The world’s largest private debt offering, a bond series for one of Meta’s AI data centers, has slumped to its worst level since the deal priced at par last October.

As the Nasdaq composite closed at an all-time high on Tuesday in an AI-led rally, unease rose in the credit market for the industry.

The $27.3 billion bond financing Meta’s Hyperion AI data center traded down to a disconcerting 94.4 cents on the dollar, a record low. Worse, the loss coincided with Meta’s largest intraday stock rally in a year: 9%.

The bond series was the largest private debt offering ever sold. Corporate notes, backed by Mark Zuckerberg’s massive AI division at Meta, boasted a 6.581% coupon and a long-dated 2049 maturity.

PIMCO, the world’s largest bond manager, anchored the deal with about $18 billion. Funds by the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, bought upward of $3 billion. 

Although the symposium is not secret, it has received little media attention. Its public footprint consists largely of occasional posts from attendees rather than prominent FBI announcements or the publicity campaigns typical of commercial crypto conferences.

A LinkedIn post published by Token Recovery executive Roman Bieda confirms that the 2024 symposium took place in Austin.

Bieda, attending for a third time, said it convened an international group of public and private-sector specialists to discuss threats including money laundering, ransomware, human trafficking and crypto-related scams. He did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

From government gathering to industry forum

The gathering was once weighted more heavily toward government agencies and public sector officials, according to one of the people who spoke to CoinDesk.

It has since expanded to include more representatives from the crypto industry, they added.

The focus is practical, aimed at informing attendees about emerging attack methods, what techniques are proving effective, and how North Korean operatives are targeting crypto companies.

A detailed presentation covered the Drift exploit, in which hackers gained administrative control and used a manipulated token as collateral to steal more than $270 million from the Solana-based decentralized exchange in April, the person added.

Sharing intelligence on crypto threats

Unlike the polished venues and promotional atmosphere of major crypto gatherings, the FBI symposium is deliberately low-key, one of the attendees said. Its growing industry presence, however, reflects how closely law enforcement now depends on crypto companies, blockchain analysts and security researchers to identify attackers and trace stolen funds.

Quick Read

• Duke Energy (DUK) beats Southern Company (SO) on yield (3.62% vs. 3.49%), dividend coverage, and 20-plus consecutive years of annual raises.

• Duke’s $103 billion capital plan and 7.8 GW of data center contracts give its dividend a cleaner, faster-growing funding engine than Southern’s.

• Southern’s wind repowering charges and Nicor disallowances drain roughly $325 million in cash through 2027, actively competing with its dividend.

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For a retirement investor building an income sleeve from regulated utilities, the choice between Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and Southern Company (NYSE:SO) matters for income construction. Here is how they compare. Both benefit from data center load growth in the SERC region, but their dividends, balance sheets, and growth engines move at different speeds. Here is the head-to-head across the three dimensions that matter for income holders.

Dividend Yield, Coverage, and Raise History

Start with the check-writing math. Duke pays a $4.34 annualized forward dividend against a share price of $115.20, for a trailing yield of 3.62%. Southern pays a $3.04 annualized forward dividend at $84.40, yielding 3.49%. Duke also covers its payout more comfortably: TTM EPS of $6.64 against a $4.26 per-share payout, versus Southern’s $4.15 EPS against $2.98.

Both are long-tenured raisers, but Duke has been more generous. CFO Brian Savoy noted on the Q2 call that the July hike marked “over 20 years of consecutive annual dividend increases”. Duke’s quarterly went from 1.065 to 1.085 at the August 14, 2026 ex-date. Southern’s most recent bump took the payout from $0.74 to $0.76 at the May 18, 2026 ex-date, in line with its once-a-year cadence. Winner: DUK. Higher yield, better coverage, faster recent raise.

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What Actually Funds the Dividend

Story Continues

Duke is executing the largest regulated capital plan in the industry, a $103 billion, five-year program targeting 9.6% earnings base growth through 2030, deploying more than $1 billion per month. It has locked in 7.8 gigawatts of electric service agreements with data center customers and settled its DEC North Carolina case with a 9.8% ROE and 53% equity capital structure. FFO-to-debt is guided to 14.5% for 2026, moving toward 15%.

Southern’s regulatory relationships are constructive. Georgia Power secured a three-year rate freeze while committing to lower rates in future rate proceedings due to charging data centers more so that families and small businesses pay less. But Southern carries cash drag: roughly $205 million of accelerated depreciation remaining in 2026 and $120 million in 2027 tied to Southern Power wind repowering, plus Nicor Gas capital investment disallowances by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Winner: DUK. Bigger rate-base engine, cleaner near-term story.

