Tuesday, October 13, 2026

SATS at 15%

https://investors.strive.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2026/Strive-Announces-Proposed-Initial-Public-Offering-of-SATS-Stock/default.aspx

Monday, October 12, 2026

E-commerce Industry News Recap 🔥 Week of October 12th, 2026

Hi r/ecommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Every week for the past 6 years I've posted a summary recap of the week's top stories on this subreddit, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition.

Let's dive in to this week's top e-commerce news from Edition #299...

STAT OF THE WEEK: Shoppers using ChatGPT made 84% of their final product picks from the product cards rather than the chatbot’s written answer, according to a user behavior study ReFiBuy commissioned from Clickstream Solutions. Researchers recorded 40 US shoppers across 224 shopping tasks, who picked the first card 43% of the time when shown two or more options, and bought from the first retailer listed 76% of the time. It sounds like the first ChatGPT product card is the new #1 Google result, and the first retailer listed is the new Amazon Buy Box.

TikTok unveiled Buy Direct, a one-click checkout built into the For You feed, and Shopping Assistant, an AI agent that answers questions and completes the order in the same chat, at Advertising Week New York 2026. Buy Direct lets a shopper go from searching for product recommendations or watching a video to completing a purchase directly with the brand, without ever leaving the TikTok app, powered by integrations with Shopify, Stripe, Salesforce, and Shoplazza. Shopping Assistant is an AI agent that handles product questions, sizing, shipping, and purchases in one chat. This looks to be positioned as TikTok’s answer to shoppers leaving the app to research products on Google, ChatGPT, or Amazon, which inevitably leads to buying the items elsewhere. TikTok hasn’t given a launch date for either tool, but historically, they haven’t teased product releases too far off into the future, so I’d imagine we may be seeing some of these tools this holiday season.

Meta and Sierra introduced the Personal Agent Protocol, an open standard for how AI agents like Meta’s Muse and Instinct’s personal assistant sign into and act on company websites, with Walmart, Shopify, and Stripe among its key launch partners. Sierra co-founder Bret Taylor, who also chairs OpenAI’s board, is leading the initiative and compared it to logging into websites with your Google or Facebook account. Agents can act as a guest for low-stakes tasks like checking stock or reading a return policy, or sign in to the customer’s account for account tasks like changing an order, processing a return, or booking an appointment. Customers choose whether an agent gets read-only or write access, and businesses choose which actions agents can take as well as the entry point, which can be either their website, APIs, or their own customer-service agent. The protocol keeps the agent in one continuous session as it moves from guest to signed-in customer and across channels so that the entire visit is tied to a real customer rather than a string of anonymous bot requests. There are no payments built into the protocol yet, but the ability for agents to buy without handling card numbers is listed as a future extension.

Meta started blocking all ads from ByteDance on Facebook, Instagram and its other apps in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. The ban also covers outside advertisers whose campaigns link to TikTok or other ByteDance apps, according to Bloomberg. Meta spokesperson Chris Sgro said in an e-mailed statement, "We don’t have to run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps. Declining promotional services to a competitor is a normal business practice across industries. We will continue to compete on product quality and user experience." You’ll notice that no EU countries made the list, which likely isn’t a coincidence. The EU’s Digital Markets Act designates Facebook, Instagram, and Meta’s ad business as “gatekeeper” services, which requires them to give businesses fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory access to their platforms, and a blanket ban on a competitor’s ads would almost certainly break that rule. It seems Meta’s “normal business practice” only applies where regulators won’t call it something else.

Funny enough, Google may be dealing with a similar issue very soon. It was revealed last week that OpenAI is buying Google search ads on Christmas gift keywords to steer holiday shoppers from Google over to ChatGPT, according to a LinkedIn post by Michael Scott, head of organic search at Clicky. A screenshot Scott shared shows a sponsored ChatGPT result under a LEGO ad for the search “Christmas gifts for dads,” headlined “Gift Search with ChatGPT | Gifts for Mom, Dad, and More.” The ad positions ChatGPT as a way to find gift ideas without opening endless tabs, with links to browse by budget, find deals and compare products. OpenAI hasn’t publicly announced the campaign or said how much it is spending on Google ads. It’s interesting though that they’re using the TikTok playbook to drive traffic from competitors. I’m curious if / how Google will respond.

Amazon shoppers are posting the About You profiles Amazon has built on them, after a Threads user found hers included guesses like “has flat buttocks” and others shared entries like “cusses when scared” and “has a bad father.” Amazon launched the About You page in May, which shares what the company thinks it has determined about a shopper’s product preferences, interests, and hobbies, as well as their home and family, based on searches, orders, reviews, saved Lists, and Alexa for Shopping conversations. The guesses aren’t always accurate, especially when gift-giving is added into the mix, but shoppers can add details or delete entries they find wrong or too personal, though they can’t turn the feature off. Other entries that shoppers shared from their About You pages include, "Has a stomach that hangs over their vagina," "Has no friends," "Has a small weiner," and "Treats cats as biological children."

The FTC is investigating whether Block broke consumer protection law by failing to offer Square users adequate support after freezing or shutting down their accounts, and it’s asking a federal judge in Oakland to make Block turn over documents. The agency opened the probe last year after more than 1,500 complaints were submitted from users who said they couldn’t access up to $2.5M since 2022, even after answering Block’s bank and identity verification questions. The FTC’s filing also points to Block’s February plan to cut 4,000 jobs and lean on AI across its entire operation, which may have left Block without enough staff to help users locked out of their accounts. Block said it’s cooperating with FTC staff on the agency’s few remaining requests and wants to bring the matter to a close. Frankly, they should all be investigated for this — every last one of them. Stripe. PayPal. Shopify. Amazon. eBay. They’ve all got blood on their hands.

Google started rolling out a UCP integration hub in Merchant Center that lets US merchants add a checkout button to their product listings in AI Mode and Gemini, so shoppers can complete their purchase without leaving Google. Until now, checkout inside Google’s AI surfaces was limited to a short list of big retailers like Etsy, Wayfair, and Walmart, as well as Shopify stores that Google enrolled automatically. The new hub opens up a more standardized path for other merchants to apply, build their integrations, and manage checkout capabilities through Merchant Center. Merchants choose which capabilities to support, including Cart Transfer (sends the shopper’s cart to the merchant’s own site to finish checkout), Native Checkout (the shopper pays on Google without leaving the AI interface), and Identity Linking (connects the shopper’s account on the merchant’s site to their Google account). Shoppers pay with Google Pay, using the cards and shipping addresses saved in Google Wallet. Only standard stored cards work for now, but Google has already announced plans to add PayPal, and I’d imagine BNPL and other payment options will follow. For now, the integration isn’t fully open and accessible to everyone, as merchants have to build the integration themselves, fill out an interest form, and wait to be picked before they can even test it in a sandbox.

OpenAI will begin testing a new type of ChatGPT ad later this month in the US for Free and Go users that appears while a user waits for ChatGPT to create an image they asked for. The new ads won’t always directly depend on the conversation or prompt, making them more similar to how display ads appear in various placements across the web, as opposed to immediately after a search. OpenAI said the ads will be labeled, kept separate from the user’s image, and won’t influence ChatGPT’s answers. Until now, ChatGPT ads have run at the bottom of a conversation, either as a single unit with a headline, short description, image, and link, or as a carousel of products pulled from a retailer’s feed. This is the first time that OpenAI is venturing into an ad format that’s somewhat independent of the conversation at hand. It’s a great idea. They might as well monetize the space that users are intensely staring at while waiting for their image to finish. Right now it’s just a useless progress wheel.

US shoppers spent $9.86B online across all retailers during Amazon’s two-day Prime Big Deal Days, up 8.5% from $9.09B last October and just under Adobe’s $9.9B forecast. Discounts of up to 20% pushed shoppers to upsell themselves, as the share of the most expensive goods sold rose 21% compared to the year-to-date average, led by electronics, up 45%, and personal care, up 34%. Shoppers also used the event to stock up on essentials, with household cleaning and paper products up 55%, and personal hygiene and pet food each up 45%. Adobe also found that mobile drove $5.1B in sales, or 52% of the total, up 12.8% YoY; BNPL accounted for 6% of online orders ($692.3M), up 4% YoY; and social media drove only 7% of revenue, but it was the fastest-growing channel at 40% YoY. Shoppers are apparently using the October sales events to knock out holiday shopping early, which very well could impact BFCM sales in November. There’s only so much money to go around during the holiday season. Not every shopping event can break records, can it? We’ll find out next month. I’ll keep you posted.

