Articles by Khal
Latest from Khal
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Morphotonics raises €40M for data center optics and semiconductor packaging
Netherlands-based deeptech firm Morphotonics secured €40M in funding from 3M Ventures, Innovation Industries, BOM, and Invest-NL to scale manufacturing and deepen its presence in data center optics and semiconductor packaging markets.
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BlackRock's IBIT leads $999M in US spot Bitcoin ETF inflows
US spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs drew $1.269 billion in net inflows on September 21, with BlackRock's IBIT capturing $618 million. Cumulative inflows since January 2024 have reached $55.8 billion as institutional adoption accelerates.
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Coinbase USDC rewards exploit regulatory loophole as GENIUS Act tightens
Brian Armstrong argues Coinbase's stablecoin rewards program—paying 3.75% to 4.5%—falls outside the GENIUS Act's prohibition on yield, but faces pressure from banks and stalled legislation that could reshape the market.
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Kakao Pay, KakaoBank partner Fireblocks on stablecoin infrastructure
South Korean financial services firms Kakao Pay and KakaoBank signed a memorandum with crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks to explore stablecoin opportunities and conduct proof-of-concept tests for digital assets tailored to local regulatory requirements.
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Nvidia guides $108B Q3 revenue, assumes zero China chip sales
Nvidia posted $96.2 billion in quarterly revenue and guided to $108 billion for Q3, but the forecast assumes zero data center chip sales to China. Despite losing access to a $50 billion annual market, hyperscaler demand and potential policy shifts could reshape the outlook.
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Manhattan US Attorney probes Binance over Iran sanctions violations
The Manhattan US Attorney's Office is investigating whether Binance knowingly allowed trading that violated US sanctions on Iran, according to Bloomberg. The Justice Department's Criminal Division is also involved in the probe, which builds on a March report first revealing a DOJ investigation into the exchange.
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White-hat researchers transfer 52 BTC from COLDCARD exploit to recovery trust
White-hat researchers recovered 52.37 BTC from the COLDCARD hardware wallet exploit and transferred it to the Crypto Recovery Trust, a Wyoming-based entity, to reimburse victims. The transfer represents roughly 2.8% of the estimated 1,500+ BTC drained in the attack.
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Zappin launches on Robinhood Chain with 90% ETH cashback
Zappin, a Telegram-based trading bot built by OnchainLens, launched on Robinhood Chain on September 21, offering users 90% of their trading fees back in ETH for 30 days. The integration brings streamlined token swaps to the Arbitrum Orbit layer-2 network.
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Prosecutors target $61M in crypto tied to Iranian oil laundering via Binance
Manhattan federal prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture complaint on September 14 seeking to seize approximately $61 million in cryptocurrency allegedly funneled through Binance accounts operated by Hong Kong entities and linked to black-market Iranian oil sales and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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Jameson Lopp maps 360 physical attacks on Bitcoin holders worldwide
Jameson Lopp, Casa's Chief Security Officer, released an interactive dashboard documenting 360 known physical attacks on crypto holders worldwide. The data shows attacks occurring at a pace of more than one per week in 2025 and early 2026, highlighting an often-ignored security risk in the industry.
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Vitalik Buterin pushes private voting for prediction market oracles
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin engaged with Trueo, a Base-built prediction market, to push for decentralized oracles and private attester voting systems that prevent whale manipulation of market resolutions.
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Circle pitches stablecoin infrastructure at Sibos 2026 Miami
Circle will present its regulated stablecoin infrastructure at Sibos 2026 in Miami (September 28–October 1), where over 10,000 global banking professionals will gather. The timing coincides with Circle's Arc mainnet launch, which features sub-second finality and USDC as its native settlement currency.
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Saudi Arabia exits mBridge CBDC project after proof of concept
Saudi Arabia's central bank has exited mBridge, a China-led cross-border digital currency platform, after completing a proof of concept in May 2025. The withdrawal comes as US policymakers have raised concerns about the project's potential to circumvent sanctions.
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OpenAI Retooling ChatGPT, Codex for Personal AI Agent Market
OpenAI is exploring ways to repackage existing technology to compete in the fast-growing personal AI assistant space, where SpaceX and Meta have already launched offerings.
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OpenAI urges US to lead global AI safety standards
OpenAI published a blog post calling on the US to spearhead creation of global technical standards for frontier AI systems, with CEO Sam Altman set to address the UN Security Council on September 23.
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LYON eyes Valyn signing pending VCT Americas partnership slot
Mexican esports organization LYON is reportedly moving to sign Jacob "Valyn" Batio from G2 Esports as an in-game leader, contingent on securing a partnership slot in Riot Games' closed VALORANT Champions Tour Americas league.
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Venice AI hits $100M revenue run rate as VVV token surges to $34
Venice AI, an open-source chatbot platform built by ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees, crossed a $100 million annualized revenue run rate in August. Its native token VVV reached $34.51 on Sunday, up roughly 3,000% since December, though extreme concentration—98% of supply held by the top 100 wallets—raises sustainability questions.
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Solana Mobile Seeker integrates Webcade arcade game with exclusive perks
Solana Mobile's Seeker Dashboard now features Webcade, a free-to-play arcade game from the Solana dApp Store, offering verified Seeker device owners exclusive badges, bonus plays, and leaderboard access without additional cost.
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FutureBit's fruit fly brain model projects 10x Bitcoin mining efficiency
Hardware maker FutureBit simulated a fruit fly's neural pathways to perform Bitcoin hashing in a browser experiment, projecting that a biological version could achieve 10 times the efficiency of current silicon ASICs.
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xAI Launches Grok 4.7 With 2.1T Parameters, Trails Claude and OpenAI
xAI released Grok 4.7 on Monday with 2.1 trillion parameters—40% more than its predecessor—and claims it's a notable improvement at the same price. Benchmark scores show it's competitive but ranks behind Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1 and OpenAI's models.
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Chinese Banks Uncover $2.8B Counterfeit Gold Fraud at Kingold Jewelry
More than a dozen Chinese financial institutions discovered approximately $2.8 billion in counterfeit gold collateral—actually gilded copper—tied to Wuhan-based Kingold Jewelry, a Nasdaq-listed company. The fraud was uncovered when lenders attempted to liquidate the assets, exposing significant gaps in collateral verification processes within China's gold-backed lending market.
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Strategy and Strive buy $183M Bitcoin as token rallies above $85,000
Strategy Inc. and Strive Inc. acquired $183 million in Bitcoin last week as the token rebounded to its highest level since January, signaling renewed appetite among listed companies for digital asset treasuries.
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Solana DEX volume surges past $17B weekly, outpacing major exchanges
Solana processed over $17B in weekly DEX volume in mid-September, driven by stablecoin swaps, memecoin speculation, and perpetual contracts. The network now handles more decentralized exchange volume than any other blockchain, with daily volumes regularly exceeding $3B.
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Yandex releases AliceAI-Foundation 80B model under Apache 2.0 license
Yandex released AliceAI-Foundation-80B-A3B-Base, an open-source large language model with 80 billion parameters and a 262,144-token context window, available on Hugging Face under the Apache 2.0 license for unrestricted commercial and non-commercial use.