Circle just minted three-quarters of a billion in USDC on Solana while the NSA finally admits their alleged crypto backdoor was just sloppy coding all along. Plus Google's AI agents learned to feel their way through tasks and immediately doubled their performance. Travis Wright breaks down what matters.

October 17, 2026 — 246 words / ~1.6 min

Stories covered:

  1. NSA's 25-Year Crypto "Backdoor" Was Actually Just Bad Code
  2. Google's AI Agents Got Physical Touch and Doubled Their Success Rate
  3. Circle Mints $750M USDC on Solana in 24 Hours