OpenAI is developing brand suitability tools with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science that will give ChatGPT advertisers an independent second opinion on how the company is applying its brand safety standards. The two firms already run brand safety checks for TikTok, Meta, and Reddit, showing advertisers what content their ads actually ran next to so they don’t surface alongside violence or misinformation. However, with ChatGPT, the tests will happen in a closed environment with no access to user conversations, not on live campaigns, so advertisers may not get the same verification they get on other platforms, at least for now. OpenAI also launched Negative Phrases, which lets qualifying brands block their ads from appearing alongside topics they choose, after testing it since August, when advertisers noticed ads showing up next to conversations that didn’t fit.

Walmart is expanding its test of stocking third-party marketplace products in stores so that shoppers can get them delivered faster or pick them up at stores, often in the same order as their groceries, according to Adweek. Marketplace sellers have historically only been able to ship from their own warehouses or Walmart’s fulfillment centers, which can take several days, whereas Walmart store stock gets items to customers in hours. The FT reported in April that Walmart was testing back-room shelves at several Dallas stores for marketplace orders, and last week marketplace fulfillment SVP Kyle Carlyle presented the program to advertisers at a Walmart Connect event in New York. The test is limited to a select group of eligible products, and Walmart hasn’t said which sellers qualify or which stores are taking part.

BigCommerce launched BigCommerce Payments in the UK and EMEA, beginning with seven local payment methods, three BNPL options, and support for PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. The launch comes five months after its US debut and marks the company’s first international rollout of its built-in payment processing. UK card fees run 1.4% plus £0.30 on Core and Growth plans and 1.2% plus £0.30 on Scale and Performance plans, while Klarna and Clearpay cost 4.99% plus £0.30 and cross-border sales carry an extra 1.5%. Merchants can manage balances, payouts, and GBP and EUR holdings from one dashboard, but their payment account still sits with PayPal, which powers the service, similar to how Stripe powers Shopify Payments.

Google Cloud unveiled the Gemini agent, a single, universal agent for work that handles questions, documents, media, and code, and can stay on a task for hours or days after a user logs off. The agent works inside Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Chat and Calendar and can also be reached from Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac desktops, as well as from outside channels like Microsoft 365 and Slack. Teams can describe a role and have Gemini create a coworker agent that gets its own Workspace email, calendar, Drive storage, and directory listing, with every action logged under the agent’s identity rather than a person’s. The agent works across both Gemini and Claude models, sending the task to whichever model Google judges the best fit based on quality and cost. Google hasn’t published pricing or a release date, and industry versions are in preview only for financial services and legal, with retail, healthcare, and government coming soon. The Gemini agent is gearing up to be a competitive alternative to Microsoft 365 Copilot and OpenAI’s Dots, given its native integrations with the rest of Google Workspace.

In other Google news this week… The company is piloting Local Coupons, a Search ads product that shows nearby shoppers discounts at local stores and saves the coupon to their phone’s wallet for use at the register. Retailers pay Google only when a shopper actually uses the coupon at checkout, which gives them a direct way to tie an online search ad to an in-store sale via integrations with POS systems like Clover and Lightspeed, without having to cross-reference transaction data or estimate store visits. Each coupon carries a unique code, and the register checks it at scan time so it can’t be redeemed twice. Google hasn’t said which retailers are in the pilot or when it will open more widely.

Meta is testing agentic features in its AI business assistant that let advertisers build campaigns, create ad copy and images, adjust targeting, or move budget just by asking, with a preview and approval step before changes go live. It’s also testing scheduled tasks that handle recurring work like producing weekly performance recaps and budget check-ins. Customer Lifecycle Strategy, which suggests when it’s best to exclude existing customers from a campaign marked for acquisition, and the Advantage+ creative tool that turns static images into video, are now available to all advertisers. By the end of the year, Meta plans to add an AI audience tool to Detailed Targeting so advertisers can type out who their ideal buyer is instead of scrolling through targeting options. Meta is also testing direct checkout with Shopify inside Meta Business Agent on Messenger, so shoppers can buy a product right after chatting with a brand’s agent, and plans to start testing checkout inside Meta AI with Adyen, PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe this fall.

Walmart and Wing plan to add drone delivery in Denver and Seattle in 2027, bringing their planned network to nearly 20 major US metros and more than 270 Walmart stores. The service is live today in five metros, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Houston, and Orlando, with the rest rolling out over the coming months, and the fleet already completes thousands of home deliveries a day. Wing’s drones carry orders of up to five pounds at speeds of up to 60 mph, the same payload limit as Amazon’s MK30 but just slower than its 73 mph cruising speed. Shoppers in eligible areas see the drone option automatically in the Walmart app or on Walmart.com, where it costs $19.99 per order for non-members and is free for Walmart+ members for a limited time.

OpenAI’s annualized revenue isn’t actually $70B, it turns out, despite that number being widely reported last month. That figure was based on information shared with investors to create a more direct comparison to Anthropic, according to the Financial Times, while OpenAI’s annualized revenue under its own accounting is closer to $50B. The discrepancy comes from the fact that Anthropic counts the full price of sales made through cloud providers like Amazon and Google as revenue and books the providers’ cut as an expense, while OpenAI counts only its share of some of those partner sales. GAAP, the standard accounting rules US companies use for their financial statements, allows for both methods, so neither is technically wrong. OpenAI told investors it expects to hit $70B by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg.

Amazon unveiled a new lineup of Alexa-branded tablets that run on standard Google Android instead of Amazon Fire OS, so users finally get the full Android app catalog, rather than Amazon’s watered-down version. The tablets come preloaded with a new On-Screen Intelligence feature that lets Alexa act on whatever is displayed, such as shopping for products seen in TikTok videos, similar to how Google Lens works. The company is discontinuing its budget-friendly Fire lineup, which it has made since 2011. Devices chief Panos Panay has been pushing pricier hardware, and Amazon’s $550 top model now costs more than an entry-level $449 iPad.

In other Amazon news this week… Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel told Fortune in a recent interview that groceries, which brought Amazon more than $150B in sales last year, will turn it from the “everything store” into the “everyday store” by getting customers to shop more often across the whole site. (Amazon already was the “everyday store” to your wife, long before it got serious about groceries.) Buechel said that the goal is “greater engagement, not only just within grocery, but the broader store.” He also admitted Amazon has been “a little bit ahead of what customers were looking for” in physical stores, which is likely why Whole Foods’ palm-scan payments and Amazon Go’s no-checkout model are no longer offered.

Meta added an AI system that checks the page an ad links to, not just the ad itself, to catch what it calls “signposting,” which is when ads that look harmless steer users to CSAM on other sites. Meta can then block the destination and act against whoever ran the ad. Wait a minute… so all this time, Meta hasn’t been checking the pages closely that its ads lead to? Also, if advertisers were running campaigns that lead to child abuse content, how did Meta know who to show them to? I feel like if they showed those ads to a normal person, they’d be reported immediately. So they must’ve been showing them to the right audience somehow, which is a bit disturbing. Meta said it took action on 33.2M pieces of child exploitation content across Facebook and Instagram from January through June, and that its systems caught more than 97% before anyone reported it. The tools arrive two months after a Wired investigation that found Meta had approved and run ads containing AI-generated child abuse imagery.

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode each recommended a different small brand as the top small-batch hot sauce to buy online, and none put a national brand first, according to a 20-question test by RunOctopus. Large retailers usually won questions about where to shop, such as Etsy for handmade jewelry gifts and Harry & David for gift baskets, while smaller brands like Darn Tough socks and Graza olive oil came out ahead on questions about what to buy. Most of the sources behind those picks were independent taste tests, product reviews and specialty blogs, not brands’ own pages, which validates just how important third-party coverage is to AI models right now when determining popularity and credibility, though the sample size for the study was small.

Meta began trialing a version of Facebook in India and Indonesia that opens the app straight into full-screen Reels, completing its mission of becoming a true TikTok clone. The move comes three months after Facebook head Tom Alison said the tests would begin in video-heavy markets this fall ahead of a possible US launch next year. Users can return to the usual feed, which stays one tab over, and easily toggle between the two experiences. Instagram has a similar test underway, with a setting that makes Reels the first screen users see on opening the app, keeping Stories along the top and the following feed a swipe away. A Meta spokesperson told The Verge that the Instagram test is running in only a few countries, which he didn’t name.

Google Maps published its first Fan-Favorite Dining Lists, which rank restaurants in 10 cities including New York, London, Tokyo, and Melbourne using a year of user reviews, ratings, and direction requests. Each city’s list offers top choices for meals, beverages, and treats, best picks for occasions like celebrations, good vibes, or bang for your buck, and specific foods or beverages that are trending in reviews like matcha, beignets, or three-penis wine. For example, Google shows that froyo mentions in New York reviews rose 320% year over year and Seattle’s dosa mentions rose 136%. What a brilliant idea! Google should’ve been doing this for years. I hope they expand it to more cities. The lists join other Maps tools for steering diners to restaurants, including Ask Maps, the app’s AI assistant, which can place delivery orders through Uber Eats, Toast, and Square.

