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ChainCatcher news, USDC issuer Circle announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Interop Labs team and its proprietary intellectual property. The acquisition is expected to be completed in early 2026. Circle looks forward to contributing to the broader field of interoperability and will continue to explore opportunities aligned with its vision for an open, interconnected, and scalable on-chain economy. Interop Labs has been a core contributor to Axelar, one of the most advanced frameworks in cross-chain communication and token transfer, and has driven Axelar’s core development together with a growing open-source contributor community. By directly integrating Interop Labs’ talent and technology into Circle, the goal is to accelerate two core initiatives: first, Arc—Circle’s enterprise-grade blockchain designed to be an operating system for the internet economy; and second, the cross-chain transfer protocol. It should be clarified that this transaction only involves the Interop Labs team and its proprietary intellectual property. As the team joins Circle, the Axelar network, foundation, and AXL token will continue to operate independently under community governance, and open-source intellectual property will remain open. Common Prefix, another contributor to the Axelar project, will take over the related work from Interop Labs.

Jinse Finance reported that Oracle (ORCL.N)'s aggressive AI spending plan has drawn significant attention to its bonds as Wall Street searches for cracks in the AI boom. JPMorgan credit analyst Erica Spear expects that the pressure on the company's bonds will persist into next year. Last week, Oracle's stock price experienced its largest drop in nearly 11 months, and its credit risk indicators climbed to a 16-year high. The company's financial report showed that revenue fell short of market expectations, while its annual capital expenditure target was raised by $15 billion, and its future leasing commitments more than doubled. Co-CEO Clay Magouyrk stated that the company is committed to maintaining its investment-grade debt rating, and that the actual borrowing scale may be lower than analysts' forecasts of over $100 billion. Spear commented, "This is precisely the challenge for investors: management continues to finance investments almost entirely through debt. Although this is not surprising, it remains frustrating given the generally unclear investment timeline and cap."