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Goldman Sachs and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have entered into a co-investment alongside PAI Partners in Froneri, valuing the ice­cream conglomerate at around €15 billion, including debt. The transaction restructures PAI’s 50 per cent stake in Froneri by rolling it into a new vehicle, with ADIA as a “significant minority” and a Goldman-led continuation vehicle also taking a position.

PAI has formally completed the €3.6 billion equity transaction, creating a fresh ownership arrangement for its Froneri shareholding. The Goldman Sachs Alternatives instruments, deployed via a single-asset continuation vehicle, attracted oversubscription, while the ADIA subsidiary secured its role as co-investor. PAI emphasised the move underscores confidence in Froneri’s trajectory and enables further growth ambitions. The firm also appointed Weil as legal counsel for the transaction.

Froneri, launched in 2016 as a 50:50 joint venture between PAI’s R&R Ice Cream and Nestlé’s European ice cream operations, now reports annual revenues near €5.5 billion and over 12,000 employees across 25 markets. In 2019 it further expanded by acquiring Nestlé’s U. S. ice cream arm—bringing brands such as Häagen-Dazs, Drumstick, and Outshine into its portfolio. That acquisition elevated Froneri’s global presence and sharpened the competition with Unilever’s Ice Cream business, soon to be spun off as Magnum Ice Cream Company.

Nestlé is retaining its circa 50 per cent share in Froneri and has expressed support for this new capital injection and structural reset. PAI, on its part, expects the new format to help it maintain alignment with institutional investors while reaping long-term value from an asset already showing consistent growth.

The ADIA involvement aligns with the sovereign fund’s strategy to diversify into private equity and alternative investments. ADIA was among the most active sovereign wealth funds in the first nine months of 2025, particularly in co-investment deals and private equity events across global markets. Placing capital into a well–established consumer goods platform like Froneri helps balance its portfolio between growth and stability.

Continuation vehicles, such as the one orchestrated by Goldman Sachs in this case, have seen increasing adoption in private equity markets. They allow firms to extend holding periods for assets beyond the life of original funds, while offering liquidity options to existing limited partners. In this Froneri transaction, demand exceeded expectations—signalling investor appetite for high-quality consumer assets.

A wave of investor appetite lifted the combined market cap of the top 15 public bitcoin miners to $58.1 billion in September, up from $41.6 billion in August and nearly three times the March low of $19.9 billion. That gain vastly outpaced bitcoin’s six-month rise of 21 per cent.

Iris Energy delivered a standout return of +624 per cent, while Applied Digital jumped +345 per cent and Cipher Mining rallied +321 per cent. Other strong performers included TeraWulf, Hut 8 and Bitfarms, up between +179 and +280 per cent; Riot Platforms added +147 per cent, HIVE rose +133 per cent, and Core Scientific gained +105 per cent. Even industry heavyweights such as CleanSpark, Bitdeer and Mara Holdings posted returns well above bitcoin’s own gain.

The bullish momentum coincided with accelerating pivots by mining firms into high-performance computing and AI infrastructure. Cipher Mining secured a 10-year colocation deal with AI cloud provider Fluidstack worth $3 billion, supported by $1.4 billion in backing from Google for lease obligations in return for share warrants. This deal boosted investor confidence and underscored the strategic shift beyond raw bitcoin mining.

Analysts note that miners with credible AI/HPC pivots posted average gains of roughly 57 per cent over the past month, significantly beating more traditional or “pure-play” miners. Those gains also outstripped bitcoin’s roughly 9 per cent rise in the same period.

At the same time, the bitcoin network’s hash rate jumped 9 per cent month on month, reaching an average of about 1,031 exahashes per second. That increase intensified competition and compressed margins: daily block reward revenue fell 10 per cent, and gross profit dropped 17 per cent compared to August.

Although elevated valuations reflect renewed investor faith in the mining sector, concerns about sustainability persist. The widening gap between equity valuations and operating revenues prompts questions about whether mining operators can sustain growth amid rising electricity costs, regulatory risks and hardware supply constraints.

Several firms are doubling down on their diversification efforts. Iris Energy has expanded into cloud services, while Core Scientific is pushing deeper into enterprise AI hosting. TeraWulf recently announced multi-year AI hosting contracts backed by Google and leased deployment capacity across its sites.

The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management has issued a no-action stance confirming that registered advisers and regulated funds may use state-chartered trust companies for custody of crypto assets without fear of enforcement under certain conditions.

Under the letter released on 30 September, the SEC staff stated it “would not recommend enforcement action” against advisers or funds that treat state trust companies as a “bank” for purposes of holding digital assets and related cash, provided they adhere to strict safeguards and eligibility requirements. The letter stops short of legal advice, but marks a shift in how crypto custody might evolve under federal oversight.

While the no-action relief does not carry the force of a rule, it addresses long-standing ambiguity over whether state trust companies qualified as custodians under the Investment Advisers Act and the Investment Company Act. The guidance is conditional on advisers performing due diligence to confirm the trust’s authority, maintaining audited financial statements, segregating client assets, restricting rehypothecation without client consent, and verifying internal controls.

The SEC’s letter was precipitated by a request from law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett on behalf of financial advisers seeking formal assurances about using state trust entities for crypto custody. This marks the second such no-action letter from the agency in short order, reflecting a trend towards regulatory clarity in crypto frameworks.