Anthropic booked more than $660M in non-cash expenses from October 2025 through March 2026 for matching the stock its employees pledge to charity, a cost likely to climb into the billions after its IPO, according to The Information. Staff hired before 2025 can donate as much as half of their shares and get a 3-to-1 match, while later hires get 1-to-1 on as much as a quarter of their shares, with every matched share issued as new stock that dilutes other investors. Anthropic’s 2025 charitable contributions reached $540M, while the largest comparable non-cash gift at any Fortune 500 company was BlackRock’s $109M, according to Calcbench data. Anthropic leaves the expense out of the adjusted operating profit it showed prospective IPO investors, which Calcbench says is rare. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders, who aren’t eligible for the match, have also all pledged to give away at least 80% of their wealth.

Elon Musk’s xAI acquired the domain dot.com in late July, two months before OpenAI launched its Dots agents at DevDay, and the address now sends visitors to the page for Grok Bot, its competing AI agent. When an anonymous X account spotted the redirect the day Dots launched, dot.com originally pointed to Grok’s app download page, but then xAI switched it to the agent page sometime after, which has the Internet convinced Musk is trolling OpenAI. Neither company has commented, and xAI hasn’t said what it paid for the address or why it wanted it. The closer match to OpenAI’s product name, dots.com, was the web address of a discount women’s clothing chain that went bankrupt in 2014. Maybe I’m just an instigator, but I do hope that Musk is able to acquire dots.com too. Who doesn’t enjoy a good billionaire beef?

Adam Iza, a Los Angeles crypto entrepreneur who goes by “The Godfather,” received a 78-month prison sentence and owes $23.4M in restitution after hijacking Meta ad accounts and selling access to advertising firms, billing clients for ads they never bought. LOL, this guy calls himself “The Godfather”? Marlon Brando would never be so dumb. In what world did Iza think he would get away with this scheme? Though to be fair, he did get away with it for quite a while. Meta had to ultimately refund and absorb millions of dollars in client losses. Iza is already serving a 15-year sentence over an attempted Bitcoin robbery and kidnapping in Connecticut and the new sentence will run parallel with that one. Five of the off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies he paid to dig up confidential records and intimidate his rivals have also been convicted.

In lawsuits this week…

Google lost its bid to throw out most publisher antitrust suits over its ad tech monopoly, clearing the way for jury trials on more than $3.2B in claimed damages, including about $1.7B for a class of roughly 5,000 AdX publishers. A Virginia judge already found that Google illegally monopolized two ad tech markets, so the trials will only need to prove injury and damages.
Meta, TikTok, and X are fighting Ofcom in court over how much content moderation data it can demand under the UK’s Online Safety Act, one of the first court tests of the 2023 law. The platforms argue that the requests, which cover takedown counts and how many users saw harmful content, go further than any regulator has gone before, while Ofcom says it needs the data to judge whether the law is working.
Meta is facing a proposed class action claiming its “Ends today” emails for AI glasses broke Washington law, since the plaintiff’s lawyers found the $224 sale price still available on all 33 days they checked. The suit seeks $100 in statutory damages for every time-limited sale email sent to Washington residents.
New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges in a newly unsealed complaint that TikTok gave thousands of users, including teens and children, a fake version of its “Algo Refresh” tool in 2023, when it was running tests to see how the tool affected time spent on the app and ad revenue. The lawsuit argues that users who were given a “ghost” or placebo reset did not actually have their feeds changed, so they kept seeing the same content they were trying to get away from, which conflicts with the company’s stated mission of providing transparency and control over users’ algorithms.
USA Today Co., formerly Gannett, sued OpenAI for more than $250M, alleging it trained ChatGPT on hundreds of thousands of articles from 19 of its papers without permission and then served that reporting back to users. The complaint argues the copying was willful because OpenAI pays other publishers for licensing deals, and it asks the court to order OpenAI to destroy any models and training data built on its content.
Google went to trial at the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal over a roughly £1.2B class claim that its Play Store commission of up to 30% pushed up prices for about 20M UK consumers since 2015. Google wants the claim dismissed, arguing it doesn’t dominate digital purchase processing and that Play’s fees are among the lowest available, but the same tribunal ruled against Apple’s App Store commission last year.

In layoffs this week…

Amazon cut almost 1,000 jobs across retail engineering, customer service, and marketplace support, mostly in its Stores business, which Amazon called “a small number” of positions. The cuts follow about 30,000 corporate layoffs from late last year into early this year, even as Amazon prepares a record $220B budget for AI data centers and chips.
HubSpot laid off 7% of its workforce, or about 660 employees, with CEO Yamini Rangan saying the cuts were “not driven by AI-related efficiencies.” Co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah later drew backlash for a 28-word LinkedIn post thanking “the people that HubSpot parted ways with today,” which commenters called cold and impersonal.

In corporate shakeups this week…

Pinterest hired James Dibbo, most recently Amazon’s CFO for advertising, entertainment, and corporate development, as its new CFO starting October 26, replacing Julia Brau Donnelly.
OpenAI posted an ads job paying up to $273K for someone to sign joint business plans with agency holding companies and make ChatGPT ads a regular line in their yearly media budgets.
Amazon hired Pedram Rezaei, the former CTO of Microsoft Copilot, as a distinguished engineer on its Agentic AI and Emerging Technologies group, to help the company build out its agentic AI business.
Amazon is also replacing Alexa chief Daniel Rausch with Aidan Marcuss, its VP of Fire TV, advertising, and the Appstore, a day after launching its pricier Alexa tablets.
TCGPlayer CEO Rob Bigler is leaving the eBay-owned trading card marketplace for a job outside the company after about three and a half years, with no successor named.
Albertsons’ retail media chief Brian Monahan left the grocer abruptly, days before he was due to speak at New York ad events, and its Albertsons Media Collective now reports to CMO Emily Turner.
OpenAI’s three fired safety researchers denied breaking company rules on sensitive information in an open letter, saying the firings have left colleagues afraid to work with outside safety evaluators, while OpenAI says it found a “pattern of misconduct.”
OpenAI hired Ismail Elmas from Cursor as VP of sales for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, marking the second Cursor sales executive it’s poached from SpaceX in a month as it pushes enterprise revenue ahead of a possible IPO.
commercetools hired Katy Hiller, former CMO of Unily and Sonatype, as chief marketing officer as it pushes enterprises toward what it calls autonomous commerce.

🏆 This week’s most ridiculous story… OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that “the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency,” when speaking to POLITICO senior tech reporter Brendan Bordelon last week. Easy to declare from your ivory tower, I guess. The comments come as the FTC drafts demands for OpenAI and other AI labs to hand over documents about the risks they’ve warned their own products pose, and just days after OpenAI fired three safety researchers who say the firings have left staff afraid to raise safety concerns. Altman later added, “I think people will do tremendously — orders of magnitude more — good stuff than bad stuff.” To be fair, I do agree with that. I tend to follow the Professor Farnsworth philosophy that “technology isn’t intrinsically good or evil. It’s how it’s used, like the death ray.” That said, we can certainly do our best along the way to mitigate risk, which many of these AI companies don’t seem to be doing.

Plus 17 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Manus raising $500M and Siena raising $17M.

I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!

PAUL

Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter

PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.

MSTUUSDT goes live on Bitunix: a 2x Strategy ETF as a 20x perp, and why it is trading under its index after the bell

https://preview.redd.it/23c74fsfj3vh1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5bbc2817f631b8efb077a6329cddccfdd84238f

Bitunix opened MSTUUSDT at 8:00 AM ET today. It's a USDT-margined perpetual on MSTU, the leveraged ETF that tracks twice the daily move of Strategy stock. That makes it a derivative of a leveraged fund that is itself a proxy for bitcoin, so it's worth a closer look before anyone sizes into it.

What MSTU is

MSTU is the T-REX 2X Long MSTR Daily Target ETF from REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management. It aims for 200% of the daily performance of Strategy (MSTR, formerly MicroStrategy), before fees, and resets its exposure at every market close. Over any period longer than one trading day, its return will not equal 2x MSTR's return.

Listed: Cboe BZX, fund inception Sept 18, 2024 (the first 2x MSTR ETF in the US)
Expense ratio: 1.05%
Fund assets: about $814.5M, with 20,516,860 shares outstanding
Last NAV REX had posted when this was written: $39.77, closing price $39.70
Category: single-stock leveraged ETF, effectively a high-beta bitcoin proxy

Why it's in the news today

Strategy put out its weekly update this morning. Between Oct 5 and Oct 11 it bought 250 BTC for about $21.5M, at an average of $86,194, which takes total holdings to 848,250 BTC at an average cost of $75,444. It also repurchased $192.4M of its STRC preferred stock. The bitcoin was paid for with proceeds from MSTR share sales plus a small amount of USD cash. MSTU magnifies whatever MSTR does with that news, roughly 2x on the day.

