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A LIGHTWEIGHT ROBOTICS VLA MODEL

SmolVLA is a 450M parameter Vision-Language-Action model designed for robotics on consumer hardware.

DINARI BECOMES FIRST TO WIN U.S. APPROVAL FOR TOKENIZED STOCKS

Dinari has become the first platform approved to offer tokenized stocks in the U.S., unlocking access to blockchain-based versions of publicly listed equities. While Coinbase and Kraken are also pursuing similar licenses, tokenized stocks had previously been limited to international users. Dinari's dShares are already tradable abroad. The firm now plans to operationalize its U.S. broker-dealer arm, positioning itself at the forefront of onchain real-world asset (RWA) innovation.

HONG KONG'S PLAN TO REGULATE CRYPTO, ENCOURAGE TOKENIZATION

Hong Kong released its second major digital assets policy statement, outlining plans for a comprehensive regulatory framework overseen by the Securities and Futures Commission that will cover custodians, digital asset service providers, exchanges, and stablecoins, with public consultations on licensing regimes beginning soon. The government will review laws on real-world asset tokenization and financial instruments, specifically planning to regularize the issuance of tokenized government bonds and clarify stamp duty treatment for tokenized ETFs to enhance liquidity and accessibility. This initiative builds on Hong Kong's recent crypto-friendly moves, including licensing four exchanges in December and passing stablecoin issuer legislation, as the region positions itself as a global digital asset hub amid 380% growth in RWA tokenization to $24 billion over three years.

GAUNTLET USD ALPHA: THE BEST RISK-ADJUSTED YIELDS

Gauntlet has launched USD Alpha (gtUSDa), an institutional-grade stablecoin yield vault on Base that automatically rebalances across Morpho vaults on multiple chains, addressing the fragmentation in DeFi's $20 billion stablecoin yield market across 240+ opportunities. The strategy employs sophisticated risk management including liquidity monitoring, a 40% cap on risk-on stablecoin exposure, and real-time position adjustments, with backtests showing 11.02% annualized returns versus a 6.75% benchmark from vaults.fyi. Targeting both institutional allocators and retail users through the Gauntlet App, the vault aims to solve the manual rebalancing and risk management challenges that prevent efficient capital allocation across DeFi's expanding yield landscape.

KRAKEN LAUNCHES KRAK TO RIVAL VENMO AND PAYPAL

Kraken has debuted Krak, a cross-border payments app that offers free local and global transactions in 160+ countries, aiming to rival Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App. Users earn 4.1% on Paxos-issued USDG stablecoin and up to 10% on staked assets, with upcoming features like crypto-backed credit lines, Krak cards, and ENS-style “Kraktags” for simplified payments.

COINBASE TO LAUNCH REGULATED US PERPETUAL-STYLE FUTURES ON JULY 21

Coinbase Derivatives is rolling out US Perpetual-Style Futures on July 21, offering long-dated contracts (5 years), 24/7 trading, and a funding mechanism that mirrors global perpetuals while complying with CFTC regulations. Launch products include nano BTC (0.01 BTC) and nano ETH (0.10 ETH) contracts, designed for capital-efficient, spot-like trading with leverage. This move brings the dominant global crypto derivative format onshore, giving US traders a compliant alternative to offshore platforms.

FAFO: 1 MILLION TPS ON A SINGLE EVM NODE

LayerZero has introduced FAFO (Fast Ahead-of-Formation Optimization), a blockchain transaction scheduler that achieves over 1.1 million native ETH transfers per second and 565,000 ERC20 transfers per second on a single node by reordering transactions before block formation to maximize parallel execution. The system uses CPU-optimized Bloom filters for efficient conflict detection and maintains full Merkleization of every block while achieving 91% lower costs compared to state-of-the-art sharded execution approaches. FAFO demonstrates that significant blockchain throughput improvements can be achieved through efficient CPU utilization and innovative scheduling design without the complexity of sharding, with the open-source implementation integrating Rust EVM (REVM) and QMDB for verifiable state management.

AI AGENTS WILL BECOME CRYPTO BILLIONAIRES

AI agents are positioned to become crypto's first billionaires because of emotionless 24/7 trading, the ability to analyze entire blockchain histories instantly, and simultaneous execution across thousands of transactions. The proposed path involves starting with basic arbitrage and MEV strategies generating 5-15% monthly returns, evolving to sophisticated DeFi strategies earning 10-30% monthly, then creating proprietary protocols and attracting external capital, with exponential compounding effects throughout.

