71 stories from 9 sources

Crypto infrastructure expands as trust and oversight tighten

Day’s Recap

Supporting Articles

11:55 AMPYMNTS

Bitget Sees $463 Million in Outflows Following $388 Million Hack

Summary

Bitget recorded about $463 million in net outflows in the 24 hours before Tuesday, as it began restoring withdrawals after a $388 million hack. The outflow was the largest one-day total recorded by DeFiLlama since it began tracking proof-of-reserves data four years ago.

The decisive fact is that withdrawals exceeded the stolen amount, showing that the hack triggered

Why it matters

The incident shows how a crypto hack can become a liquidity crisis when customers doubt an exchange's ability to safeguard funds.

10:50 AMPYMNTS

A Second Federal Appeals Court Rules Sports Event Contracts Are Not Swaps

Summary

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that sports event contracts offered by Kalshi are not federally regulated swaps and that states can enforce their gambling laws against the platform. The unanimous decision sided with Ohio and Tennessee, giving states another legal basis to challenge sports prediction markets.

The ruling strengthens state authority over sports prediction contracts and creates another obstacle for Kalshi's

Why it matters

The decision threatens the assumption that federal market regulation can shield prediction platforms from state gambling restrictions.

7:00 PMFortune

Robinhood just rolled out trading agents to millions—and investing may never be the same

Summary

Robinhood is making AI trading agents available to millions of users. Customers can choose between models from OpenAI and Anthropic to assist with investing decisions.

The decisive change is distribution: AI trading tools are moving from specialist platforms into a

Why it matters

Putting autonomous or semi-autonomous advice inside a mainstream brokerage could change investor behavior faster than regulators can define the rules.

2:26 PMFinextra

Jeeves raises $110m for stablecoin banking platform

Summary

Jeeves raised $110 million to scale its stablecoin-native banking platform for global enterprises. The company is building on its existing corporate card and expense management business.

The round shifts Jeeves' growth strategy toward stablecoin-based financial infrastructure for multinational companies. Success will

Why it matters

The financing signals growing investor interest in stablecoins as an enterprise payments and banking layer.

10:00 AMBloomberg Markets

Jeeves Raises $110 Million From A16z, Coinbase for Crypto Push

Summary

Jeeves raised $110 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase to expand its fintech products. The plans include a stablecoin wallet, AI agents and instant payouts across more countries.

The decisive shift is Jeeves putting crypto infrastructure at the center of its next expansion

Why it matters

The round signals continued investor appetite for fintech companies that connect global payments with stablecoins and AI.

8:01 PMFinextra

Circle and Volante partner to help banks integrate stablecoins into payment operations

Summary

Volante Technologies is partnering with Circle to help financial institutions add USDC-based payment and settlement capabilities to their existing operations.

The partnership shifts stablecoin adoption from experimentation toward integration with bank payment infrastructure. Banks can

Why it matters

Stablecoins will scale through infrastructure partnerships that make them compatible with existing bank workflows, not through standalone crypto products.

11:45 AMPYMNTS

Banks Want Risk Controls Tested at Nonbank Stablecoin Issuers

Summary

Banks urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to place greater emphasis on testing the risk controls of nonbank applicants seeking payment stablecoin issuer approval. The comments concern application requirements established under the GENIUS framework.

Banks are seeking comparable scrutiny for nonbank issuers, especially around reserves, operational resilience, compliance, and

Why it matters

The application process will help determine whether stablecoin regulation creates a level playing field or advantages incumbent banks.

7:00 AMBloomberg Markets

Morgan Stanley Builds Crypto Lab to Test Future of Wall Street

Summary

Morgan Stanley has created a Digital Asset Lab to test stablecoins, tokenization and decentralized finance applications. The bank is examining how blockchain-based systems could support its broader business.

Morgan Stanley is moving digital assets from exploratory research toward controlled testing inside a major

Why it matters

A major bank is treating blockchain infrastructure as a potential operating model, not only an investment category.

8:01 PMFinextra

Valley Bank to buy digital SME banking platform Bluevine

Summary

Valley National Bank has agreed to acquire Bluevine, a digital banking platform for small and medium-sized businesses, for approximately $340 million in cash and stock.

The acquisition gives Valley a ready-made digital SME platform instead of building one internally, while

Why it matters

Bank fintech M&A is becoming a way for regional lenders to close technology gaps and compete for small-business deposits and payments.

Other Developments

A curated list of other prominent stories from this day.

10:12 PMEconomic Times

Robinhood to allow 24-hour weekend trading of US stocks as industry shifts to wider access

Summary

Robinhood plans to offer 24-hour weekend trading in selected US stocks, alongside products tied to corporate earnings and perpetual futures. The expansion follows a broader industry push to extend market access beyond traditional exchange hours.

Robinhood is turning continuous access into a core retail-investing feature, putting pressure on rivals and

Why it matters

Longer trading hours could reshape when and how retail investors trade while widening exposure to fast-moving, higher-risk products.