Contract details on Bitunix

Pair: MSTUUSDT, USDT-M perpetual
Max leverage: 20x
Launch: Oct 12, 8:00 AM ET
Funding: every 8 hours, capped at +/-2%
Order limits: 3,000 MSTU per market order and 30,000 per limit order
Hours: Bitunix TradFi perps have traded 24/7 since Aug 14, 2026, with dedicated index and mark-price handling for when the US market is closed

First session in numbers (Bitunix, about 4:08 PM ET)

Metric	Value
Last / mark	39.26
Index price	40.41
Open	40.58
Session high / low	41.73 / 38.06
Change since open	-3.25%
Quote volume	about 41.5K USDT (about 1,043 MSTU)
Funding	+0.0011% for the current window, close to flat
Spread at the check	39.03 / 39.04
Depth within 2%	about 110K USDT bids, 98.6K USDT asks

The chart shows a quick pop to 41.73 in the first half hour, a long drift lower through the US session, and a late bounce off 38.06. The detail that stands out is the gap: right after the 4:00 PM ET close, the perp last traded about 2.8% below the 40.41 index. Either the perp is pricing in an after-hours move the index hasn't picked up yet, or it's a dislocation that funding and arbitrage will close.

Risks before you size up

Three layers of leverage: up to 20x on a 2x daily-reset fund that tracks a company whose balance sheet is mostly bitcoin
Volatility decay: MSTU loses value in choppy markets even when MSTR goes nowhere, and the perp inherits that drift
Off-hours pricing: from 4:00 PM ET until the next open the underlying ETF isn't trading, so gaps against NAV and against the next cash open are normal
Volume is still small: about 41.5K USDT on day one, even though the resting book is deeper than that
Single-name risk: any Strategy-specific event (ATM sales, preferred dividends, index decisions) moves MSTU twice as hard

Takeaway

MSTUUSDT gives Bitunix traders round-the-clock access to one of the most aggressive bitcoin-linked equity products there is, with a surprisingly deep first-day book and near-zero funding. The price-versus-index gap after the bell is the thing to watch overnight. Would you rather express a Strategy view through MSTU here, or keep it simple with MSTR or BTC itself?

$MSTU.USDT $MSTR.USDT $BTC.USDT $COIN.USDT $ETH.USDT $SOL.USDT

Options Market Squeezed: 80 Symbols at 0-3% IV-Rank, Dealers Short Gamma, Pinned

The options market is flashing extreme calm, but don't be fooled – 80 symbols hit 'HIGH' alert status this morning as implied volatility has been "wrung down to levels so extreme they’ve become a signal in themselves." This isn't selective; it's systemic across equities, sector ETFs, commodities, and even Bitcoin futures, suggesting a market "priced for nothing."

Key Takeaways:

Universal IV Compression: $SPY and $QQQ IV-Rank are at 0%, with multiple mega-caps sitting between 0% and 3%. This indicates a market priced for "no vol, no edge, no surprise."
Dealer Positioning: Despite widespread bullish flow bias (e.g., $SPY 0DTE flow at 90% bullish), GEX structures reveal dealers are predominantly positioned short gamma. This means they tend to sell into rallies and buy into dips, creating a "mean-reversion machine, not a trend machine."
Pinned Markets & Tight Ranges: Max Pain and GEX flip levels are remarkably close to spot prices for many instruments. For example, $SPY has Max Pain at 774.00 (0.6% below spot 778.70) and GEX flip at 670.00. Similarly, $QQQ Max Pain (750.00), spot (751.40), and GEX flip (750.00) are all within 0.2% of each other.
Downside Hedging Undercurrent: While 0DTE flow on $SPY is 90% bullish, its 0DTE IV-Skew reads +52.5, indicating "downside protection is being bid hard relative to upside calls. Someone is buying puts." This suggests caution despite the apparent calm.

Detailed Setups & Flows:

The uniformity of this compression is critical. Across the board, market structure signals hedging rather than strong directional commitment.

$SPY & $QQQ: $SPY (spot 778.70) has 55 unusual strikes, 0DTE IV-Rank at 9% (little surprise priced in), and a +52.5 IV-Skew. $QQQ (spot 751.40) shows 44 unusual strike clusters, with 0DTE IV-Rank at 7% and weekly at 0%.
$DELL: Flagged HIGH bullish with 91% call flow bias and 39 unusual strikes on 0DTE. However, its weekly GEX Z-score is +4.46 (elevated dealer short gamma), and Max Pain at 540.00 is a significant 7.6% spread from spot 586.06, suggesting the move "has run hard" and "looks extended."
$MU: Flagged HIGH but with bearish strength at 30.6. The 0DTE GEX Z is -2.36 (dealer long gamma, short vol, ready to hedge). Flow bias flipped to 39% bearish, with unusual strikes clustered around ATM/near-ATM (1025-1030). Max Pain (1040.00) and GEX flip (1035.00) are tight to spot, indicating "someone is hedging this week."
$TSLA: Carries neutral strength but an extreme GEX Z of +3.34 on 0DTE. Spot 382.70, Max Pain 370.00, GEX flip 372.50 – a tight cluster. With 0DTE IV-Rank at 12% and 55% bullish flow, it "feels pinned."
$ROK: IV-Rank 5%, but an extreme PCR Z-Score of +18.91 (structural fear). Flow is just 3% bullish (97% bearish), and Max Pain at 430.00 is less than a percent below spot. This looks like contrarian bullish territory, but momentum is absent.
Sector ETFs: $DIA (spot 516.00, Max Pain 515.00) is almost pinned with 99% 0DTE bullish flow. Both $XLU and $XLK show significant weekly GEX Z-scores (+7.00 and +3.96 respectively), signaling dealer short gamma.

Earnings Watch: Seven symbols have earnings within the next six days, revealing interesting positioning. * $FDX (3 days): MEDIUM neutral with IV-Rank at just 8%, GEX flip within 0.6% of spot. A classic pre-earnings setup where event risk "hasn’t fully priced" in. * $GS and $JPM: Both HIGH bullish, but sit at elevated IV-Rank levels (56% and 54% respectively), meaning the market has already bid IV higher. $GS has 18 unusual strikes on 0DTE and Max Pain at 920.00 (2.8% spread from spot 895.32). * $BAC (5 days): HIGH bullish with IV-Rank at 66%.

For the full strategy breakdown by symbol, I use the scanner at https://www.stockbotty.com/options-strategies/ to map which setups merit a closer look at the strike level.

Read the full breakdown here: https://www.stockbotty.com/volatility-compressed-across-the-board-the-rare-setup-where-80-symbols-flash-high-alerts/

Psychotic Neighbor

Howdy folks, first time post. Going to be one of many that describe myself and seeking solutions to make others lives better, as well as myself.

So I have a major neighbor issue, and I'm unsure of which direction to take. It's a loooooooong story. Willing to answer any legitimate question that may help find a solution.

So, 2019 I moved to my current residence, rent was cheap, I had literally no where else to go. And for the time, it wasn't a terrible spot. I start working and doing what I can to move forward and make life better for myself. Landlord has a history in the area that isn't all that bad but fits the description for most of the neighbors and residents. Heavy drug use, turned Christian / clean by either prescribed AA or profound life altering event

Later 2020, I meet the neighbor in question. I used marijuana a good bit at that point, other neighbors knew it. Didn't really have to hide it, i smoked on the porch out of respect for the landlord not wanting anything smoked in the house. The neighbor was asking around the neighborhood if anyone knew where to find weed, and they pointed in my direction. No big deal. Only I wasn't dealing, just smoking him up on occasion. Those occasions began to increase. And I started to learn more about him. He has prior military service, was a police officer in California, and was not working at the time (big details). I too, have 4 years under my belt of military service under my belt, though I was out for 4 years at that point, some middle ground.

Roll up to 2021, summer time. The landlord is getting to sell the house. She held the door for me to buy it from her over her family. She understood the circumstances that brought me here to begin with, and felt that it would help me avoid reliving them again if I owned it. Come September, I had the money to purchase. And I did. Literally the day after the purchase was made final by the lawyers and the credit union, she came around to get the last of her belongings from the garage, to which I had no access to up until that point. The neighbor calls the cops. I wasn't awake when she came around and he felt compelled to call because he thought it was a home invasion. She's 70. I wake up, head outside, and tell him to f off with the cops and tell the operator that they're not needed before they waste their time. He steams off back to his house. The landlord gets her stuff.