Growth Trajectory vs. Starting Income

Duke reaffirmed 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $6.55 to $6.80 and a 5% to 7% long-term EPS growth target through 2030, with confidence in the top half of that range beginning 2028. Management flagged $5 to $10 billion of upside to the current five-year capital plan if pending large-load contracts convert. Duke trades at a forward P/E of about 16 versus Southern’s 17. Southern’s strength is lower beta (0.316 vs. Duke’s 0.364) and stronger long-run price performance (137.68% over ten years vs. Duke’s 109.27%). Winner: DUK on growth per dollar of price.

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Verdict

Duke Energy screens stronger on income fundamentals for a retirement-focused portfolio today. You get the higher yield, the better-covered payout, the larger capital plan, the more constructive recent rate order, and the cheaper forward multiple, all wrapped in the same low-beta regulated utility profile. Southern still screens well, and its 9 million regulated customer base and Georgia Power franchise are among the best in the country, but the wind repowering charges and Nicor disallowances are actively competing with the dividend for cash through 2027. What flips this call: a materially adverse ruling in a Duke jurisdiction, or Southern accelerating its raise cadence past the penny-a-year pace. Until then, DUK screens as the stronger income name.

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Cosmos Hub validators halted block production on Tuesday, following a governance attack on Neutron which initially led to losses of $9.5 million.

Of that sum, the attacker was only able to extract around 20%, with the remainder stuck on halted networks.

With block production having resumed since 12:00 UTC on Wednesday, Cosmos Hub was ultimately offline for over 24 hours after halting at block height 33086740.

This latest incident marks the third security scare in recent months for the wider Cosmos ecosystem.

Read more: Cosmos Labs under fire over disclosure of bug affecting four blockchains

The governance attack

A malicious “AI Agent Takeover” governance proposal was passed on Neutron, a Cosmos-ecosystem chain which entered its “long-term maintenance phase” earlier this year.

The proposal allowed the attacker to take control of two Neutron-based applications, Astroport and Drop, and drain contracts of assets worth $4.9 million and $4.4 million, respectively.

The attacker reportedly spent just $20,199 to acquire the NTRN tokens needed to pass the vote.

The response

In response to the attack, Neutron was paused, trapping an estimated $5 million worth of assets.

In turn, Cosmos Hub validators also decided to halt, securing a further 1.2 million ATOM (over $2.2 million) held in the attacker’s address. The scheduled restart is set to include a queued refund of the trapped ATOM balance.

The hacker’s Ethereum address holds $1.8 million, with a further transaction worth over $300,000 pending on THORChain, though this is set to be refunded to the Cosmos Hub address upon restart.

Read more: Osmosis took 74 days to discover 40-BTC Nomic exploit

Chaos in the Cosmos ecosystem

In late August, a bug in Cosmos Labs’ Cosmos EVM module led to protocol-level exploits on four blockchains.

The disclosure procedure was heavily criticised by one of the affected projects, KiiChain, which dubbed the loss of $9 million worth of its KII tokens “avoidable.”

Earlier this month, Cosmos-based exchange Osmosis revealed that a June 25 exploit of Nomic’s bridge had minted 40 nBTC (worth $3.6 million at the time) out of thin air, which left Osmosis’ allBTC partially (36%) unbacked.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

What areas are affected?

Open interest distribution

The $70,000 strike has more open contracts than any other, and the calls there are now deep in the money.

Strijers said 55% of the $9.4 billion in call bets due for expiry are in the money. Puts, meanwhile, are mostly worthless right now. Put it together, and about a third of the entire $15.9 billion book is currently in the money.

Being in the money means being in profit – an option has intrinsic value because the market price is on the favorable side of its strike. For a call, the underlying trades above the strike; for a put, it trades below the strike.

Deribit’s Chief Commercial Officer Jean-David Péquignot said the distribution of open interest across strike prices suggests a price floor around $75,000.

“Open interest is heavily concentrated at the $85k, $90k, $95k, and $100k call strikes, underscoring the ongoing influence of large 85k/90k/95k/100k call condor blocks that are now coming directly into play as spot trades near $86k,” Péquignot said. “On the put side, defensive structures are firmly anchored at $60k, $70k, and $75k, creating a multi-layered support floor.”

What happens on the expiry day?

Friday’s expiry could breed some market turbulence, eventually resetting the trading range for BTC’s spot price.

That’s because, as per Strijers, the expiry will clear out dealer-related hedging.

Nearly 67% of affluent investors across the United States, United Kingdom and Argentina have owned crypto, but only 4.7% have integrated digital assets deeply into long term financial planning, according to new research from Nexo.

According to Nexo’s “The Future of Digital Wealth 2026” report, operational issues such as security, fees and platform complexity remain among the main obstacles for wealthy investors who already have exposure to digital assets.

The survey covered 1,000 affluent investors and was conducted through research platform Attest in February and March 2026. Participants needed at least $100,000 in liquid assets in the U.S. and U.K. or $40,000 in Argentina, thresholds Nexo said were designed to capture the top 25% to 30% of investors by investable wealth in each market.