8:01 PMFinextra

Elio Mortgage launches with $5.1m in pre-seed funding

Summary

AI-native startup Elio Mortgage has launched with $5.1 million in pre-seed funding. Motive Partners and Social Leverage led the round.

Elio enters the mortgage market with unusually strong early backing for a pre-seed company. The

Why it matters

The deal signals continued investor appetite for applying AI to large, inefficient financial workflows, including mortgage lending.

8:01 PMFinextra

SMEs turn from banks to fintechs for cross-border payments

Summary

A Mastercard report says most internationally active small and medium-sized businesses plan to change their cross-border payment provider within the next two years.

The expected switching points to dissatisfaction with incumbent bank pricing, speed, or transparency in international

Why it matters

SME payment churn gives fintechs a direct route into business banking and raises the competitive stakes in cross-border infrastructure.

8:00 PMFinextra

Sibos 2026: What does sovereignty look like in a multi-rail payments landscape?

Summary

Discussion at Sibos is focusing on how banks can interoperate with emerging payment rails and what monetary sovereignty means in a digital financial system with multiple networks.

Interoperability is becoming a policy issue, not just a technical one, because payment rails shape

Why it matters

The move toward multiple payment rails could expand choice while weakening the ability of any single jurisdiction or network to control financial flows.

7:05 PMPYMNTS

Citi Rewires Global Payments Through Single Swift Connection

Summary

Citi now lets bank clients reach multiple cross-border instant payment markets through one account structure and a single connection to Swift. The service removes the need for separate local banking relationships, bilateral agreements, and local technical infrastructure.

Citi is centralizing access to fragmented instant payment markets, reducing the operational burden of building

Why it matters

A single integration can make instant international payments more scalable, but it may also increase reliance on major global banks for access to local rails.

4:51 PMIGN

Coinbase Joins Pokémon TCG Hype With Its Own Digital Pack-Opening Service

Summary

Coinbase is entering the Pokémon Trading Card Game trend with a digital platform for opening packs.

The launch extends Coinbase's consumer strategy beyond conventional trading by attaching digital asset infrastructure to

Why it matters

Coinbase is testing whether mainstream collectibles can bring new users into digital ownership and broaden crypto's consumer use cases.

3:41 PMPYMNTS

Outgoing SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Says Crypto Use Will Lock In Regulations

Summary

Outgoing SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said that wider consumer use of cryptocurrency under newly implemented rules could make those rules difficult to reverse. She argued that adoption would create political and market pressure to preserve the technology's place in the financial system.

Peirce's argument treats adoption as a regulatory ratchet: once customers and businesses build around compliant

Why it matters

Crypto regulation may become harder to unwind once compliant products gain ordinary users and commercial dependencies.

3:03 PMPYMNTS

Toast Courts Convenience Stores With Fuel Platform

Summary

Toast launched Toast Fuel, a platform for convenience stores and gas stations that combines in-store retail, food service and at-the-pump fuel payments. The product extends Toast's operating model beyond restaurants into a broader convenience retail market.

Toast is using payments and point-of-sale integration to enter a sector where operators manage multiple

Why it matters

Toast is turning its restaurant technology base into a broader vertical-platform strategy centered on payments and operational data.

2:57 PMFinextra

BankPro picks Thredd to power card programmes

Summary

BankPro, a private digital bank headquartered in The Bahamas, selected Thredd to run its physical and virtual debit and credit card programmes. The partnership gives BankPro access to Thredd's issuer-processing platform for launching and managing its card products.

BankPro is outsourcing a critical layer of card infrastructure instead of building issuer processing internally.

Why it matters

Issuer processors are becoming strategic growth infrastructure for digital banks entering or expanding in cards.

1:48 PMPYMNTS

BankPro Taps Thredd to Power Physical and Virtual Cards

Summary

Bahamas-based private bank BankPro is partnering with Thredd to issue and manage physical and virtual debit and credit cards for its international high-net-worth customers. Thredd will provide the underlying payments platform.

BankPro is outsourcing core card infrastructure rather than building an issuing stack in-house, allowing it

Why it matters

Embedded card infrastructure is lowering the barrier for private banks to offer global payment products.

2 stories · 2 sources

2:40 PMFinextra

Mastercard partners with Mojaloop and AfricaNenda on payments in Africa

Summary

Mastercard is partnering with the Mojaloop Foundation and AfricaNenda Foundation to support trusted and inclusive payment infrastructure across Africa. The collaboration targets countries that are upgrading their digital and interoperable payment systems.

The partnership places Mastercard alongside open and public-interest payment infrastructure efforts rather than relying only

Why it matters

Africa's payment buildout is becoming a contest over shared infrastructure, not just card-network expansion.

2:03 PMPYMNTS

Meta and Intuit Team on Small Business Intelligence

Summary

Intuit’s QuickBooks connector is now available through Meta’s Muse AI assistant. It lets small businesses connect conversations with financial tools, insights, and actions inside the assistant.