Same afternoon, he's back, apologizing, very half assed and displacing blame off himself. His reasoning "You bought the house, the stuff in the garage is yours now, even my family agrees, you should have told the landlord to go away and keep the stuff". I get pissed, asked why it matters to keep anything i have mostly no use for. He admits that the landlord at one point in time said she would sell the house to him if it ever went up for sale, and it upset him that he wasn't considered, and that the stuff in question could have been worth money (probably 100 bucks in all reality if i actually sold it, more on that later).

Already going to school with this dude. I was attending welding on the GI bill, he was going for machining. Carpooled most mornings. This is where I start picking up on more of his disturbing behaviors.

His daughter was busted smoking weed. No big deal, teenagers do that shit, you tell them no, ground them, and keep them away from the source. She wasn't admitting right away that she indeed used it. So he came up with one of the most twisted ways to worm the information out of her. He had a thumb stick hard drive. He told her a long convoluted story that he used bitcoin to go on the dark web, pay someone with it, to gather her information and every text she ever sent and put it on that thumb drive. Because buying a piss test is too complicated for him. He was proud of his over the top bluff. Blatted about it for weeks. But the question raising in my conscience, what did he do to make her not trust telling him the truth?

Then begins the arms race. I get GI bill money, I made some purchases. One of them was a FN Herstral FN-15 military collectors edition rifle. Money. Got the expensive doodads to go with it that matched up to an almost verbatim copy of what I used while I was in the Marines. Jealousy driver. He convinced his wife he needed an AR. She got him a budget brand AR pistol. Later got him another budget brand AR style, 7.62 x 39 rifle. The pistol started making itself present when it wasn't called for at later times with other incidents when he was trying to convince me to sell him my house. Which devolved to putting his name on my will so that he would get the house incase I died. I'm 30 at that point, he's 40 something. He said it was because I "looked suicidal". No idea how he came to that conclusion. I start getting the creeping suspicion that he's setting himself up an alibi.

Then my car becomes non inspection compliant, frame and body rust. He insists he can fix it. Turned out he couldn't. Drilling holes, using pop rivets and siding screws to put pieces of steel from a washing machine to cover the rot isn't fixing anything. I know it. The mechanics saw the handy work. They knew it. He then says he wants to sell it for me, saying he can make 1000 dollars for it. "No dude, there's screws coming up through the floor fabric, someone will get cut, and I'll get sued, if the buyers hits a bump and all the shrapnel you added comes flying off into traffic, I'll get extra sued." His response "nuh uh". So the car sits, until I figure, scrap it. The scrapper comes by to haul it off, and he comes outside and starts yelling that I'm stupid for not letting him rip someone off with my name, because he wouldn't buy the car and put it under his name and owe up to his own handy work. The scrapper asks what his problem is, i have no answer, car hauled, not my problem.

He does some other overly jury rigged fixes around me house when he insisted he knew what he was doing. Over it at this point, paid professionals only.

His past begins to come to light.

As it turns out, he's not supposed to have firearms any where near him, let alone his own house. Which is why his purchased his firearms for him. Huuuuge no-no in the state of PA. Purchased firearms are to be registered to the person being back ground checked. 100% positive that himself or his wife have their address registered to his parents house 8 doors down the road, which is why it didn't ping on the troopers radar as a reason to deny sale.

He's not supposed to have them because in 2002, he wrote a disturbing essay in his senior year about his future. At that point, being 2002, history was still very much on paper. He swore in and had his security background check done before the essay was written. So the essay that put a major psychological mark against his record flew clean under the radar. His service was mostly underwhelming, he was never promoted to a NCO rank because he in his own words "didn't want the responsibility". So at the end of his first 4 years with the marines, he transferred to the army where he could be upgraded in pay to e-4, but not have the responsibility of a Marine Corporal. 2010 rolls around, he gets told along with everyone else, "get promoted, or get out". So he gets out.

He was in California at time, so he decides he's going to be a police officer. They were fast to hire with his military background. But would later discover his record beyond his service after he was already driving a cruiser. So they kick him off. And he makes his way to his parents house. Now married with 2 daughters. His wife worked. He insisted on being a stay at home dad. But his parents were there, the house is already maintained. His own parents tell him to get a job, or get out.

The time line falls a little blurry afterward. He never got a job after the fact, but his wife made the money to purchase where he lives now.

Fast forward back to now. He's still insisting I sell him the house for half the value I payed. I stupidly let him use the garage that he packed with so much of his stuff it's hardly usable to myself. There are beavers in the swamp out back that he's been trying kill, out of season, and is probably lying about contacting the game warden who supposedly gave him verbal permission to get rid of them. He consistently calls me lazy and raises his voice and cuts me off when his family is around in some weird show of attempting to display dominance. He tells his family one thing, then me another, heavily relying on us not being on the same page. He still doesn't work himself. Myself and the neighbors noticed strange behavior out of his daughter for a while now.

He's now getting disability from the VA, because I convinced him to go when we first met. Did not know that was only going to empower him to sit on his ass some more and continue to be a tyrant while his wife and daughters got jobs to keep the house going.

I could type specific incidents for a whole day and leave a book to read.

I've had alot of other suspicious happenings that could be him manipulating the situation.

The state troopers aren't going to do anything unless the judge tells them to. I can't afford a lawyer to get the judge to write off an investigation reason. I'm not moving because I literally cannot afford it and I'm not risking another long period of homelessness and gambling on someone else's kindness to give me a break.

So what do I do? Where do I start? How do I get law enforcements attention without waiting for an emergency situation to happen to prime it?

Throwing his shit out of my garage is only going to trigger him into getting his firearms out. He knows to look for a phone recording him when he's up to his bullshit and gets him in a more aggressive tone. I feel like his own family is being held hostage to his psychotic, manipulative behavior, and alot of the other neighbors accounts lean heavily towards that conclusion.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Stick figure drawing doodles 10LightStar01 is live!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq9CwopUH1s

This is a fever dream of a digital age—a sprawling, surrealist tapestry where crochet patterns meet high-speed police chases, and the Grim Reaper is just another guy trying to manage an office.

Here is the story of The Day the Grid Glitched.

The Morning Shift

The day began in a flurry of #ModernCrochet and chaos. At the local craft guild, a "Magical Crochet Gargoyle Quitter" was throwing in the towel, leaving behind a trail of freeform stars and loose ends. Meanwhile, in the corporate underworld, the Grim Reaper CEO adjusted his tie at his administrative desk. "It’s my panel," he hissed to a room of trembling interns, "and you will respect the filing system."

Outside, the physical world was losing its grip on reality. A green avocado was spotted zip-lining across the forest canopy, screaming "Wee!" while a dairy cow and a buffalo experienced love at first sight on the prairie. It was beautiful, until the "Authorized Official Shambulance" sped by with off-key sirens, driven by a DoorDash driver who had clearly taken a wrong turn at the interstate.

The Midday Madness

By noon, the legal system was buckling. A divorce attorney was arguing for a 4% inflation alimony increase, while a stubborn police officer attempted to ticket a driver for doing 55 mph, despite the driver’s GPS claiming otherwise.

In the skies, things weren't much better. An airplane pilot abandoned the cockpit—not because of an emergency, but to fix a sewer leak in the bathroom. This left the County Sheriff’s helicopter pilot to pick up the slack, shouting the command code "Accel UR L8 twerk" into his AI navigator.

Back on the ground, the "Microwave Preventive Maintenance Team" (composed entirely of trolls in tin foil hats) was conducting a rigorous inspection of a breakroom, while nearby, a police officer and his best friend were formally interrogating a hairball.

The Evening Gala

As the sun set, a tarnished copper green armadillo drone took flight from the roof of a skyscraper, filming the most anticipated event of the year: the wedding of the Grim Reaper and the Reapress. They exchanged vows of "invisible threat control" while a dancing xenophobic xylophone provided the music.

However, the party was crashed by a Giant Plushy Octopus looking for hugs and a "Slip and Fall Droidbot" seeking a lawsuit settlement. In the corner, Holly Bitcoin gave tap dance lessons to a singing pickle, while a group of mushroom soldiers set up tents inside a refrigerator’s cooling system to escape the heat.

The Final Stitch

As the clock struck midnight on March 8, 2026, the digital world began to "URL barf." Google Meet was exposing phone numbers, and the #DreamTrackAI was telling everyone to "try again tomorrow."

The chaos finally settled into a quiet, bizarre peace. A Jack Rabbit and a Skunk shared a moment in the woods, and a single claymation blue bird tucked its family into a nest made of crochet scrap yarn. The world was a mess of unredacted reports, stuck cruise controls, and singing rainbows—but as the Star and Hammer cartoon faded to black, one thing was clear: nobody was above the law, but everyone was definitely above the limit for weirdness.

