October 1, 2026 @ 8:30 am By Michael Wong  |  

Asia Pacific businesses are demanding faster cross-border payments as a wider range of payment providers and methods reshapes the international payments market, according to new research from Nium and financial research firm Celent. The study found that 73% of businesses in the region want international… Read More

October 1, 2026 @ 8:28 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Circle (NYSE: CRCL) and Volante have announced a partnership designed to help banks fold stablecoin payments into the systems they already run, rather than forcing them to stand up a parallel digital asset platform. On September 28, 2026, Volante Technologies, a payments-as-a-service provider whose platform… Read More

October 1, 2026 @ 7:43 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Small and mid-sized firms that sell or buy across borders are preparing to change how they move money. A Mastercard (NYSE: MA) study produced with Bain & Company finds that 91 percent of internationally active SMEs expect to leave their current cross-border payment provider within… Read More

October 1, 2026 @ 7:41 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Uphold has rolled out Vault Inheritance, which is described as a legacy-planning option for customers who keep Bitcoin, XRP, and Hedera in the platform’s assisted self-custody wallet. The company framed the product as a response to a problem unique to crypto: legal title can pass… Read More

October 1, 2026 @ 7:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 incubated by Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), has activated Cobalt, its third mainnet upgrade of 2026. The hard fork went live on September 30 after a Sepolia rollout the week before. The release focuses on two user-facing changes: Validity Transactions, which let traders… Read More

October 1, 2026 @ 6:21 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Elio Mortgage has stepped out of stealth after securing $5.1 million in pre-seed capital, positioning itself as an AI-first brokerage rather than another vendor selling point tools to lenders. Motive Partners and Social Leverage led the round, with Insight Partners co-founder Jeff Horing joining as… Read More

October 1, 2026 @ 12:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) is studying whether a formal market-maker regime should be written into the country’s next digital asset law after a yen-linked token listed on Upbit briefly traded at several times the value it is meant to hold. The catalyst was… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 5:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Citigroup (NYSE: C) has extended its institutional blockchain liquidity platform, Citi Token Services, into Japan and the United Arab Emirates, bringing the network to seven live markets. The addition allows corporate and financial institution clients with accounts in those two jurisdictions to move funds around… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 5:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused four overseas-linked entities of running two overlapping “investment confidence” schemes that used WhatsApp, social media, and fake regulatory credentials to take more than $15 million from retail investors. On September 29, 2026, the agency filed two… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 1:54 pm By JD Alois  |  

Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) has announced the incorporation of artificial intelligence into its brokerage platform. According to a statement Schwab distributed, the investment platform has launched “Charley,” an AI assistant to support customers. Beginning in October, the service will roll out to eligible users in the… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 1:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Michael Saylor, executive chairman of the Bitcoin-focused treasury company Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), has argued that digital tokens should play a larger role in how businesses raise money as artificial intelligence changes how firms are created and organized. In an essay, Saylor said AI will let… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 1:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have opened a civil forfeiture case aimed at recovering digital assets they say are connected to a 2023 account takeover that drained 33.7 bitcoin from a single Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) login. According to court papers, a beneficiary of a Massachusetts family trust… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 11:01 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Australian lawmakers have formally invited the leaders of two major artificial intelligence companies to appear before a Senate inquiry, following revelations that an autonomous OpenAI system gained unauthorised access to government websites. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who chairs the inquiry examining artificial intelligence and data… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 10:19 am By JD Alois  |  

This week, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, part of the US Senate, published a report on Iran and its use of crypto and shadow banking to evade financial sanctions. The report focused much of its information on Iran’s use of Tether, the issuer of USDT,… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 9:51 am By JD Alois  |  

EstateGuru, an online investment platform focused on secured debt offerings, says its relatively new EstateGuru Grow offering has grown from zero to €7 million invested in one year. In a blog post, EstateGuru shared that the service has grown every quarter. The company accepts investments… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 9:05 am By JD Alois  |  

Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD) is launching 24/7 trading in the US for “eligible” accounts, including equities and perpetuals, as part of its mission to become the top platform for active traders. At the same time, Robinhood shared an update on its anticipated agentic trading services. Robinhood announced… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 8:41 am By JD Alois  |  

The United Kingdom has launched regulated crypto activities. Previously, crypto firms operated under a mix of limited registrations and opaque rules as policymakers worked to update the regulatory regime. These firms now fall under the remit of the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which issued… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 8:04 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Bitcoin is pressing into a densely packed band of long-term holder supply just as derivatives leverage has been stripped from the market. Glassnode’s latest on-chain maps show that more coins held by addresses inactive for months sit between $84,000 and $85,000 than in any other… Read More

September 30, 2026 @ 8:03 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Brazil’s regulated capital markets have taken a notable step toward integrating public blockchain infrastructure. CSD BR, a licensed registrar, central securities depository and settlement system, has launched the first stage of a partnership with Ripple that places selected ownership records on the XRP Ledger while… Read More