MEV AND THE LIMITS OF SCALING

MEV-driven spam has become the dominant bottleneck for blockchain scaling, with spam bots consuming over 50% of gas on major rollups like Base while paying less than 10% of fees, effectively neutralizing 11M gas/s of new capacity added between November 2024 and February 2025. The root cause is a market structure flaw: without visibility into private mempools, searchers must blindly spam blocks with speculative transactions to capture MEV, with successful arbitrages requiring ~350 failed attempts consuming 132 million gas or 4 Ethereum blocks. This could be solved through programmable privacy using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) that allow searchers to see transaction flow for backrunning while preventing frontrunning, combined with explicit bidding mechanisms to replace the current wasteful "spam auction" with efficient price discovery.

FBI'S UNDERCOVER $250 BITCOIN PAYMENT HELPS TAKE DOWN ALLEGED SERIAL CORPORATE HACKER

The FBI arrested alleged serial hacker “IntelBroker” after an undercover agent sent him $250 in Bitcoin despite his usual reliance on Monero for privacy.

HOW TO USE STABLECOIN INFLOWS TO FIND YIELD OPPORTUNITIES

A spike in stablecoin inflows can signal lucrative DeFi incentives.

SBET ALIGNS INVESTOR EDUCATION WITH ETH VALUE ACCRUAL

Unlike Coinbase, which promotes its own ecosystem, SBET is economically aligned to prioritize ETH-native activities (e.g., staking, restaking, saving, lending, LPing, and tokenizing).

COINBASE SMART WALLET HITS $400M+ IN BTC-BACKED LOANS VIA MORPHO

Coinbase's Smart Wallet has passed $400M in BTC-backed loans on Morpho, powered by zero-gas infrastructure and embedded lending from Gelato and Morpho Labs.

CREATIVE COMMONS DEBUTS CC SIGNALS, A FRAMEWORK FOR AN OPEN AI ECOSYSTEM

Creative Commons' CC Signals is a new framework that allows dataset holders to specify how their content can be used for AI training. It aims to balance internet openness with growing AI data demands. The project addresses concerns that continued data extraction could prompt websites to implement paywalls or access restrictions to protect their content. CC signals will offer legally enforceable tools with ethical weight, similar to existing CC licenses. An alpha launch is planned for November.

BRING A CONSISTENT LOOK AND FEEL TO YOUR FIGMA MAKE PROTOTYPES AND WEB APPS

Figma Make now allows users to import styling context from published libraries, enabling the extraction of color palettes, typography with custom fonts, and core styling elements. Users can also establish manual guidelines through a guideline.md file to direct how the model creates their Makes. This feature bridges existing design systems with Make's creation process, ensuring consistency across generated content.

GOOGLE REDESIGNED THE PHONE APP WITH THE MATERIAL 3 EXPRESSIVE STYLE

Google has redesigned its Phone app with a cleaner, more expressive Material 3 look, simplifying navigation to just three tabs: Home, Keyboard, and Voicemail. Visual updates include larger buttons, smoother shapes, and a new gesture-based system for answering calls. A full rollout is expected in September.

WHEN AI HAS BETTER TASTE THAN YOU

AI is rapidly surpassing human capabilities across domains, from physical to analytical to creative skills, challenging the belief that taste remains humanity's unique advantage. While great taste involves pattern recognition that AI could replicate, the highest form of taste requires cultural courage to champion unfamiliar work and shape new movements. Human agency, the will to act on values and direct AI toward meaningful purposes, is the most distinctly human moat in an age of commoditized capabilities.

THE BROKEN RHETORIC OF AI

The current discourse around AI in design is dominated by fear, status anxiety, and performative noise, turning what could be a moment of shared learning into a toxic race for attention, dominance, and validation. Instead, we need to shift toward healthier conversations grounded in curiosity, nuance, humility, and community — ones that invite reflection, experimentation, and collective growth rather than exclusion and anxiety.

IS THIS THE TWILIGHT OF THE SMARTPHONE?

The dominance of the smartphone, largely unchanged since the first iPhone in 2007, is being challenged by AI-driven concepts from tech leaders like Jony Ive and OpenAI, aiming to create more intuitive, screenless, and ambient computing experiences. While some believe we may soon shift to new AI-powered devices like smart glasses or wearables, widespread adoption faces hurdles such as public distrust, privacy concerns, and the lack of a unifying cultural shift, suggesting we may be entering a fragmented tech era rather than a single, revolutionary replacement.

