Business & Technology
Business and technology in crypto means the companies, infrastructure, and product moves that aren't pure protocol news. LeoDex News covers exchange business (earnings, executive moves, IPOs, geographic expansion), mining stocks (RIOT, MARA, IREN, CleanSpark), Layer-1 infrastructure providers, partnerships and acquisitions, gaming and NFT platforms with real users, and the wider Web3 product landscape.
We track the strategic moves: which exchange is winning institutional flow, which custodian is taking share, which infra provider quietly powers a category, which product launches are real and which are vapor. Skip the press-release noise — read what's actually shipping and who's actually using it.
Latest in Business & Technology
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OpenAI Acquires InstantDB Team to Strengthen AI Infrastructure
OpenAI has acquired the team behind InstantDB, a real-time database platform that served over 17,000 users and powered 400,000 applications. The move signals OpenAI's focus on developer tooling for AI agents. Instant Cloud is being phased out, though the open-source codebase will remain available.
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Alibaba Cloud Revenue Surges 45%, AI Gains Offset by 75% CapEx Jump
Alibaba reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of 268.95 billion yuan (roughly $40 billion), up 9% year-over-year—the fastest growth in three years—driven by 45% acceleration in cloud and triple-digit AI product gains. Yet a 75% jump in capital expenditure and a cash flow reversal sent net income down sharply, extending a run of profit misses.
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MicroStrategy Bitcoin Holdings Swing to $1.4B Gain as BTC Rallies Above $77,000
Strategy's 840,447 BTC holdings have reversed from a $13 billion loss in July to a $1.4 billion unrealized gain, as Bitcoin surged nearly 23% over five consecutive days following regulatory clarity signals from the Trump administration.
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Binance delists seven spot pairs including Litecoin and Sui on August 21
Binance announced the delisting of seven spot trading pairs, including LTC/BNB and SUI/BNB, effective August 21 at 03:00 UTC. The exchange cited periodic assessment and the need to protect users and maintain market quality.
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Zhibao Closes $154.7M Raise Entirely in Bitcoin
Nasdaq-listed Zhibao Technology, a Shanghai-based insurance-tech firm, closed a $154.7 million private placement funded entirely in cryptocurrency, with non-U.S. investors contributing 2,380 Bitcoin directly to the company wallet rather than cash.
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Compute Exchange launches AI inference token forward contracts
Compute Exchange rolled out forward contracts allowing enterprises to fix AI inference token prices for up to six months, using competitive bidding among providers to set rates and mitigate operational cost volatility.
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Bitcoin miner rejects BIP-110 despite Ocean pool backing
Simple Mining, operating through Ocean pool, used the DATUM protocol to independently reject BIP-110, a proposal to block non-financial data storage in Bitcoin transactions. The miner's block 961,634 continued the main chain while BIP-110 supporters' minority fork stalled after just two blocks.
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Microsoft reveals GitHub Copilot infrastructure gaps in 13.5M sessions
Microsoft Azure Research and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign analyzed 13.5 million Copilot sessions spanning one week in June 2026, identifying critical inefficiencies in KV-cache reuse, retry cascades, and idle time that challenge current AI infrastructure assumptions.
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Formlabs explores IPO with advisers as 3D printing company eyes public markets
Formlabs, a Somerville-based 3D printing company valued at $2 billion, is in discussions with potential advisers to prepare for an initial public offering. The company reported over $250 million in annual revenue and positive free cash flow in 2025.
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Trump convenes mining CEOs to secure critical minerals for defense
President Trump is hosting a roundtable with top mining executives on August 7 to advance a $12 billion national mineral stockpile initiative and restrict defense contractors' reliance on foreign suppliers, targeting China's dominance in rare earth processing.
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Feds charge Few and Far founder Taj Tarsha with $10M investor fraud
Federal prosecutors charged Taj Tarsha, founder of NFT marketplace Few and Far, with securities and wire fraud after he allegedly raised more than $10 million from investors and diverted the funds to gambling, cryptocurrency trades, and personal expenses including a DJ hobby.
