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Robinhood co-founder, chairman, and CEO Vlad Tenev posted on X that everyone, regardless of where they are, should have access to high-quality financial assets. Tokenization will unlock the advantages of the U.S. capital markets and make them available globally.He stated that the industry is still relatively small compared to global finance, but its advantages are increasingly hard to ignore. Traditional market infrastructure is built around fixed trading hours, closed networks, and multiple intermediaries, and is not designed for 24/7 execution, programmable assets, composability, or self-custody. The changes in investor demand are outpacing the underlying infrastructure, and the team is working hard to change this situation.Tenev expressed confidence in seeing founders, LPs, traders, and infrastructure teams driving industry development. The industry is still in its early stages, and there is a lot of work to be done. The old system needs time to adapt, but it is worth the effort.

The cross-chain protocol Router Protocol announced that after more than four years of development, it has decided to gradually cease operations and will fully shut down before September 30, 2026. The team stated that over the past two years, Web3 liquidity has remained scarce, the market focus has shifted to AI, the enthusiasm for cross-chain interoperability has waned, and the revenue from bridging services has been insufficient to cover costs. Although various paths such as commercialization, licensing, and acquisitions were attempted in the past year, no sustainable solution was achieved. Router Protocol will permanently destroy 303,333,198 ROUTE tokens pending in the treasury and will coordinate with centralized exchanges to delist ROUTE. Holders need to withdraw their tokens according to the arrangements of each exchange before the deadline. In addition, the project will not launch any new plans related to ROUTE and plans to open-source some technical components for community use.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko stated that the revenue share paid by Robinhood to Arbitrum is sufficient to cover about 4 times its trading fees on Solana, allowing Robinhood to provide users with a completely gas-free trading experience on Solana.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump stated that his administration is promoting the decentralized perpetual contract trading platform Hyperliquid to enter the U.S. market in a "fully compliant and legal manner." Last month, Trump mentioned that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would be committed to bringing Hyperliquid to the United States. Subsequently, Kraken's parent company Payward announced that it is collaborating with the CFTC to offer certain crypto perpetual contract products related to the Hyperliquid market and its underlying Layer 1 blockchain to registered U.S. users through the CFTC-regulated platform Bitnomial.Nansen research analyst Nicolai Sondergaard believes that this arrangement may allow Hyperliquid to provide some underlying technology, liquidity, or market design without directly opening its existing platform to U.S. users, effectively building an independent U.S. product around Hyperliquid's infrastructure. He stated that U.S. users may have access to fewer markets, lower leverage, and more conservative risk controls; at the same time, he opposes comprehensive KYC, arguing that a one-size-fits-all KYC would undermine the privacy and permissionless access of legitimate users and push liquidity offshore.

AI infrastructure startup Gimlet Labs has completed a $300 million financing round, raising the company's valuation to $3 billion. This round of financing was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Arm Holdings and Microsoft's venture fund M12.Gimlet Labs primarily helps clients allocate AI tasks to different types of chips and is collaborating with Arm to make its software compatible with various chip technologies from Arm.

a16z Charts compiled recent data indicating that since January 2025, tech recruitment has shown a clear preference for years of experience, while the requirements for the number of skills have decreased, with a change of about 5% to 10%.The charts show that companies are lowering the weight of skill lists when screening positions, and are instead placing more emphasis on candidates' accumulated experience. This change is related to the skill gaps brought about by AI, which is rewriting the safety and employment landscape.

According to official news, the permissionless on-chain yield protocol Polaris has completed a $1 million angel round of financing, with participation from institutions such as the Ethereum Foundation, Fusion (under IPOR), Altitude, Liquity, LI.FI, and more than 30 founders and contributors including Daily Gwei founder Anthony Sassano.Polaris's core product is the yield-bearing reserve asset pETH, and it also includes USDp and GOLDp, aiming to provide native yield for any on-chain asset.

