News from the frontier of crypto, AI & payments.
Coverage and analysis at the intersection of crypto, AI, and payments — through the lens of institutional custody.
Vanishing CLO Profits Spark Investor Infighting, Highlighting Structural Finance Risks
Once a lucrative fixed-income investment for Wall Street, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) are experiencing deteriorating returns, triggering investor exodus and disputes over loss allocation while exposing structural vulnerabilities in the asset class.
Vanishing CLO Profits Spark Investor Infighting, Highlighting Structural Finance Risks
Once a lucrative fixed-income investment for Wall Street, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) are experiencing deteriorating returns, triggering investor exodus and disputes over loss allocation while exposing structural vulnerabilities in the asset class.
Visa and Stripe Unite Over 100 Institutions to Launch Open Stablecoin Standard, Mainstream Payment Networks Accelerate Digital Currency Adoption
Visa launches a stablecoin platform enabling banks to process stablecoins within existing payment rails; Stripe partners with Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Google, and over 100 organizations to design an open stablecoin standard, marking a new phase of deep adoption by traditional payment networks.
Chinese Smartphone Makers Bet on AI Agents to Redefine Mobile Ecosystem
ZTE unveiled the NaviX Ultra at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, billing it as the world's first agentic AI smartphone; initial units sold out within hours. Vertu launched a luxury foldable priced at $6,880, targeting executives with an AI agent designed to automate workflows. Chinese manufacturers are racing to embed AI services into handsets, seeking to validate the commercial value of AI agents as personal assistants across mass-market and premium segments.
AI Agent Payment Infrastructure Takes Shape: HTTP 402 and Stablecoin Settlement Usher in Machine Economy
Stripe launches Projects feature enabling AI agents to autonomously provision and pay for third-party services, while Cloudflare activates the dormant HTTP 402 status code for agent-driven stablecoin payments, marking the rapid emergence of automated payment infrastructure for the agent economy.
Stripe and Swift Race to Control Next-Generation Global Payments Infrastructure
Stripe's reported $53 billion bid for PayPal and Swift's expansion of blockchain settlement networks highlight an intensifying competition between payment giants to control the infrastructure behind tokenized and digital payments.
Prediction Market Platform Kalshi Adjusts Strategy Amid Sports Betting Controversy
US prediction market platform Kalshi announced strategic adjustments following social media criticism of its sports betting operations, highlighting dual pressures from regulatory compliance and public opinion on emerging prediction market platforms.
Latest from Cobo
Cobo Launches Agentic Wallet: Three Industry Firsts Redefining How AI Agents Interact On-Chain
Cobo launches Cobo Agentic Wallet (CAW), the world's first MPC-secured wallet purpose-built for AI agents, featuring a human-agent authorization protocol and modular skill framework that enables autonomous on-chain execution within user-defined boundaries.
Cobo Agentic Wallet: A New Paradigm for Autonomous AI Agent Transactions and Payments
Cobo launches Cobo Agentic Wallet (CAW), an MPC-based wallet infrastructure designed to enable AI Agents to perform autonomous on-chain transactions with institutional-grade security and human-enforced authorization controls.
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