Mastercard Buys Stablecoin Firm BVNK for $1.8B
Mastercard agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure company, BVNK, for up to $1.8 billion. The deal aims to connect blockchain-based payments with Mastercard's global network for cross-border transfers, remittances, and business payments. BVNK operates across more than 130 countries and processes billions annually. The acquisition follows failed $2 billion talks between BVNK and Coinbase and follows Mastercard’s other $2 billion acquisition for Zerohash. Read more →
Bear Market Blues
Messari CEO Eric Turner said he has stepped down and handed leadership to CTO Diran Li, with both executives acknowledging layoffs as the firm pivots to become an “AI-first” business serving institutions through research and AI products. Turner had taken over in July 2024 after founder Ryan Selkis resigned, so this marks Messari’s second CEO handoff in under two years. For a company that once dominated crypto data and premium research, coinciding with its annual Mainnet conference, it’s notable to see Messari ditching crypto. Perhaps its just a sign of the times. Read more →
Jensen Huang's keynote fuels AI crypto token rally
Nvidia gave the AI-token trade a brief jolt this week. At Nvidia’s GTC developer conference, Jensen Huang pitched AI agents as the next big software platform, rolled out NemoClaw (an enterprise-ready competitor of OpenClaw), and said Nvidia sees a $1 trillion AI-chip opportunity through 2027. AI-linked tokens such as FET and WLD led markets yesterday before cooling off as bitcoin stalled. The bigger standout, though, has been SIREN – a token tied to what’s described as a “fully on-chain analyst agent” that launched in December – which is now up about 20% over the last 24 hours and has gone roughly 10x over the past month. Read more →
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