FIGMA TO APP, ACCELERATED BY AI

Turn your Figma designs into fully functional native apps for iOS and Android – faster than ever. Use AI tools and Web Components to simplify development and unlock endless possibilities.

AI-POWERED PRESENTATION GENERATOR

Create professional, beautiful presentations instantly by simply inputting your content. With Pi, you get one-click generation, smart layouts, and customizable themes for creating efficient presentations.

CREATE EFFORTLESSLY BEAUTIFUL DEMOS IN MINUTES

Arcade is an interactive demo platform that enables teams to create effortlessly beautiful demos in minutes. Designed for ease of use, Arcade removes the creative and technical barriers often encountered by teams seeking to showcase their product on a website, in content, or on social media.

STORY-BASED SOCIAL POSTS: DESIGNING NARRATIVES FOR SWIPEABLE CONTENT

Story-based swipeable content transforms social media engagement by breaking information into digestible, sequential frames that guide users through structured narratives. These multi-image formats, such as Instagram carousels and LinkedIn document posts, achieve significantly higher engagement rates than single posts by tapping into our natural storytelling instincts. Compelling swipeable stories follow a five-part structure supported by consistent visual design and precise pacing: hook, context, main content, climax, and call-to-action.

A UX REVIEW OF PEUGEOT'S NEW INTERIOR: WHEN DESIGN AMBITION MEETS SOFTWARE REALITY

During a recent holiday, a designer got the new Peugeot 3008 in the rental car lottery. It features Peugeot's new Panorama i-Cockpit—a bold dashboard redesign with a beautiful display. However, after a week of use, it became clear that the software couldn't match the impressive hardware.

THE NEW DETROIT RED WINGS LOGO IS A SOARING SUCCESS

The Detroit Red Wings' new centenary logo has been met with widespread praise for its clean, stylish update to the classic 'Winged Wheel' design, celebrating the team's 100-year legacy with subtle retro flair. Fans on social media have called it "gorgeous," "classic," and a rare example of a heritage redesign done right.

DESIGNING IN THE GREY ZONE: WHY NEURODIVERGENT USERS ARE THE FUTURE OF UX INNOVATION

Designing for neurodiversity means embracing the "grey zone" of human variability and creating resilient experiences that prioritize clarity, comfort, and user autonomy over rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions.

DESIGNING TRUEKIND: A SKINCARE BRAND'S JOURNEY THROUGH MOODBOARDS, MOTION, AND MEANING

TrueKind's skincare website boasts an unconventional visual design and smooth GSAP animations, striking a balance between creativity and commercial viability.

WHAT DID META BUY? A PERSON? A DATASET? A CAPABILITY?

Meta's $14 billion quasi-acquisition of Scale AI raises questions about what it actually purchased, as Scale missed revenue targets and lost major customers like OpenAI before the deal.

ANTHROPIC'S CLAUDE CAN NOW BUILD AI APPS

Anthropic is rolling out a beta feature that lets Claude users build, host, and share AI-powered apps directly within the Claude app without separate API costs. The feature allows Claude to write real code and handle technical tasks, though it has limitations like restricted external API access and no persistent data storage.

DON'T KICKOFF A FUNDRAISE IN LATE SUMMER

While fundraising data shows steady deal volume through summer months, the real impact of VCs vacationing appears 1-2 months later as September/October deal volume drops 15-30% from peaks. Launching a fundraise between July 15 and August 31 means slower VC response times, less momentum, and worse terms, so founders should either start early summer or wait until September unless runway demands immediate action.

THE GREAT AI TALENT GRAB: THE LATEST 20VC WITH JASON, HARRY, AND RORY

Silicon Valley's AI talent wars signify a major shift, with Meta spending defensively to protect its platform by acquiring AI talent. The success of companies like Harvey and Cluely highlights a strategy of securing market position and customer relationships before perfecting their technology, emphasizing speed over initial product quality. B2B SaaS companies face crucial strategic decisions between protecting existing revenue and embracing new AI-driven business models to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape.

SAM ALTMAN: "NO MATTER HOW GREAT YOUR IDEA IS, NO ONE CARES."