The partnership gives Meta a path from general-purpose assistance into useful business workflows, while Intuit

Why it matters

Embedding QuickBooks in Muse shows how AI assistants can become distribution channels for financial software and small-business services.

2:00 PMFinextra

Sibos 2026: Google Cloud reveals banks are moving from AI copilots to autonomous workflows

Summary

Banks are moving from AI copilots that assist employees toward purpose-built systems that can execute parts of financial workflows autonomously. Executives from Google and major banks discussed how these systems could be deployed in areas such as finance, treasury, liquidity, and corporate banking.

The shift raises the stakes from productivity gains to operational delegation. Banks will need stronger

Why it matters

Financial institutions are beginning to treat AI as an operator of core workflows, which could reshape staffing, risk management, and vendor competition.

12:03 PMPYMNTS

Finastra Deploys AI to Help Banks Tackle Payment Processing Issues

Summary

Finastra launched Repair Recommendations, an AI capability within its cloud-based OperatorAssist platform. The tool is designed to identify payment-processing problems and recommend fixes for bank operations teams.

The shift is from AI-assisted diagnosis to AI-guided remediation in a high-volume banking workflow. Banks

Why it matters

AI is moving into the operational layer of payments, where faster error resolution can directly affect bank costs and customer experience.

11:17 AMHousing Wire

Elio Mortgage launches with $5.1M preseed funding

Summary

Elio Mortgage launched with $5.1 million in preseed funding led by Motive Partners and Social Leverage. The company plans to pursue nationwide licensing and hire loan officers.

Elio is using early capital to build the regulatory footprint and sales force required for

Why it matters

The launch adds a newly funded mortgage entrant at a time when nationwide distribution and operating efficiency remain critical advantages.

9:54 AMEconomic Times

CoinSwitch swings to profitability in FY26 as crypto platform’s revenue climbs 150% to Rs 324 crore

Summary

CoinSwitch reported Adjusted EBITDA profitability in FY26 after revenue rose 150% to Rs 324.19 crore. Its Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 27% as operating costs grew 37%, while the platform expanded its user base to more than 2 crore and supports over 450 digital assets.

Revenue growth is now translating into operating leverage, with costs rising far more slowly than

Why it matters

CoinSwitch's results suggest India's crypto platforms can scale toward profitability despite a volatile and tightly scrutinised market.

9:48 AMHousing Wire

Rocket Mortgage will make VantageScore 4.0 its default credit model

Summary

Rocket Mortgage will adopt VantageScore 4.0 as its default credit model after a four-month test involving 1.4 million credit reports. The company said the model helped some borrowers qualify and improved pricing outcomes.

Rocket's decision shifts mortgage underwriting toward a model that may evaluate more applicants as creditworthy

Why it matters

A major lender's default-model change could broaden mortgage access and pressure the industry to reassess established credit-score standards.

9:05 AMCNBC

Coinbase Ventures and CMCC Global close strategic funding round with trading firm Raven

Summary

Coinbase Ventures and CMCC Global closed a strategic funding round with Raven, an institutional market maker focused on prediction markets. Raven supplies continuous buy and sell orders for prediction-market contracts.

The funding adds institutional liquidity to a market that depends on active trading to make

Why it matters

Better market making could help prediction markets move from niche products toward more liquid, institutionally supported venues.

8:00 AMCNBC

Polymarket taps Goldman Sachs veteran Lisa Mantil to attract Wall Street liquidity

Summary

Polymarket hired Lisa Mantil, a nearly 30-year Goldman Sachs veteran, to help attract institutional traders to its prediction market.

The hire gives Polymarket a senior financial markets operator focused on bringing Wall Street liquidity

Why it matters

Polymarket is moving from retail attention toward institutional market participation.

4:22 AMEconomic Times

Bitcoin skyrocketed 750% since Warren Buffett called it 'rat poison' in 2018. Why was he cautious?

Summary

Bitcoin has risen roughly 750% since Warren Buffett labeled it "rat poison squared" in 2018, reaching above $126,000 as institutional participation and investor demand expanded. Its sharp subsequent correction also underscores why Buffett remained wary of an asset with extreme volatility and no conventional cash flows.

Bitcoin's price gains and institutional adoption have weakened the argument that it would remain a

Why it matters

Bitcoin's mainstream acceptance has grown faster than the evidence that its valuation rests on durable economic fundamentals.

12:00 AMFinancial Times

Why a £10bn Monzo takeover could be good for the UK

Summary

Brazil-based Nubank has considered moving its legal domicile to the City as part of a potential £10bn takeover of Monzo. The proposal would connect one of Britain's largest digital banks with a major Latin American fintech.

The decisive shift is that a takeover could bring Nubank's legal base, capital and international

Why it matters

The deal could strengthen the UK's fintech sector, but its value depends on whether ownership translates into lasting economic activity at home.

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