What Deflation Really Means Deflation is a broad decline in the prices of goods and services across an economy. At first glance, it sounds like a win. Your money stretches further, and everyday items become cheaper. But the story doesn’t end there. When prices keep falling over time, it
Blockchain
Celo has proposed allocating 160 million CELO tokens to Opera. The grant, equal to 16% of total supply, would reshape the partnership into a long-term strategic alignment. The Celo proposal would transfer roughly $12 million in tokens from its treasury to Opera, subject to community approval. The move follows an
Finance
Amundi has launched a $100 million tokenized fund across two blockchains. The move reinforces institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) as infrastructure shifts toward onchain settlement. The Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund (SAFO) uses Chainlink for automated NAV reporting & secure cross-chain interop. SAFO features an EU‑regulated UCITS
AI
Visa is testing payment systems where AI agents initiate transactions. The initiative reflects a structural shift in how financial networks verify intent and process purchases without direct human input. The Visa “Agentic Ready” program is being rolled out in Europe with partners including Commerzbank and DZ Bank. The effort focuses
Finance
Strive increased its bitcoin holdings to 13,627.9 BTC after a 317 BTC purchase. The move places the firm among the top 10 public bitcoin treasury holders while exposing its balance sheet to price volatility. The Strive, founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, disclosed the accumulation alongside its fourth-quarter results. The
Finance
Zenith processed over 100,000 atomic transactions linking Canton and Ethereum environments. The milestone signals progress in bridging institutional blockchain infrastructure with broader DeFi execution layers. The Zenith network confirmed successful atomic swaps between the Canton Network and its Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment. The tests demonstrated that Solidity-based smart
Markets
U.S.-listed bitcoin and ether ETFs recorded $219.2 million in net outflows on Wednesday. The reversal ends a multi-day inflow streak and signals shifting institutional sentiment amid declining crypto prices. Spot bitcoin ETFs accounted for $163.5 million in redemptions, snapping seven consecutive sessions of inflows, according to
AI
NVIDIA introduced an open-source toolkit to control autonomous AI agents. The release targets enterprise concerns around data security and operational risk as agent-based systems move from pilots to production. Announced at GTC 2026, the NVIDIA Agent Toolkit includes OpenShell, a runtime designed to enforce policy-based guardrails on AI agents operating
DeFi
The European Central Bank has opened applications to define digital euro infrastructure. The move signals continued progress toward a central bank digital currency despite unresolved legislative and market competition risks. The European Central Bank is recruiting experts for two workstreams under its Rulebook Development Group. One focuses on technical specifications
Innovation
Crypto.com is reducing its workforce by approximately 12%. The cuts reflect a broader shift toward artificial intelligence integration across crypto firms seeking operational efficiency and scale. The Crypto.com layoffs affect around 180 employees from a workforce of over 1,500, according to CEO Kris Marszalek. Marszalek said the
Security
A phishing campaign is targeting developers through fake OpenClaw token offers. The attack highlights growing security risks as AI-linked crypto narratives attract both users and malicious actors. Cybersecurity firm OX Security reported that attackers created fraudulent GitHub accounts and repositories to distribute the scheme. Victims were tagged in issue threads
AI
Mastercard has trained a model on billions of payment transactions. The system signals a shift toward data-native AI in fraud detection, where structured financial data replaces text-driven models. The Mastercard model, described as a large tabular model (LTM), analyzes relationships across transaction fields such as merchant location, authorization flows, and