<p>It took a lot more than the initially slated few weeks to arrive, but a pivotal privacy decision that&#8217;s been hanging over Sam Altman&#8217;s World (aka Worldcoin) for months has finally landed, via a late December decision from the Bavarian data protection authority enforcing the bloc&#8217;s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a comprehensive privacy framework [&hellip;]</p>

<p>There’s an ocean of meme coins beyond Dogecoin, and a new startup called Neverless wants to make it easier to get started with trading crypto, with a particular focus on providing access to small-cap tokens. This is an interesting new crypto startup, founded by three former executives at Revolut, the London-based fintech juggernaut. Phuc To [&hellip;]</p>

<p>There’s an ocean of meme coins beyond Dogecoin, and a new startup called Neverless wants to make it easier to get started with trading crypto, with a particular focus on providing access to small-cap tokens. This is an interesting new crypto startup, founded by three former executives at Revolut, the London-based fintech juggernaut. Phuc To [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Alongside the rising adoption and value of crypto assets, theft is also on the rise. This year, the total value of cryptocurrency stolen surged 21%, reaching a substantial $2.2 billion. And according to a Chainalysis report released on Thursday, more than half of this amount was stolen by North Korea-affiliated hacking groups. Earlier this year, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Alongside the rising adoption and value of crypto assets, theft is also on the rise. This year, the total value of cryptocurrency stolen surged 21%, reaching a substantial $2.2 billion. And according to a Chainalysis report released on Thursday, more than half of this amount was stolen by North Korea-affiliated hacking groups. Earlier this year, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>“I think the most ironic way the world could end would be if someone makes a memecoin about a man’s stretched anus and it brings about the singularity.” That’s Andy Ayrey, the founder of decentralized AI alignment research lab Upward Spiral, who is also behind the viral AI bot Truth Terminal. You might have heard [&hellip;]</p>

<p>“I think the most ironic way the world could end would be if someone makes a memecoin about a man’s stretched anus and it brings about the singularity.” That’s Andy Ayrey, the founder of decentralized AI alignment research lab Upward Spiral, who is also behind the viral AI bot Truth Terminal. You might have heard [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Avara, the company behind Aave, Lens, and Family, is announcing a $31 million funding round led by Lightspeed Faction. With Lens, Avara is building a decentralized L2 network that could serve as the infrastructure for social and consumer apps. This funding announcement comes a few weeks after Lens unveiled a completely overhauled version of its [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Getting paid in cryptocurrencies may sound like a bad idea, but this could be an actually useful feature for international contractors. Remote, the company that lets you hire people and manage contractors all around the world, is introducing crypto payouts on Tuesday. Companies based in the U.S. can start paying their contractors with stablecoins in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Juicyway, an African fintech that leverages stablecoin technology to power fast and cheap cross-border payments, is launching out of stealth after processing over $1 billion in transaction volume for thousands of African businesses over the last three years. The fintech claims to have processed over 25,000 transactions, generating $1.3 billion in total payment volume (TPV) [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour confirmed on a podcast interview that his employees asked social media influencers to promote memes about the FBI’s raid on the home of his archrival, the CEO of Polymarket.  Both companies offer competing events-betting markets, a new kind of betting industry where people wager about the outcomes of events ranging from [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour confirmed on a podcast interview that his employees asked social media influencers to promote memes about the FBI’s raid on the home of his archrival, the CEO of Polymarket.  Both companies offer competing events-betting markets, a new kind of betting industry where people wager about the outcomes of events ranging from [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Byte Federal, one of the largest Bitcoin ATM operators in the U.S., said the personal data of thousands of customers may have been compromised during a recent breach. In a filing with Maine&#8217;s attorney general, Florida-based Byte Federal said hackers tried to access the data of 58,000 customers, including names, addresses, phone numbers, government-issued IDs, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Byte Federal, one of the largest Bitcoin ATM operators in the U.S., said the personal data of thousands of customers may have been compromised during a recent breach. In a filing with Maine&#8217;s attorney general, Florida-based Byte Federal said hackers tried to access the data of 58,000 customers, including names, addresses, phone numbers, government-issued IDs, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Peak XV and HongShan, the Indian and Chinese investment firms that split from powerhouse Sequoia last year, have co-led a $10 million seed investment in KAST, a dollar-denominated neobank-like platform that lets customers hold and spend stablecoins through traditional payment avenues.&nbsp; Kast also issues credit cards that work with standard merchant networks, enabling users to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Incoming president Donald Trump has a new crypto and AI &#8220;czar&#8221;: ex-PayPal COO David Sacks. Trump announced Sacks&#8217; appointment Thursday in a post on Truth Social, Trump&#8217;s social networking platform. &#8220;[Sacks] will work on a legal framework so the Crypto [sic] industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Michael Gronager, the co-founder and longtime CEO of Chainalysis, has agreed to leave the company permanently, two months after taking a temporary personal leave of absence. Chainalysis, a buzzy 10-year-old, New York-based blockchain data platform, will now be led by co-founder Jonathan Levin, as Levin told TechCrunch, explaining that on Tuesday, its board of directors [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Bitcoin prices have been on the rise this year, and the cryptocurrency has reached the $100,000 price point for the first time on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency&#8217;s price has jumped more than 5% in the last 24 hours. The latest rally began with the election of Donald Trump as president, as he promised a more crypto-friendly [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Bitcoin prices have been on the rise this year, and the cryptocurrency has reached the $100,000 price point for the first time on Wednesday. The cryptocurrency&#8217;s price has jumped more than 5% in the last 24 hours. The latest rally began with the election of Donald Trump as president, as he promised a more crypto-friendly [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Coinbase announced an integration with Apple Pay on Monday, allowing app makers to build the ability to buy crypto with Apple Pay directly into their apps. The integration is part of Coinbase Onramp, which gives app makers a way for customers to turn their traditional currencies, such as USD, into cryptocurrencies. That process has historically [&hellip;]</p>