Proponents argue the move broadens the pool of eligible custodians beyond a small set of federally chartered institutions. Many prominent crypto custodians already operate under state trust charters, including affiliates of Coinbase, Paxos, and others. Under previous regulatory interpretations, these firms faced uncertainty about whether they satisfied the “qualified custodian” requirement.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce applauded the letter, saying it ends the “guessing game” that advisers confronted in choosing custody providers. She suggested the guidance could pave the way for future reforms of custody rules that are more flexible and technology-aware. However, Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw dissented, warning that the agency’s move bypasses formal rulemaking and could undermine trust in the regulatory process by favouring state trust firms over applicants seeking national charters.

Market observers welcomed the clarity. James Seyffart, an ETF analyst, described the letter as “a textbook example of more clarity for the digital asset space.” Institutional participants, previously wary of custody risk, may now consider deeper allocations to crypto. The move may also prompt competition from new entrants able to operate under state trust frameworks.

India defeated Pakistan in the Asia Cup final in Dubai, but it was the trophy presentation that has reverberated across cricketing circles. Indian players refused to accept the trophy or medals from Mohsin Naqvi, the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board and President of the Asian Cricket Council, turning what should have been a moment of celebration into a publicly charged standoff.

Tensions ripple beyond the pitch because of this act. Through the refusal, both nations have set what analysts say is a dangerous template where political grievances eclipse sport itself. The decision to rebuff a symbolic handover, traditionally steeped in sporting civility, signals that future India-Pakistan fixtures may be shaped less by cricketing merit than by national narratives.

The refusal drew immediate attention. India’s captain, Suryakumar Yadav, lamented that his team was denied the rightful moment of recognition. Across national media, voices questioned the boundaries between patriotism and play. In Pakistan, captain Salman Ali Agha accused India of disrespecting the spirit of cricket, while insisting that gestures made behind closed doors had been misrepresented.

For India, the refusal came after repeated snubs in the tournament — players declined to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts. The Board of Control for Cricket in India confirmed that the team had resolved not to accept the trophy from Naqvi. The BCCI plans to lodge a formal protest at the upcoming ICC meeting.

Observers see this as the collapse of the practice known as “cricket diplomacy” — the idea that cricketing encounters might ease broader geopolitical tensions. Analysts warn that once such norms crumble, they are difficult to resurrect. The absence of handshakes, the broken presentation protocol, and accusations of politicisation all feed into a narrative that cricket is simply another front in the bilateral rivalry.

This is not the first time politics has shadowed India-Pakistan cricket, but few moments match the clarity of this rupture. Political polarisation in both countries has long influenced bilateral relations, and the 2025 military flare-ups between them have deepened fissures. Some critics argue that the match-day conduct was unavoidable given the broader climate of hostility. Others contend that the sanctity of the game deserves insulation from statecraft.

Stakeholders are now walking a tightrope. The ACC must decide whether to uphold its leadership’s neutrality or face accusations of bias. The ICC will be pressured to weigh in — either by endorsing standards that separate sport from politics or by allowing countries to redefine the conduct of play. Grassroots cricket lovers, meanwhile, worry that the spectacle of national identities may overshadow the joy of the game itself.

U. S. securities regulators have delivered a rare favourable response to a crypto infrastructure startup, granting a “no-action” letter to DoubleZero that clears its 2Z token from immediate enforcement risk under securities laws. The Division of Corporation Finance stated that, based on the facts presented, it would not recommend enforcement action and that the 2Z token need not be registered as a class of equity securities.

The letter, dated 29 September 2025, indicates that the Division accepted the argument that DoubleZero’s programmatic transfers of 2Z tokens—automatic distributions tied to network contribution—fall outside the classic securities framework if conducted as specified. The Division emphasised that its position is fact-sensitive: any deviation from the described token model could alter the assessment.

SEC Chief Counsel Michael Seaman signed the response, and the Division’s stance affirms that, under the conditions laid out by DoubleZero and its counsel, compliance with Sections 5 and 12 of U. S. securities law is not required for this token model. The decision does not amount to a general opt-out for all tokens, but offers a regulatory precedent for projects structured similarly.

Commissioner Hester Peirce, in a public statement accompanying the action, framed the move as a model for how the SEC might engage with innovation without expanding its reach beyond mandates set by Congress. She observed that Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network projects like DoubleZero differ fundamentally from capital-raising schemes: tokens issued in DePIN networks are intended to incentivise contributors rather than to deliver profits derived from managerial efforts. Peirce argued that applying securities laws to such tokens risks stifling infrastructure growth rather than protecting investors.

DoubleZero’s model reconstructs how blockchain systems interact with underutilised physical fibre infrastructure. Contributors supplying fibre bandwidth or network connectivity can earn 2Z tokens as compensation. The company asserts that these tokens function primarily as utility instruments—facilitating access and rewarding service—not as speculative investments. The SEC’s letter affirms that under its described assumptions, Howey-style securities analysis does not capture this design.

Market response was muted. Tokens in the DePIN ecosystem dipped by around 2 % in the 24 hours following the announcement—suggesting that while the regulatory clarity is a positive signal for builders, traders may be cautious about immediate upside.

Industry stakeholders view this as a potentially transformative moment. Legal and crypto analysts argue that the DoubleZero relief may embolden other infrastructure-oriented projects to seek direct regulatory engagement, rather than assuming hostile enforcement. The letter gives craftable guardrails for teams to align token economic models with functional incentives.

Nevertheless, the relief comes with caveats. The Division reserves the right to reconsider if conditions change. As critics note, this decision does not immunise DePIN tokens universally—each must be evaluated on whether token distribution is truly non-speculative, decentralised, and aligned with service contribution. Projects must maintain transparent, algorithmic issuance plans and avoid marketing that emphasises profits or speculation.