Ownership was relatively common across the surveyed group, with roughly two thirds holding digital assets. Their average score on Nexo’s new Crypto Integration Index, however, stood at 4.83 out of 10.

High net worth investors own crypto but integration remains limited

Nexo created the Crypto Integration Index to measure how digital assets fit into an investor’s finances beyond simply owning them. Five factors receive equal weight: allocation size, holding period, retirement integration, replacement of traditional assets and perceived risk.

An investor near the 4.83 survey average typically held a relatively small crypto position over a shorter period and had not incorporated it into retirement planning, according to the report.

Only 4.7% of respondents scored 7 or higher. Nexo classified investors above that threshold as “Structurally Integrated,” meaning their crypto positions had generally been held for longer, had replaced part of a traditional asset allocation and had become part of long term financial planning.

Conviction appeared stronger than the integration figures suggested. Just under 20% of surveyed investors expected crypto to become their biggest source of personal wealth creation over the coming decade, ahead of salary, equities and real estate.

Nexo analyst Iliya Kalchev said perceived risk showed little difference between investors who had deeply incorporated crypto into their finances and those who had not.

“What actually divides them is whether they’ve substituted crypto for a traditional asset and folded it into retirement planning,” Kalchev said.

Interest in incorporating crypto into managed portfolios has appeared elsewhere in the wealth industry. A September poll shared by Bitwise found that 60% of participating wealth managers planned to allocate to crypto within a year, even though 67% said they were not currently allocating client portfolios to digital assets.

Security and fees remain hurdles for deeper crypto use

Operational concerns became more prominent among investors who had already reached higher levels of crypto integration.

Among respondents with Crypto Integration Index scores of 7 or above, 36% cited security concerns as a source of friction. High fees were identified by 34%, while 28% pointed to platform complexity.

Neil Steinhardt, chief operating officer of Nexo US, said investors who had moved beyond concerns about crypto risk were left dealing with security, fees and the usability and capabilities of platforms.

“That’s the gap between owning crypto and actually building wealth with it,” Steinhardt said.

Nexo has a commercial interest in digital asset adoption and acknowledged that relationship in disclosures accompanying the research. The company said its index is intended as a descriptive measure of reported investor behavior and that a higher score should not be interpreted as representing a better investment strategy.

The findings come after Nexo returned to the U.S. market in February 2026 with investment, trading and crypto backed credit products. As crypto.news previously reported, the relaunch followed the company’s earlier withdrawal from the country and a $45 million settlement with U.S. regulators over its Earn Interest Product.

Nexo said at the time that its U.S. services would operate through a compliance focused framework. CryptoQuant data cited around the relaunch showed the platform had issued approximately $863 million in loans during the preceding year.

Crypto integration differs across the U.S., U.K. and Argentina

Nexo’s survey found a gap between the number of people holding crypto in each market and the extent to which those holdings had become part of their financial planning.

Argentina recorded the highest ownership rate at 74%, but its average Crypto Integration Index score was 4.62, the lowest of the three markets surveyed.

The United States produced the opposite pattern. Crypto ownership among U.S. respondents stood at 62%, below Argentina and the U.K., while its average integration score of 5.07 was the highest.

U.K. respondents sat between the two markets, with 65% reporting crypto ownership and an average index score of 4.75.

Argentina has become a growing market for Nexo itself. The company launched a crypto card in the country in July, allowing eligible clients to make purchases in Argentine pesos and U.S. dollars while using digital assets through the platform. Nexo appointed Andres Ondarra as general manager for Argentina as part of the same expansion.

The country’s relatively high ownership rate comes as the number of people holding crypto worldwide continues to grow. Henley & Partners estimated in September that global crypto ownership had reached 742 million people, even as the number of crypto millionaires fell to 135,694 during a contraction in the digital asset market.

Retirement use peaks among investors aged 35 to 44

Age produced another gap between crypto ownership and its use in long term financial planning.

Investors between 35 and 44 recorded the deepest retirement integration in Nexo’s survey, with 28% treating crypto as a core retirement asset.

Respondents between 18 and 25 showed the highest ownership and conviction. More than 90% in the age group reported holding crypto, but only 2% said they had an investment horizon of at least 10 years.

Retirement products have gradually begun opening additional routes for digital asset exposure in some markets. Coinbase Australia, for example, added support for self managed super funds in May, allowing eligible trustees to incorporate crypto exposure into self directed retirement portfolios.

Institutional surveys have shown a similar willingness to consider larger allocations. A Coinbase and EY Parthenon survey of 351 institutional investors conducted in January found 73% planned to raise their digital asset allocations during 2026, while 74% expected crypto prices to rise.

Nexo cautioned that its own findings apply specifically to the surveyed group of affluent investors and are not representative of the general population. The company described crypto assets as speculative and high risk instruments whose value can fall rapidly, while advising investors to seek independent financial, legal and tax advice before making investment decisions.