The scene opens on a high-stakes, high-altitude pursuit. Jack, a lanky cartoon cat with whiskers that twitch like radio antennas, is dangling from a vine. Hammer, a stout mouse wearing a tiny tool belt, is standing on Jack’s head, squinting through a pair of brass binoculars.

"Target sighted," Hammer squeaked, pointing a tiny paw toward the horizon. "And he’s moving fast."

Zip-lining across the triple-canopy rainforest at a reckless velocity was Avocado. He wasn't just a fruit; he was a daredevil with a pit of pure adrenaline. Wearing tiny goggles and a GoPro strapped to his pebbly green skin, Avocado let out a high-pitched, "WEEEEEEEE!" as he blurred past a troop of confused howler monkeys.

The Chase is On

Jack didn't have a zip-line, but he did have cartoon physics. He grabbed a passing toucan by the feet, and with a rhythmic "Bang! Bang!" of Hammer’s literal mallet against a hollow log to create a beat, they swung into the sky.

"We need to intercept him before he hits the Cloud Forest!" Hammer shouted over the wind. "If he zips into the 'Modern Crochet' sector, we'll lose him in the yarn fog!"

The Obstacles:

The Sourdough Rapids: A river of fermented dough they had to skip across.
The Giant Plushy Octopus: A sentient obstacle that tried to hug them mid-air.
The Interior Microwave Team: A group of trolls in tin foil hats who were trying to "inspect" the jungle for grease fires.

The Final Stretch

Avocado was gaining speed, his pit humming like a drone motor. He was headed straight for a transitional train scene—a steam engine locomotive puffing purple smoke across a trestle bridge.

"Now, Jack! Use the yarn smudging technique!" Hammer commanded.

Jack pulled a scrap of neon-pink crochet string from his pocket. With the grace of a Vaudeville performer defying gravity, he whipped the string forward. It looped around Avocado’s stem just as the fruit was about to clear the canopy.

ZIP—THWIP—BOING!

The tension on the crochet line acted like a bungee cord. Avocado didn't crash; he performed a perfect, mid-air 360-degree flip, his tiny goggles fogging up with joy.

The Landing

They all tumbled onto a soft mossy log near a Box Turtle who was busy falling in love with an Armadillo. Avocado bounced twice, his GoPro still recording the whole "Brainrot" investigation.

"Why were you running?" Jack panted, his fur standing up in static-electrified tufts.

Avocado adjusted his goggles and looked at them with wide, watery eyes. "Running? I wasn't running. I was just trying to get to the Holly Bitcoin Tap Dance Lessons before the early bird special ended."

Hammer looked at Jack. Jack looked at the Armadillo.

"Well," Hammer sighed, putting his mallet back in his belt. "At least we got the footage. This is going to kill on #DreamTrackAI."

VLq-x3ou19E	untitled
0TMbRWk4WjI	The making of Jack and Hammer, cartoon cat and mouse, bang
27LTuniln4k	untitled
r384VZLXu3A	It's go time with Grandma and hot grits in the ring
Ttbtm4D_gWo	pole vault remix
hxicWioIX38	How to take the loose end of crochet stitch, put it over the main strand, fold loop
_Tn8GDwQxAU	Police officer can't stop car due to cruise control being stuck #crazycars #carwars
HIXe_nKGXwA	Untitled Help I can't put my foot in a shoe without a hole in the shoe
SbURuV-AfKw	Untitled Magical crochet gargoyle quitter I Quit doodle art animation
wXRoZkjgg1Y	pingrok Being hold off in an ambulance
Ws8yubqGV9k	Join the National Guard.
Y42d9L-TPl4	Untitled You U Ewe and I, eye aye have gone on a date a couple of times haven't we?
UK9nCeVtutU	Untitled door dash ambulance Authorized official shambulance services
s0zhJiIvVI4	How to skip one crochet, stitch and count to 3 #moderncrochet #beginners
6rfXhtSP5xk	Cuddlefish jellyfish love at first sight in the ocean, prairie of plankton.
LGU4J83SAxs	Green avocado goes zip lining A top the forest canopy Wee
arAPCXGIWCs	Untitled Hapoy Jake Patrick Wesley Day
jS4zJkPKeY8	Untitled I love ❤️ you Singing pickle
qzs14JC3VUY	Holly Bitcoin Tap Dance Lessons
PzLApGgcrDw	Unlisted cat Video Bob chicken Crane
ZSNHIl-H_YA	Trolls in tin foil hats Following.\n The microwave team That looks like fun
cK5lfQtYRL0	Ma.\n King a crochet larger one, 2, 3, Stitching.\n A square. Basic beginner, crafting.
iao2E0zcS0Y	The life of bug, Mushroom soldiers set up tents inside of refrigerator cooling system #theoutcasts
jsnY8MNuZ34	Best cooling system on the planet fixed by maintenance refrigerator repair #applianceexperts
_UGblsuJUnw	My artificial intelligence tool on YouTube is really popular, it's telling me to try again tomorrow.
5VYC607cWVw	#DreamTrackAI pretty little baby, wiggle loves give me
WWB1d8vomoI	Gorilla vs Laughing cactus toy
8kKjbmBxytA	Hippopotamus manatee love at first sight
UuRPSEgUONw	Untitled Sunshine smiles, fluffy ponies Singing rainbow
MuaLc-TsHb8	unlisted can't touch this
Oh1h3EYHT6w	The interior microwave, preventive maintenance checks and services team Inspections
qytG5WJmjH0	Me police officer and best friend interrogate a hairball #brainrot very bizarre investigation
aqgdVA9zh90	Jack McAuley Doggy Day Care
1hJy1EeMquw	Unlisted Unclassified
zMfSaHTThaE	How To freeform crochet flower 🌼 #doodle
dKb1qRc3o9o	yeti best friend and cactus doing winter dance ballet in snow
hKynH3bUS1s	Dairy cow and Buffalo love at first sight on the prairie
CxNKsmayhGY	Crochet string scrap 🪹 nest for baby birds
nDzxUT-XaqY	Untitled Steam Engine LocomotiveTrain transitional scene
GQGUaP3GCH8	Geminisyria Cooking Pizza in outdoor Stone fire pit with Trollba
Avz8V3n_GMg	The airplane pilot has left the cockpit and is fixing a sewer leak in the bathroom. #squawkbox
tpOQC0ZO2Qs	The making of cartoon Jack and Doodle Fire Rescue Airplane
J2QnlZxfPDE	Unlisted
zO11ZBlTuk0	untitled cat reflections
vxy39kHdeYo	Grim Reaper CEO It's my panel and you will respect me, Administrative desk job clerk opening
82j_JU_L2Hg	When space force attends a retirement party for National Guard, Major Foughcup
Q3gfpuOd1tU	I've tried to like people. I really have, and then they start talking and breathing And stuff
dA7Hm9ZCG3Q	Divorce attorney Request 4% inflation alimony from divorce judge For ex, wife, survival
W20EkPyA8h4	Untitled pointing to the sky pose
U6hhfz3YXyg	untitled
EMsniptQwao	Out of control ambulance in the middle of the interstate Off key sirens #emsweek
O2CdiQDAgOw	Me running through under water transpatent cables in the ocean with emoji balls
m_UBIWxyKjc	Gerbils and mice scratching a record
kzE4Z4gWIgQ	Untitled working with grown men in the corn 🌽
tpWdK6sqUd0	Grim reaper and best friend crash a stadium concert giving tourists a tour Through the arena.
DrMa2hwb6Ts	Untitled Below river window displays local attraction
Q02wFzUWqq4	The Curiosity Hook: The making of Jack Star and Hammer Cartoon
ICFUxXR_hBA	Jack Rabbit Skunk Love in the woods
9KZe4RnXfOA	Armadillo box turtle love near fern moss log deep in the forest.
FqthJO69_oA	County Sheriff helicopter pilot gives command code to GPS AI- "Accel UR L8 twerk" #quadcopters
BL6RojCX47Q	She didnt just dance, she defied gravity, vaudeville big band era
lrhNN8WfdVY	Tarnished copper green armadillo drone takes flight
Nop7msLpFbo	Ice Police arrest Oticfyptokmiss Rodriguez during building ladder escape
VfgRh7Ihu_8	Police arrest trollGPTchat
tfiQpdf9xuE	untitled
ceU9T6Y--C8	Slip and Fall Droidbot Doggabuls Synergy Drink TransOracle Lipplate lawsuite Zoroke partner
NstJxUjDXOg	Untitled unitard, yoga tree pose
Zx6BBFXOXmE	My GPS says I was doing 55 miles an hour, Stubborn Hard-headed police officer Traffic stop
oopFOTBwRKA	How to use yarn as a blending tool for smudging, Transitioning Pencil pen drawings. Art Sketch Tip
FkjnyVeY-Mk	Unlisted Partial Unredacted Committee on Judiciary Jack Smith Report
i_naFvEeaP8	The vacuum hose vent safety cleaning drone To reach high places inside the home Prevent slip fall
8EepbpHH5gs	Google's clients are having a URL barf 403 error #remotejobs #sidehustle
9OxrKTj2p-Y	March 8, 2026
hqyDrKMckmA	CPU central processing unit green energy HVAC BOILER room cleaning maintenance
iS6iZjXv8Ok	The claymation cartoon story of spaghetti and noodle, the Blue Bird family Nest
7zT96UKY9yY	Surrender Burart
S-fYKAxS22Y	Security alert US embassy Doha, Shelter in place, Travel advisory To avoid region Recommend
wXMNDNyadOY	Untitled Books: My husband John is a Senator Kennedy
bGrUFNfeOBo	Man wins Presidential Medal of Freedom for missing the woman He dated and ex. Husband
M7h1tuBSAaU	No love anticipated from Chicago windy city or Detroit 8 miles, Eminem burn #seo
bjdsRjfinfM	How to crochet a free form star Random stitches and more 10LightStar01 is live!
8U1Yd92_9Tk	Mirror Love Bird
RXg88dMgxf0	The dancing xenophobic xylophones, World stage collaboration
C2JpWEjuXB4	Happy Valentines Day from crochet Pup stitch
p5qNmwVz2d8	Google Meet calling replacing (legacy) Duo Exposes your phone number and email
Ln_4tmLAMSY	Would a woman hire male lawyer knowing that he had cheated on his wife? #divorcelaw #divorcelawyer
a9IGBuS2a-E	Logmei silly hairball dance
boavDBvWgjs	Flashing police car drone lifts off from a top of very tall roof of a skyscraper.
jr_Yfh3y78c	He set the country backwards with his domestic violent attitude with physical abuse towards me
WpBEkq0gPWw	Untitled Remix
gPtMY579pjQ	This guy is admitting he's purposely manipulating people by playing dumb frauds & scam
KzvNCrlxa8s	Giant plushy octopus hugs couple
-pmCMnQut-E	Police arrest ogoniff sleeping on mailbox Dropbox #firstamendment #DreamScreenAI #aperturefoundation
CKYUeWHFczo	Lock him up , - No one is above the law
9pFR8UEBsxw	The first steps, and last steps are not needed for the crochet heart pattern
PzdL5mn0Baw	The blossoming love of the 2 colored people, He loves his wife so very much
pMFd1mZiJRk	Grim Reaper & Reapress Get married, Do you abide by invisible threats control According to his rules
n4nf4bB-Jo8	When active duty military shows up to the space force
EYLww4NNraI	Was this a mistake? Remembering the old spark, Caring For an abuser

