LoL: Top Esports Matchup Fearless Game LPL Regional Finals Playoffs" on Polymarket, the "Yes" option for the sub-market "Any Player Quadra Kill" has experienced a significant fluctuation in winning probability, soaring from 34% an hour ago to the current 50% (a fluctuation of 16%). Please note the impact of related breaking news.

Investor Mike Vernal stated on X that the software industry may repeat the barbell phenomenon seen in the newspaper industry of the 1990s. After the internet brought distribution costs to zero, The New York Times' subscriptions increased from a print circulation of 1.113 million in 2002 to about 13.4 million, while the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and Dallas Morning News saw declines of 73% to 91%, with the middle tier disappearing.Vernal believes that AI is driving the costs of copying, migrating, and integrating software close to zero, eroding traditional moats, and reducing the importance of switching costs and network effects, while economies of scale and branding are rising. In the future, each procurement center for enterprise software will have one AI-native system, small and medium-sized enterprises will lean towards integrated systems, and medium-sized point solutions may be consolidated or disappear. He suggests that venture capital-supported software companies "go all in," with the moat being the extreme replication cost of building massive software daily and reinvesting. At the same time, a large number of small software solutions may emerge, similar to the Shopify ecosystem of the D2C era.

Market news says that Pinterest is collaborating with Nvidia to build a new artificial intelligence layer.

4D Labs announced that it has received investment from YZi Labs through the EASY Residency Season 2. The project aims to build a real-world embodied data layer for physical artificial intelligence, transforming real interactions into embodied data that can be used for training, supporting the expansion of artificial intelligence from language capabilities to action capabilities.

According to industry news, NVIDIA is considering adjusting the high bandwidth memory solution for the next-generation Rubin Ultra artificial intelligence accelerator from a 12-layer stack to an 8-layer stack.Against the backdrop of rising storage costs, NVIDIA is placing greater emphasis on unit bandwidth costs and overall system economics.

LayerZero announced the launch of Akita, calling it the first production-ready, lattice-based polynomial commitment scheme for post-quantum security.LayerZero stated that this is the first major step to achieve quantum security for Zero and will be implemented on the first day of Jolt's launch, thanks to collaboration with a16z crypto.

User chris__lu posted that they compiled all 236 companies and 470 founders from the YC Summer 2026 batch, categorizing each company into an AI technology stack layer and comparing it to the Spring batch using the same criteria. This batch still has 91% related to AI. The model companies increased from 8% to 20%, the application layer decreased from 55% to 39%, horizontal applications dropped from 58 to 32, and vertical applications remained at 25%.In the Spring, 45% of companies delivered autonomous agents, while in the Summer, it was 33%, with "agent" in a one-sentence introduction dropping from 27% to 19%. 21 companies are engaged in computational infrastructure, 11 focus on inference costs, and there are also companies for training data and reinforcement learning environments. Scale AI is listed as an alternative target by 8 companies. The industrial category increased from 12% to 24%, with 45 companies delivering physical products, 24 being robots or physical AI, and 21 companies operating their own businesses rather than selling software.This batch is the youngest, with 37% of founders being students or graduates in the last two years, 59 teams are entirely student teams, the dropout rate increased from 3% to 9%, and repeat founders decreased from 32% to 23%, with 84% having a technical background. 39 from Berkeley, 32 from MIT, and 25 from Stanford. Amazon is the largest source of talent. Sales and marketing AI decreased from 18 to 6. Only 19 founders come from AI labs, accounting for 4%. 8 founding teams come from the same previous employer.

Layer1 blockchain Linera posted on X that the LNRA community round commitment period has ended, failing to reach the minimum target of 1.5 million USDC. A total of 617 participants from 69 countries committed a total of 848,271 USDC.The related website will be updated soon to begin processing refunds, which will be returned to the same wallet used at the time of commitment. An announcement will be made once the refund process is live, and further updates will be released after the refund period ends.

According to official news, the total value locked (TVL) in X Layer DeFi has reached a historic high of 232 million USD. Star, the founder and CEO of OKX, stated in a post on X that the TVL itself is not the end goal; more importantly, lending, stablecoins, RWA, yield markets, and on-chain capital markets are connecting and promoting each other on X Layer.It is reported that X Layer is continuously improving the DeFi and RWA infrastructure, promoting the development of more real-world assets, on-chain liquidity, and financial applications within the ecosystem.

LayerZero announced that the South Korean digital asset custody institution BDACS has adopted LayerZero Labs' OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) standard for the Korean won-backed stablecoin KRW1, achieving native cross-chain interoperability.LayerZero stated that KRW1 thus becomes the first Korean won stablecoin that can be natively transferred across major DeFi ecosystems, with its supply able to flow seamlessly across networks without the need for wrapped tokens, avoiding liquidity fragmentation.

ARK Invest's Director of Digital Asset Research, Lorenzo Valente, posted on X that since the rise of L1, application chains, and Rollup-centric roadmaps, messaging and interoperability protocols have become critical infrastructure. As more assets go on-chain, the demand for universal interoperability will grow exponentially.Lorenzo Valente stated that the interoperability business of the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero is likely to quickly grow to a nine-figure ARR, and mentioned that the team has more progress to share in the future.

Layer1 Public Chain Linera has raised approximately $150,000 since launching its community round public fundraising on September 1, with 172 addresses participating, leaving a gap of 95.2% from the target of $3.2 million.It is reported that the token valuation for this round of financing is $160 million, lasting for a total of 7 days. Previously, in 2022 and 2023, Linera raised a total of $12 million, with investors including a16z, GSR, Tribe Capital, Flow Traders, Laser Digital, and others.