Former President Trump stated: The recently released employment data is fantastic, breaking all expectations (except mine!), with an increase reaching two to three times the forecast, and you haven't seen the full picture yet!American employers added 162,000 jobs in August. Lower the interest rates, because the credit situation in the U.S. is much stronger than it was not long ago! A strong country means lower interest rates because its credit situation is better... it's that simple!We should have the lowest interest rates in the world, just like in the "good old days." If the U.S. does not agree to allow these countries to enjoy huge trade surpluses, and we can stop that immediately, then they should no longer be considered financial "elite" countries! Lower the interest rates, or I will stop trading with those countries that have a trade surplus with the U.S. The U.S. Supreme Court has already clearly recognized in that ridiculous and costly tariff ruling that the "President" has the absolute right to do so. This is better than tariffs!The Federal Reserve Board, under the leadership of this outstanding new leader, must become wise, think from a different perspective, and act like patriots. High interest rates put the U.S. at an extremely unfair disadvantage, and I will never allow this to happen!

According to Reuters, AI data center optical interconnect company iPronics announced the completion of a $125 million Series B financing round, co-led by Maverick Silicon and Light Street Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, Triatomic Capital, Bosch Ventures, Catalight Capital, and the European Innovation Council Fund. The company's total financing has now reached $177 million.iPronics primarily provides rack-mounted optical switching equipment for AI infrastructure, allowing AI clusters to dynamically adjust network connections in real-time for training and inference workloads through a programmable optical layer. The new funds will be used to expand operational scale and accelerate commercial deployment.

Banco do Brasil announced an investment of 5 million USD using its own funds in a digital-native structured note transaction issued by Citi and completed through the Euroclear digital financial market infrastructure platform, becoming the first of its kind in Latin America. Banco do Brasil stated that blockchain technology enables the native digitization of assets, reduces operational steps, and enhances transaction traceability, laying the foundation for new trading, settlement, and asset management models.The bank noted that the investment aligns with its ongoing focus on changes in the financial industry. Francisco Lassalvia, Vice President of Wholesale Banking at Banco do Brasil, stated that decentralized digital technology has become a long-term structural trend in financial markets. Roksolana Dushynska, Equity Structured Products Manager at Citi Global Markets, pointed out that distributed ledger technology can enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of capital markets. Banco do Brasil previously participated in the Brazilian Central Bank's digital currency Drex pilot and proposed an offline payment solution. The bank is controlled by the Brazilian federal government and is also listed on the Brazilian securities market.

According to TechCrunch, AI data center developer Crusoe has completed a $3 billion financing round, achieving a valuation of $30 billion, led jointly by Atreides Management and Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Mubadala Capital, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.Crusoe's clients include Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI, and it recently signed a five-year, $13 billion GPU and AI infrastructure cloud contract with quantitative trading giant Jane Street. This financing comes just 10 months after raising $1.38 billion at a $10 billion valuation last October. Founded in 2018, Crusoe initially utilized stranded natural gas for Bitcoin mining and later transformed into an AI infrastructure and cloud service provider, known for developing ultra-large-scale data center campuses. Axios reported last month that Crusoe has met with investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to discuss a potential IPO in the near future.

The prediction market team trading platform ParlayX announced the completion of a $1.25 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Dreamcraft Ventures.ParlayX stated that the prediction market is designed for single-person, single-account trading, and the platform aims to enable teams to trade in prediction markets together.

Stablecoin payment infrastructure startup Diameter Pay has completed a $10 million Series A funding round, co-led by CMT Digital and Lightspeed Faction.Diameter Pay stated that since the beginning of this year, it has processed over $10 billion in payments by helping institutional clients access dollar accounts, payment channels, and stablecoin deposit and withdrawal pathways.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has preliminarily approved OpenReserve's application for a national bank charter. The company completed a $25 million seed round of financing in April, led by a16z crypto, with participation from Jump Capital, Acrew, Coinbase Ventures, Clocktower, Quona, and the Middle Eastern venture capital fund AAF Management.OpenReserve is led by fintech executives including Dee Choubey, co-founder of MoneyLion, and is committed to combining traditional banking, blockchain infrastructure, and digital asset services, utilizing digital assets and technology to achieve 24/7 operations. OpenReserve is also applying for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance and has submitted its application to the FDIC.