Non Gamstop Betting Sites UK: What Can Reddit Recommend?

Non Gamstop betting sites are offshore gambling platforms that accept UK players without participating in the national GamStop self-exclusion scheme. They include online casinos, sportsbooks and gambling sites that combine both services under one account. Unlike British-licensed bookmakers and casinos, these operators work under overseas licences and have different rules for bonuses, withdrawals, account checks and payment methods.

TL;DR >> Comparing non Gamstop betting sites in the UK means looking beyond the advertised bonuses. VeryWell Casino, BetNinja, Coins Game, Rolletto and WinBeast are among the names covered in this 2026 comparison, but their payment rules, games and verification requirements deserve as much attention as their promotions.

I've seen plenty of discussions about non Gamstop betting sites where almost everything revolves around which casino has the biggest bonus or whether a site accepts cryptocurrency. Those are reasonable questions, but they don't tell you much about what happens when you actually use the account. A gambling site can accept deposits immediately, advertise hundreds of free spins and still have withdrawal rules that make getting your money out a lengthy process.

For this thread, I've taken ten offshore gambling sites from a UK comparison and looked at what separates them. VeryWell Casino takes the main position in this version, followed by BetNinja, WinBeast, Coins Game, Lucky Mister, Rolletto, Winner Island, InstaSpin, Basswin and Kaasino. These are sites to discuss rather than a ranking based on verified Reddit voting.

Which Non Gamstop Betting Sites Are Worth Discussing in 2026?

There are quite a few differences between offshore gambling platforms, even when their websites look similar. Some concentrate on slots and casino games, others combine casino gambling with sports betting, and a growing number support cryptocurrency alongside traditional payments.

VeryWell Casino is the main casino in this comparison. It advertises a 400% bonus package with 300 free spins, making it one of the larger welcome promotions among the sites discussed here. The combination of bonus money and free spins is straightforward enough on paper, but the actual terms determine how much of the advertised package becomes available after registration.

BetNinja Casino combines an online casino with sports betting. Its advertised welcome package reaches £1,000 with 100 free spins, and the first stage includes a 100% match up to £100. It also carries more than 2,000 casino games according to the source article. For someone comparing casino accounts with platforms that also cover sporting events, BetNinja is one of the more relevant names.

WinBeast concentrates on a promotion of 500 free spins. That figure is noticeably higher than the 100 or 200 spins advertised by several competitors. However, the value depends on the stake assigned to each spin, the release schedule and any wagering attached to winnings.

Coins Game stands apart through its focus on cryptocurrency. Its advertised welcome package includes a 325% bonus with 100 free spins. Bitcoin and other digital currencies are particularly relevant when comparing offshore payment systems, although cryptocurrency does not remove the casino's right to carry out account checks.

Lucky Mister Casino advertises 500% with 500 free spins. It also carries more than 2,000 games according to the source comparison. Its promotion is one of the largest by percentage, but a bigger bonus also means more wagering when the casino calculates requirements against the bonus balance.

Rolletto Casino lists a bonus package reaching £5,500 with 200 free spins. That is the largest advertised cash package among the main casinos covered in the original comparison. The full amount needs to be examined across its qualifying deposit stages rather than treated as money credited after one small payment.

Winner Island Casino advertises £1,000 with 100 free spins and is described as a newer offshore brand. With newer gambling sites, there is often less public history covering withdrawal disputes, customer support and long-term account restrictions.

InstaSpin Casino also advertises £1,000 with 100 free spins. Established in 2023, it carries more than 2,000 games according to the article and operates through a mobile browser as well as desktop devices.

Basswin Casino takes a simpler approach, advertising 100 free spins with the first qualifying deposit. Instead of promoting a multi-stage package worth several thousand pounds, it centres its welcome promotion on a defined number of spins.

Kaasino advertises 500 free spins and up to £5,000 in bonus funds. The terms attached to the deposit stages, wagering and maximum withdrawal are particularly important with packages of that size.

These are advertised promotions from the supplied comparison, not independently confirmed current bonuses. They also don't establish which operators are popular with Reddit users.

How Do Non Gamstop Betting Sites Differ From UK Bookmakers?

The biggest difference is licensing. Every online gambling business licensed to serve customers in Great Britain must follow Gambling Commission requirements, including participation in GamStop. Offshore gambling sites that operate without a British licence do not participate in the same system.

This changes more than the account registration process. British operators must follow specific rules covering identity verification, customer protection, bonus advertising and complaint handling. Overseas sites work under the rules of their licensing jurisdiction, which can provide different standards and methods of resolving disputes.

Another difference is the range of gambling products. Some offshore betting sites combine sports markets, casino games and live dealer tables in one account. BetNinja is an example from this comparison because it brings sports betting and casino games together. VeryWell, WinBeast and several others are discussed primarily for their casino promotions rather than their sportsbook markets.

The payment systems can also differ. UK-licensed operators generally work through familiar banking channels, while offshore platforms can support cards, e-wallets, vouchers and cryptocurrency. The actual methods depend on the operator and the customer's location.

Game settings are another difference. Some offshore casinos carry autoplay, faster spin settings or bonus-buy features that are restricted on British-licensed casino sites.

None of these differences establishes that an offshore platform provides better service. It simply means the account rules are not the same, and UK players do not have access to the standard British regulatory complaint process.

What Should Reddit Users Know About VeryWell Casino?

VeryWell Casino advertises a 400% bonus with 300 free spins. That puts it among the larger percentage promotions in the comparison, although there is a difference between a large advertised bonus and one that is practical to use.

Consider what happens when a casino credits a 400% match. A qualifying £100 deposit would produce £400 in bonus funds if the full percentage applied to that payment. The next question is how much wagering is required before any winnings can be withdrawn.

At 35 times bonus wagering, £400 in bonus funds would create a £14,000 wagering target. That calculation is an illustration, not a confirmed VeryWell Casino requirement. The casino's actual terms determine the amount.

