Articles by Khal
Latest from Khal
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Nearly 1,700 UK investors sue Binance, Changpeng Zhao over unregulated derivatives
A group of almost 1,700 UK investors filed a lawsuit in London High Court against Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao, seeking 150 million British pounds ($200 million) over the exchange's alleged sale of crypto derivatives without regulatory approval after a 2021 Financial Conduct Authority ban.
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AMD Versal Premium Gen 2 MoP SoC integrates 32GB on-package memory for AI
AMD announced the Versal Premium Gen 2 Memory on Package (MoP) adaptive SoC, integrating up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory directly into the chip package for AI and defense workloads. Sampling begins end of 2026; production ships H2 2027.
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Hodli becomes Italy's first licensed crypto portfolio manager under MiCA
Hodli, a Genoa-based fintech startup, received authorization from the Bank of Italy as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider under MiCA, becoming Italy's first licensed crypto portfolio manager with the ability to actively manage digital asset portfolios across the EU.
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U.S. Conditions Iranian Asset Release on Nuclear Limits
A U.S. official stated that blocked Iranian assets will not be released until Tehran meets specific conditions, including limits on nuclear capabilities, as part of a "relief for performance" strategy aimed at maintaining leverage during ongoing 2025–2026 negotiations.
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Bending Spoons prices IPO above range, raises $1.62B in largest European tech listing
Bending Spoons, a Milan-based digital acquirer, raised $1.62 billion in its Nasdaq IPO priced above the marketed range, valuing the company near $20 billion. The offering marks the largest European tech IPO in recent memory.
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US labor market strength limits Fed rate cuts, keeps Bitcoin range-bound
Strong US employment data and a resilient jobs market are giving the Federal Reserve less reason to cut interest rates, which dampens the hunt for riskier returns and keeps Bitcoin range-bound as equities post their best quarter in six years.
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Takaichi unveils $6.8T GDP roadmap with $2.3T investment through 2040
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi laid out Japan's most ambitious economic roadmap in over a decade, targeting ¥1,100 trillion in nominal GDP by 2040, backed by ¥370 trillion in investments across AI, semiconductors, defense, and space sectors.
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OpenAI cuts inference costs over 50% with quantization and caching
OpenAI has achieved a significant reduction in inference costs by more than half for some existing models through techniques like quantization and caching, according to The Information, strengthening its competitive position in the AI infrastructure market.
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Claude Sonnet 5 Matches Opus 4.8 Performance at Lower Cost
Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5 on Tuesday as its new default mid-tier model, delivering performance nearly identical to the pricier Opus 4.8 while remaining suspended for foreign nationals under U.S. export controls.
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Heavy AI investors expand payrolls, Ramp study finds—not cutting jobs
A Ramp and Revelio Labs study of 21,559 U.S. companies found firms making the largest AI investments increased headcount by roughly 10% and entry-level hiring by 12%, contradicting widespread fears that generative AI is already driving white-collar layoffs.
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1,700 UK investors sue Binance and Changpeng Zhao over unauthorized derivatives
Nearly 1,700 UK investors filed a lawsuit against Binance in London High Court, claiming the exchange sold leveraged crypto derivatives without FCA authorization starting in 2019—two years before regulators formally banned retail access to such products. The claim seeks at least £150 million in damages.
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Open USD stablecoin launches with 140+ companies, challenges USDT and USDC
More than 140 companies including Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase have backed Open USD, a new dollar-pegged stablecoin that lets businesses mint at no cost and retain reserve earnings, setting up a challenge to Tether and Circle's market-leading coins.
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DeFi hacks cost $780.3M in Q2, now a structural yield risk
DeFiLlama's Q2 tracker recorded $780.3 million in known hack losses across 88 incidents, with infrastructure breaches (bridges, oracles, admin keys) now factoring as a structural cost of yield-seeking in decentralized finance.
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Higgsfield AI raises $300M–$500M at $5B valuation, reshaping AI funding
Higgsfield AI, a text-to-video startup, is raising $300M to $500M at a $5B pre-money valuation, a fourfold jump from its $1.3B valuation in January 2026. The round reflects explosive revenue growth and highlights how traditional AI valuations now influence crypto markets.
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Pump.fun discontinues Tokenized Agent feature over toxic PvP dynamics
Pump.fun has discontinued its Tokenized Agent launch feature effective immediately, citing community feedback about toxic player-versus-player dynamics created by multiple launch options on the Solana-based token launchpad.
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UBTech U1 humanoid robot hits $334M pre-orders in four weeks
UBTech Robotics generated $334 million in pre-order revenue for its U1 companion robot within four weeks of launch in June 2026, with over 5,000 pre-orders and shipments expected by September. The achievement exceeds the company's entire 2025 industrial robotics segment revenue.
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Coinbase, BlackRock, Visa Back Open USD Stablecoin as Circle Stock Tumbles
More than 140 companies including Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, and BlackRock announced a coalition to launch Open USD, a new stablecoin. Circle's stock fell nearly 16% on the news, extending its monthly decline to 39%.
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Anthropic Releases Claude Desktop Beta for Linux
Anthropic has released a beta version of Claude Desktop for Linux, supporting Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+ on x86_64 and Arm64 systems. The app includes Chat, Cowork, and Code interfaces, though some features like app control and voice dictation remain limited on the platform.
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88% of businesses plan stablecoin adoption within 12 months: Cybrid survey
A Cybrid survey of 468 business leaders found 88% likely to use stablecoins within 12 months, with regulatory clarity identified as the biggest barrier to wider adoption.
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Dutch Prosecutors Seek Bankruptcy of Unlicensed Knaken Exchange
Dutch prosecutors have asked a Rotterdam court to wind up Knaken, an unlicensed crypto platform that has been offline since June and locked 30,000 customers out of their holdings. The move comes as Europe's new crypto licensing regime tightens rules on unregulated exchanges.
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US Job Openings Steady at 7.6M, Consumer Confidence Climbs, Delaying Fed Rate Cuts
Job openings held steady at 7.6 million in May while consumer confidence indexes surged in June, signaling a resilient labor market that could delay Federal Reserve rate cuts and pressure risk assets including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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Morgan Stanley warns semiconductor stocks mirror commodity boom-bust cycles
Morgan Stanley's CIO flagged overcrowded positioning in semiconductor stocks, drawing parallels to commodity cycles that preceded sharp reversals. The chip sector's extreme technical readings pose risks to AI and crypto infrastructure.
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Circle shares fall 8% as Stripe, Coinbase back Open USD stablecoin
Circle's shares fell 8% after Open Standard launched Open USD, a new stablecoin backed by Stripe, Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa and BlackRock that lets businesses mint tokens without fees and share reserve income.
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MetaMask Launches Yield-Paying Money Accounts on Monad
MetaMask rolled out Money Accounts on Tuesday, a self-custody feature combining stablecoin yield, payments, and trading built on Monad. The product uses mUSD and deploys deposits into DeFi lending protocols including Morpho.