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Circle Arc blockchain launches September 16 with BlackRock, Visa validators
Circle announced that BlackRock, SBI Group, Visa, Mastercard, and nine other major financial institutions will serve as founding validators for Arc, its blockchain network launching September 16.
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Circle beats earnings as Arc blockchain gains BlackRock, DTCC backing
Circle Internet's stock rose 10% in premarket trading after beating earnings estimates, though revenue fell short. The stablecoin issuer's Arc blockchain network, launching Sept. 16, has secured backing from BlackRock, DTCC, ICE, Visa, and other financial giants planning to deploy tokenized assets.
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Coinbase Bullish on CLARITY Act as Passage Odds Plummet to 24%
Coinbase Vice Chair Ryan VanGrack told CBS News the CLARITY Act remains on track for passage before August recess, even as prediction markets show odds plummeting from 57% in June to 24% amid Senate Democratic delays.
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Spotify hits 300M paid subscribers despite price hikes in Q2 2026
Spotify crossed 300 million premium subscribers in Q2 2026, adding 7 million during the quarter despite price hikes across several regions. Revenue grew 14% year-over-year to €4.8 billion as the company expands into AI tools, fitness, and audiobooks.
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Hashdex shuts down Bitcoin ETF after failing to gain traction
Hashdex is liquidating its U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF (ticker: DEFI) after the fund accumulated only $14.7 million in assets under management. Trading will end August 17, with cash distributions to shareholders expected by August 28.
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Ripple Invests in Lucuido and ZILO to Expand Tokenized Assets on XRP Ledger
Ripple announced strategic investments in Lucuido and ZILO to expand regulated tokenization infrastructure on the XRP Ledger, following Aviva Investors' tokenization of its U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund on the network.
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Banks shift to stablecoin payment rails, signaling structural change
Traditional banks are abandoning Bitcoin for stablecoin infrastructure to enable faster cross-border payments and lower transaction costs. Coinbase's partnerships and regulatory approvals position the exchange as a key infrastructure provider in this transition.
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Citadel forecasts $500B in AI chip debt by 2028, reshaping credit markets
Technology companies are projected to issue more than $500 billion in debt by 2028 to finance AI data center chips, according to Citadel Securities. The borrowing wave could reshape investment-grade credit markets and influence crypto mining costs.
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Zepto delays IPO after roadshow reveals $2.5B valuation, 64% below private round
Zepto postponed its IPO and will pursue a pre-IPO funding round at roughly $4.5 billion after roadshow bids came in significantly below its $7 billion private valuation. The Indian quick-commerce startup is shifting strategy to target domestic investors and has extended flexibility until November 2027 under existing SEBI approval.
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PowerCompute's $18M Bitcoin bridge loan deadline passes with no disclosure
PowerCompute's US Digital subsidiary borrowed $18.07 million from Arch Lending on a 4-day bridge note due August 1, representing 97% of its Bitcoin treasury. As of press time, no SEC filing or statement confirmed whether the loan was repaid, extended, or defaulted.
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Spark Pivots to DeFi Backend for PayPal, Robinhood Stablecoin Rails
Spark, the lending unit of Sky (formerly MakerDAO), abandoned its consumer-facing app to focus on supplying liquidity and yield infrastructure to major fintech platforms. The shift targets $1 billion in OTC lending by year-end, with Robinhood and PayPal already live on its stablecoin rails.
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Fun CEO: On-Ramps and Bridges Will Disappear as Apps Embed Payments
Alex Fine, CEO of payments infrastructure firm Fun, said legacy crypto infrastructure like on-ramps and bridges will vanish as applications embed payments directly into user experience, abstracting blockchain complexity away.
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Ripple CTO Emeritus Signals Continued XRP Involvement After Year-End Departure
David Schwartz, Ripple's CTO emeritus and original XRP Ledger architect, pushed back on retirement speculation in late September 2025, signaling he remains actively engaged with the protocol despite his planned step-down from day-to-day operations.