Banks have enjoyed a formidable moat built on customer relationships, regulatory privilege, and distribution networks for decades. – but that moat was breached in 2025. Embedded finance, the integration of payment, lending, insurance, and investing directly into non-financial platforms, became mainstream this year – shifting the locus of value creation away from banks and toward
South Korea’s cryptocurrency market is witnessing heightened scrutiny over AI16Z, a token that has recently rebranded as ElizaOS (ELIZAOS) following a contract migration. The South Korean exchange regulator Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) has placed AI16Z under a trading alert on Bithumb’s platform, citing concerns over untimely disclosures and a lack of transparency that could
A federal court ruling has cleared the way for the Trump administration to proceed with a sharp increase in H-1B visa application fees, a move that could significantly alter how US companies hire skilled foreign workers. The decision, delivered on Tuesday, allows a $100,000 charge on new applications, reshaping one of the most widely used
Ripple, the blockchain payments and infrastructure company behind XRP, has once again become the focus of IPO speculation. Recent claims circulating among crypto observers suggest the company could be engaging in late-stage discussions for a potential public offering in 2026. These claims come despite clear statements from Ripple’s leadership that the company has no immediate
Polymarket has recently confirmed that several of its users were affected by a security breach, which it says was due to a vulnerability in a third-party authentication service. The Polymarket team has officially acknowledged the incident that several users had been reporting over the past week, prompting renewed concerns about account safety. Polymarket users report
Shares of Dynavax Technologies jumped sharply in premarket trading on Wednesday after the US vaccine maker agreed to be acquired by French pharmaceutical group Sanofi in an all-cash deal valued at about $2.2 billion. Sanofi said it will pay $15.50 per share for Dynavax, representing a premium of roughly 39% to the company’s closing price
Italy has become the latest European regulator to challenge how Big Tech is integrating artificial intelligence into widely used digital platforms. This week, the country’s antitrust authority ordered Meta Platforms to suspend certain WhatsApp contractual terms while it investigates whether the company abused its dominant position. The case centres on AI chatbots and whether recent
The Curve DAO community has rejected a proposal that sought to provide significant financial backing to its main development entity, Swiss Stake. The vote marks the latest governance decision within the Curve Finance ecosystem and comes as the protocol’s native token continues to show resilience around the $0.37 level. According to details from the vote,
The Strategy stock price continued its freefall this month and is now hovering at its lowest level since September last year. MSTR stock has plunged by over 70% from its highest level in 2024, even as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 indices jumped to a record high. Strategy enterprise NAV is about to
The United States has sharply escalated its confrontation with Europe over digital regulation, imposing visa sanctions on former European Union officials and leaders of anti-disinformation groups in a move that has drawn swift condemnation from across the Atlantic. The sanctions, announced on Tuesday by the US State Department, target a former senior EU official and