According to Securityweek, artificial intelligence security company HiddenLayer has completed a $100 million Series B funding round, led by Delta-v Capital, with participation from Booz Allen Ventures, Microsoft's M12, Morgan Stanley, and Ten Eleven Ventures. To date, the company has raised a total of over $155 million.HiddenLayer focuses on protecting the entire lifecycle security of generative AI, predictive AI, and AI Agents. Its enterprise platform includes features such as AI asset discovery, AI supply chain security, attack simulation, and runtime protection. The new funding will primarily be used to expand the runtime security capabilities of AI Agents, particularly targeting AI programming Agents.

According to Businesswire, the bank-led digital currency network Cari announced that it has raised $32.5 million in its first round of external financing, with all funds coming from banking institutions, including First Horizon Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, Old National Bank, and SouthState Bank, as well as Glacier Bank.Cari is built on an Ethereum-based permissioned Layer 2 blockchain, aimed at helping banks put funds on-chain through shared infrastructure, providing programmable financial services. The new funds will be used to accelerate bank access and integration, expanding tokenized deposits and programmable currency application scenarios.

B.AI platform announces that Anthropic's latest Mythos-level general model Claude Fable 5.1 is now officially integrated with the API.This model uses the same underlying model as Claude Mythos 5.1, specifically optimized for high-intensity coding, long-term agent workflows, and complex knowledge tasks. It achieved an excellent performance of 73.4% at maximum computational intensity in the CursorBench 3.2.0 test.API access is now open, and developers can enjoy exclusive discounts—official channels as low as 15% off, and self-selected service providers as low as 40% off. B.AI continues to introduce top global models, providing developers with more powerful and cost-effective AI capability options.

According to Decrypt, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Education Director Kamar Samuels announced a one-year ban on the use of generative AI for students from 2-K to eighth grade, starting from the 2026-27 school year, affecting nearly 600,000 students, about two-thirds of the city's enrollment. All generative AI software aimed at students is prohibited, and companion chatbots are banned across all grades, including high school.Mamdani stated that the tech industry wants people to view AI-driven early education as an inevitable and necessary trend, but the city government disagrees. He believes that children need teachers and interpersonal interaction to learn and grow. During the ban, New York City will study the impact of AI and tighten screen time: students in second grade and below will be limited to one-on-one device use, while grades three to five will have a daily limit of 30 minutes, and grades six to eight will have 45 minutes.Meanwhile, about 50,000 high school students (about 5%) will be allowed to use approved tools in up to five classes per school, including text analysis tool Quill, math tutoring platform Edia, Intel AI-Ready Schools, Brisk Teaching, and Playlab. Each high school student will also participate in two 45-minute AI literacy courses each year, covering AI fundamentals, bias, risks, ethics, and career impacts. Teachers may still use AI for lesson preparation and administrative work within safety standards, while assistive technology for students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and career preparation programs in computer science will be exempt.

According to YNetNews, the first Israeli star to enter the NBA, Omri Casspi, announced that his venture capital firm Swish Ventures has completed a $250 million fundraising for its third fund, increasing the firm's assets under management to approximately $800 million.The new fund is expected to invest in about 12 startups, with an average single investment of around $20 million, focusing on areas such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure, primarily targeting seed and Series A financing. Swish Ventures has currently invested in 20 companies, including Cognition AI, Applied Compute, EON, Wonderful, Upwind, etc., of which 8 have reached unicorn valuations, with a total valuation of its portfolio companies exceeding $60 billion.