December 14, 2025 @ 5:55 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

TRM Labs noted that on December 10, the United States had reportedly seized a large oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast for alleged sanctions evasion, escalating pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s regime and highlighting why, amid rising illicit activity, it is vital to understand the nation’s economic… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 4:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Enova International, Inc. (NYSE: ENVA), a financial services company powered by machine learning and analytics, announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Grasshopper Bancorp, Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiary Grasshopper Bank N.A., in a cash and stock transaction “valued at approximately $369 million.”… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 4:50 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

Channel3 this week confirmed a $6 million seed round led by Matrix, with participation from Ludlow Ventures, Paul Graham, Sri Batchu and Matteo Franeschetti. The investment assists Channel3 with its mission of making every product on the web discoverable and actionable by AI. The agentic… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 4:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Research from Checkout.com indicates that this festive season will mark a key turning point for agentic AI adoption, as consumers increasingly turn to intelligent digital agents in order to “manage the stress, cost and complexity of peak-season shopping.” With almost half or 47% of consumers… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 4:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Chainalysis announced that their solutions are now available on the AWS Marketplace, which is a digital catalog with a range of different software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy “to find, test, buy, and deploy software” that runs on Amazon Web Services… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 4:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Global Dollar Network (GDN) announced that it has grown to over 100 partners and its USD-backed stablecoin, Global Dollar (USDG), surpassed a market cap of $1 billion. This supports the aim to form a more open, enterprise-grade digital dollar ecosystem—supporting real-world financial use cases. As… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 12:39 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Stripe, the programmable financial services company, has recently introduced the Agentic Commerce Suite, a solution to help businesses get ready to sell via multiple AI agents. More than likely, the future of digital commerce will involve the assistance of various artificial intelligence powered tools to… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 12:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Equifax (NYSE: EFX) has released its Social Services Outlook Index. The survey of 500 government social service workers supporting programs such as Medicaid, SNAP and TANF found that the majority or around 54% of respondents say their workplace is very efficient, and all respondents (100%)… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 12:37 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Capital A Berhad and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia have signed a letter of intent to explore the development and testing of a ringgit-denominated stablecoin, joining a growing list of firms looking to build regulated digital-asset rails for payments and settlements. The project would be pursued… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 12:33 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

AI dominates cybersecurity experts’ 2026 predictions as it touches on authentication, privacy and attack acceleration. GPU optimization and AI-driven attacks will push companies toward regional cloud providers “GPU optimization becomes a headline topic in 2026. Today, most companies only use about 60% of the GPU… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 8:35 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

A new study from Tink, an open banking and payments platform, reveals that many UK consumers feel anxious about making mistakes when paying by manual bank transfer. This lack of confidence is driving abandoned transactions and undermining trust in the small businesses they buy from… Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 7:31 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Copper Securities (ME) Limited (CSL), a member of the global Copper Group, announced its intention to expand activities within Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), focusing on Digital Asset custody, collateral management, and settlement solutions subject to regulatory approval by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA)…. Read More

December 14, 2025 @ 6:29 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) unveiled Mastercard Credit Intelligence, which is described as a suite of solutions developed to enable lenders with inclusive insights that help them better serve consumers as well as small businesses. Harnessing Mastercard’s network and insights, Mastercard Credit Intelligence delivers analytics to inform… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 3:10 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Morpheus Lending has announced a new £110m senior funding line with leading alternative asset manager, Pollen Street Capital. Launched this year, Morpheus has built a “digital-only” bridging platform centred around speed and efficiency, for both clients and brokers. Building on their progress to date, the… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 2:37 pm By Michael Wong  |  

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has signed a strategic partnership with private investment firm Bain Capital to support Bain’s expansion in the emirate, linking the move to the launch of a new financial-services cluster aimed at fintech, insurance, digital assets and alternative investments. The… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 2:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Accenture (NYSE: ACN) announced a new investment in WEVO, the AI-powered customer research platform that enables firms to simulate and validate behaviors before launching their actual products and services. The investment, led by Accenture Ventures, will incorporate WEVO’s capabilities within Accenture Song’s GrowthOS, a platform… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 2:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

GoTyme Bank, which claims to be one of the fastest-growing banks in the Philippines and a JV between the Gokongwei Group and Tyme Group, announced the launch of its cryptocurrency investment feature. This launch was reportedly made possible in partnership with Alpaca, a global player… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 2:33 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

As expected, the Web3 community had plenty to say about the Fed and rate cuts this week. Read on to learn about the impacts on crypto and the broader markets. “This rate cut validates our view that restrictive policy is giving way to a slower,… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 2:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

RIQ and Swiss Re have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and scale innovative capacity solutions, risk origination opportunities, and AI-enabled capabilities across the UAE region. Headquartered in the ADGM, RIQ is building an AI native reinsurance platform that integrates artificial intelligence and analytics… Read More

December 13, 2025 @ 2:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Crypto.com and LuLu Financial Holdings (LuLuFin) have announced a strategic partnership to develop regulated digital asset capabilities across multiple markets, starting in the UAE. The collab will reportedly integrate Crypto.com’s trading infrastructure, custody, and payment technologies with LuLuFin’s financial services and global network, while adhering… Read More