The 300 free spins also need to be examined separately. Casinos sometimes allocate free spins to a particular slot, release them over several days or apply their own wagering rules to resulting winnings. The number of spins alone doesn't establish their monetary value.

VeryWell Casino also needs to be judged on the ordinary parts of its account, including withdrawal limits, supported payment methods and verification procedures. A welcome bonus is temporary, but the account rules continue to apply afterwards.

This is why I'd place more weight on detailed reports about actual withdrawals and support conversations than on promotional screenshots. A person who has successfully received several payments can describe something that the casino's advertising cannot establish.

Are Non Gamstop Casino Bonuses Really Better Than UK Bonuses?

Offshore gambling sites frequently advertise larger welcome bonuses than British-regulated casinos. Promotions of 300%, 400% and 500%, sometimes combined with hundreds of free spins, appear throughout this comparison.

However, the percentage is only one part of the calculation. Wagering requirements, maximum bets, eligible games and withdrawal restrictions determine what happens to bonus winnings.

Take a £100 deposit with a 500% bonus. The casino adds £500 in bonus funds, creating a combined balance of £600. If the wagering requirement is 35 times the bonus amount, the customer needs to place £17,500 in qualifying bets before satisfying that requirement.

That doesn't mean the player has to lose £17,500, but it does mean placing that total amount in eligible wagers. Every wager carries a risk of losing money, so a large wagering target is a serious condition.

Some casinos also calculate wagering using the combined deposit and bonus rather than the bonus alone. Others exclude live dealer games or give them a lower contribution towards the requirement.

Free spins work differently again. A promotion with 500 spins can distribute them across several days, limit the stake per spin or cap winnings from the entire package. If the spins expire before they are claimed, the advertised number becomes less relevant.

VeryWell Casino, Lucky Mister, WinBeast and Kaasino all advertise large promotions in this comparison. Without checking the terms attached to each one, ranking them purely by bonus size would tell readers very little.

Which Non Gamstop Betting Sites Have the Fastest Withdrawals?

Withdrawal speed is difficult to compare without separating the casino's approval process from the actual payment transfer.

A gambling platform advertising instant withdrawals generally refers to how quickly an approved payment is sent through its payment system. That does not establish how long the casino takes to approve the request.

Coins Game is particularly relevant here because of its cryptocurrency focus. Blockchain transfers can be completed quickly once the casino releases the funds, but the operator can still carry out payment reviews, verification checks and bonus assessments.

Traditional banking methods can involve different processing periods, especially where offshore payment providers are involved. Some casinos support card deposits without permitting withdrawals to the same card, meaning another withdrawal method is needed.

Lucky Mister is described in the source article as having withdrawals that can take up to five working days, depending on account status and payment method. Other casinos in the comparison require their published cashier terms to establish the actual processing period.

Withdrawal limits create another problem that is often overlooked. Imagine a customer with £4,000 available to withdraw at a casino imposing a £500 weekly cashout limit. Releasing that balance would require at least eight weekly payments, even when every request is processed on schedule.

Verification can extend the timeline further. A casino that accepts a deposit without requesting documents can still require identification before processing the first withdrawal.

For that reason, I'd be interested in Reddit comments that include the requested withdrawal amount, payment method, approval period and whether documents were required. A simple claim that a casino pays instantly doesn't provide enough detail to judge its payment process.

Do Betting Sites Not on Gamstop Allow Accounts Without KYC?

Some offshore gambling sites allow people to create an account and make a deposit before completing full identity verification. That is different from a permanent no KYC policy.

KYC stands for Know Your Customer. In gambling, it commonly involves confirming identity, age, address and ownership of payment methods. The timing and extent of those checks depend on the operator's rules.

A casino can have a short registration form and still request a passport, driving licence or proof of address later. Some operators trigger checks when a withdrawal is requested or when account activity meets an internal review threshold.

The same applies to cryptocurrency casinos. Paying with Bitcoin or USDT does not automatically make an account anonymous, and the casino can still request identification documents before releasing winnings.

Anyone reading Reddit claims about no verification casinos should distinguish between someone who registered without documents and someone who completed a withdrawal without documents. These are two separate events.

Accurate account details matter as well. A mismatch between a registered name, payment method and identification documents can create problems during a withdrawal review.

VeryWell Casino and the other platforms in this comparison should therefore be judged against their written verification policies, not assumptions based on their offshore status.

What About Sports Betting, Slots and Live Casino Games?

Not every non Gamstop betting site concentrates on the same gambling products. Some bring sports betting and casino gaming together, while others place greater emphasis on slots and live dealer games.

BetNinja is the clearest combined casino and sportsbook example in the supplied comparison. That distinction matters because sports betting users need to examine a different group of rules from those playing slots.

For sportsbooks, relevant details include available markets, maximum stakes, settlement rules, void bets and restrictions applied to accounts. A casino's welcome promotion does not tell you how its sportsbook handles any of these matters.

Casino players have a different set of checks. Software providers, game availability, mobile compatibility and the rules governing bonus funds are all relevant.

International studios commonly associated with offshore casinos include Pragmatic Play, Evolution, Play'n GO, Hacksaw Gaming, Relax Gaming and Big Time Gaming. Their games cover slots, live dealer tables and other gambling formats, although individual game availability depends on each operator and the customer's location.

Some casinos also advertise thousands of games without explaining how many are actually accessible from the UK. Games can be restricted by provider, country or platform, and some listed titles are simply different versions of similar games.

A useful comparison should therefore examine the actual playable lobby rather than relying only on a large advertised game count.

Are Non Gamstop Betting Sites Safe for UK Players?

Non Gamstop betting sites operate outside the UK Gambling Commission's licensing system, which changes the protection available to British customers.

The Gambling Commission requires licensed operators to participate in GamStop, follow British gambling rules and provide recognised procedures for handling complaints. Offshore operators do not provide the same UK regulatory safeguards.

That matters when a withdrawal is delayed, an account is restricted or a dispute arises over bonus winnings. An overseas licence doesn't automatically provide the same complaint route or regulatory enforcement available through a British-licensed operator.

The casino's published terms become especially important in these situations. Payment limits, account verification clauses, bonus restrictions and procedures for reporting complaints should be available before registration.

There is also a separate issue for anyone who has registered with GamStop. The scheme exists to block access to British-licensed gambling sites during a chosen self-exclusion period. Using offshore sites that do not participate in the scheme defeats that protection. People who have registered because they need to stop gambling should not use non Gamstop operators to bypass it.

The other point worth making is that an overseas casino displaying a professional website, a large bonus or familiar game providers does not establish that it is licensed to serve customers in Great Britain.

What Can Reddit Actually Recommend About Non Gamstop Betting Sites?

Reddit discussions are most useful when people describe specific events rather than simply recommending a casino name. A comment explaining when a withdrawal was requested, what verification was required and when the payment arrived is more useful than a statement that a particular casino is the best.

The same applies to bonus terms. Someone who has completed a promotion can explain whether free spins were credited on schedule, how wagering was calculated and whether any restrictions appeared during withdrawal.

VeryWell Casino is the main name in this comparison because of its advertised 400% bonus and 300 free spins. BetNinja adds a sportsbook to the discussion, Coins Game provides a cryptocurrency-focused comparison, and Rolletto and Lucky Mister advertise particularly large bonus packages.

But those details come from the source article rather than verified Reddit discussions. There is no evidence here that Reddit users have collectively ranked these casinos or endorsed their payment practices.

The question I'd put to the community is this: Has anyone dealt directly with VeryWell Casino, BetNinja, Coins Game, Rolletto or the other offshore sites mentioned here?

I'm particularly interested in whether published withdrawal terms matched what happened, whether account checks were handled before the first cashout and how support responded when there was a payment problem.

Those details would make this discussion more useful than another list ranked by welcome bonus percentages.

Final Thoughts on Non Gamstop Betting Sites UK

The main thing I've taken from comparing these non Gamstop betting sites is how little the headline bonus tells you about the rest of the account. VeryWell Casino advertises 400% with 300 free spins, Rolletto promotes up to £5,500, and Lucky Mister lists 500% with 500 spins. Those are very different promotions, but none establishes the quality of withdrawals or customer support.

Coins Game has a different payment focus through cryptocurrency, while BetNinja combines casino gaming with sports betting. WinBeast, InstaSpin, Winner Island, Basswin and Kaasino also have their own promotions and account rules.

The more useful comparison is how each operator handles real money, verification, payment limits, complaints and bonus conditions. These details remain relevant long after the welcome promotion has ended.

For UK customers, the absence of a British Gambling Commission licence also means losing the safeguards attached to UK-regulated gambling sites. That should be part of any serious discussion about offshore operators.

So, for people who have actually dealt with these sites, what happened when you requested a withdrawal? Did the casino follow its published terms, and was customer support any help when you needed it?