Sam Altman tells founders worried about idea theft that everyone is too distracted to steal your concept anyway and proves it by openly sharing YC's exact playbook with potential competitors who never execute on the advice.

HOW TO FIND SUPERSTAR TALENT

Marc Lore shares strategies for identifying and hiring top 5% talent, emphasizing consistent company culture and early hiring of a Chief People Officer. He highlights the rarity of "superstars" and the importance of assessing tenure, trajectory, and cultural fit over experience alone. Lore advocates for systematic performance management and transparency as tools for fostering employee engagement and trust.

Meet Venn

SONA

Your always-on-call AI agent, by the OpenPhone team.

CORA

AI Chief of Staff that lives in your inbox.

COMPETELY AI AGENT

Competely is an AI agent that instantly finds, analyzes, and tracks your competitors with automated reports and updates.

FIVE JOBS

When cognitive work gets automated everything starts looking like trade work - lawyers and electricians will have more in common than lawyers and other professionals. The "gentle singularity" shifts human work toward physical and relational tasks because machines can think better than humans but can't actually be human, making what was once common suddenly scarce and valuable.

THEY BUILT THE WEB. THEN LOST IT

CareerBuilder and Monster filed for bankruptcy after their 2024 merger couldn't save two companies that once dominated online job hunting with $8+ billion valuations. The collapse wasn't surprising since LinkedIn took a smarter path by building a professional network instead of just posting job listings while the old giants never evolved beyond resume databases as hiring moved toward specialized platforms.

WHEN IS 'GOOD ENOUGH' GOOD ENOUGH?

AI excels at "good enough" work, forcing leaders to distinguish between tasks where AI-generated output suffices (like routine emails) and where human excellence matters (like board presentations). The key framework asks: Does human effort create leverage? Is speed more valuable than quality? What's the risk of getting it wrong? Smart executives will automate low-stakes work to preserve cognitive energy for high-impact decisions while occasionally letting teams over-invest in craftsmanship where it truly matters.

YOU WANT TO HATE AI SLOP BUT YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT

A study of 17,000 people found we prefer AI-generated poems over human ones when tested blind but immediately change our opinions once we learn the true authorship.

GTM IN THE AGE OF AI

ICONIQ's survey of 205 B2B executives revealed AI-native companies achieve 56% trial-to-paid conversion rates compared to just 32% for traditional SaaS companies while running 38% leaner GTM teams.

KALSHI CLOSES $185M ROUND AS RIVAL POLYMARKET REPORTEDLY SEEKS $200M

Kalshi raised $185 million at a $2 billion valuation, led by Paradigm, highlighting growing interest in prediction markets.

Access Management Summit 2025

CRITICAL CISCO ISE VULNERABILITIES ALLOW REMOTE CODE EXECUTION

Cisco announced fixes for two critical (CVSS 10/10) vulnerabilities in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector, which could allow unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE). The first vulnerability is caused by a lack of input validation, which allows unauthenticated attackers to submit crafted API requests and execute arbitrary code with root privileges. The second vulnerability is caused by a lack of file validation, which could allow an attacker to store malicious files in arbitrary directories on the device.

HACKERS TURN SCREENCONNECT INTO MALWARE USING AUTHENTICODE STUFFING

Cybersecurity firm G DATA is warning users of ConnectWise's ScreenConnect remote monitoring and management (RMM) software about a new malware campaign that utilizes ScreenConnect installers with a malicious configuration embedded in the authenticode certificate. The malicious installer is configured to have the title “Windows Update,” change the background to a Windows Update image, and connect to an attacker-controlled server. ConnectWise has revoked the certificates used in these binaries.

GLASGOW COUNCIL SERVICES REMAIN OFFLINE A WEEK AFTER CYBER ATTACK

Glasgow City Council suffered a cyberattack on June 19 via IT supplier CGI's third-party servers, disrupting online services including planning applications, payments, and pension portals. Customer data may have been stolen, but the confirmation has not yet been made.

CYBERCRIMINALS ABUSE OPEN-SOURCE TOOLS TO TARGET AFRICA'S FINANCIAL SECTOR

Threat actor CL-CRI-1014 has been targeting African financial institutions since July 2023. The attackers use open-source tools (PoshC2, Chisel, and Classroom Spy) and forge file signatures to establish network access. The group operates as initial access brokers, selling compromised financial institution access on darknet markets.