Yubico has introduced the YubiKey 5 – Enhanced PIN, offering additional PIN capabilities for enterprises in 175 countries and 24 territories. The product is pre-configured with features to improve PIN management and user enforcement, including a mandatory minimum PIN length and requirements for increased complexity. This helps organizations meet evolving policy, compliance, and audit requirements for user authentication. The Enhanced PIN features are available on the YubiKey 5 NFC and YubiKey 5C NFC models, specifically through the YubiKey as a Service platform. The company has expanded its YubiKey as a Service to include all European Union countries and expanded its YubiEnterprise Delivery to 117 locations globally. The expanded service and new key features reflect Yubico’s effort to address the challenges posed by a changing cybersecurity landscape and varying global regulatory requirements, supporting enterprise customers in their transition to more robust authentication systems.
Custody platforms are emerging as the core infrastructure for governing token operations through programmable rules, multi-layer approvals, role-based access, and integration-ready APIs
Custody is the core infrastructure layer that makes institutional participation in digital assets not just possible but profitable. Modern custody platforms serve as critical mission-control layers, orchestrating transaction workflows, enforcing policy, supporting compliance and enabling the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) at scale. Ripple Custody is built for this new paradigm, enabling institutions, fintechs, and crypto businesses to govern token operations through programmable rules, multi-layer approvals, role-based access, and integration-ready APIs. Security is table stakes with Ripple’s system being ISO 27001-certified, SOC 2 audited, and supporting the most rigorous key management architectures on the market. However, its flexibility sets it apart, as it supports a range of deployment options, including on-prem, SaaS, or a hybrid of the two. This allows financial institutions to align custody models with internal policy, client demands, and jurisdictional requirements. The market for real-world asset tokenization is accelerating fast, with forecasts projecting the tokenized RWA market will grow from $0.6 trillion in 2025 to nearly $19 trillion by 2033. Ripple Custody is built with this reality in mind, enabling institutions to define multi-party approval flows, enforce transaction policies down to asset, role, and time-based rules, and lock in governance frameworks that reduce the risk of social engineering, collusion, and unapproved access. Bridging TradFi and Web3, Ripple Custody bridges both crypto-native and TradFi-oriented platforms. With over a decade of experience operating across crypto markets and institutional finance, Ripple brings a dual advantage: a deep understanding of blockchain infrastructure and a real fluency in bank-grade systems. Custody enables what comes next, as institutions move from tokenization theory to practice. It’s not about picking a vault; it’s about selecting a partner that can evolve with your business as strategies mature. Ripple Custody offers institutions a platform, not a black box, and strategic enablement. Custody systems must now support: Tokenized securities and bonds, with customizable workflows and strict governance; Money Market Funds and private credit, which demand real-time settlement, role-based access and policy-based controls; Stablecoins, with over $215 billion in circulation as of mid-2025, and growing relevance in cross-border treasury flows.
Cash App’s new P2P payment feature enables creating a pool, setting a target amount, and inviting contributors who can make group payments in seconds using Apple Pay or Google Pay through a shareable link
Cash App announced the launch of pools, a new peer-to-peer payment feature that enables group payments with just a few taps. Organizers can start a pool through the Cash App payment tab. From there, organizers can create and name a pool, set a target amount, and invite contributors. Members can be invited in-app via their $cashtag, or the organizer can text or share a link to request a contribution using Apple Pay or Google Pay. The organizer can close the pool at any time and then transfer the money to their Cash balance. With pools, members can contribute within seconds so the group can focus on the experience and not on stressful payment logistics: Proactive payment collection: Our market research shows that 60% of U.S. adults participate in some form of group money pooling, or one person has typically needed to volunteer to make the payment up front. Pools were designed for groups to easily plan, collect, and track contributions before the event occurs so that nobody has to front the entire cost. Integrations with Apple Pay and Google Pay: If members of the group use different payment solutions, the organizer has historically needed to download multiple apps to collect the money from each person resulting in confusion, time wasted, and risk for all participants. Now, the organizer can create a shareable link for group members to contribute to a pool in seconds using Apple Pay or Google Pay. Easy progress tracking: The organizer can name, set a goal amount, and invite members to join the pool and track the group’s contributions, removing unnecessary logistics and guesswork. End-to-end payment flows: Each pool seamlessly connects to the Cash App’s suite of banking and peer-to-peer payment tools, so the organizer can instantly use that money toward the group’s goal.
Google is indexing conversations with ChatGPT that users have sent to friends, families, or colleagues after clicking “Share” button, turning private exchanges with deeply personal details, into publicly accessible search results
Google is indexing conversations with ChatGPT that users have sent to friends, families, or colleagues—turning private exchanges intended for small groups into search results visible to millions. A basic Google site search using part of the link created when someone proactively clicks “Share” on ChatGPT can uncover conversations where people reveal deeply personal details, including struggles with addiction, experiences of physical abuse, or serious mental health issues—sometimes even fears that AI models are spying on them. While the users’ identities aren’t shown by ChatGPT, some potentially identify themselves by sharing highly specific personal information during the chats. A user might click “Share” to send their conversation to a close friend over WhatsApp or to save the URL for future reference. It’s unclear whether those affected realize their conversations with the bot are now publicly accessible after they click the Share button, presumably thinking they’re doing so to a small audience. Nearly 4,500 conversations come up in results for the Google site search, though many don’t include personal details or identifying information. This is likely not the full count, as Google may not index all conversations.
CommunityWFM’s forecasting solution for contact centers applies AI to quickly analyze historical data, produces recurring, optimized forecasts on call volume and average handle time and auto-generates staffing requirements
CommunityWFM, one of the premier contact center workforce management software solutions, announced the debut of their new AI driven automated forecasting solution. The latest release of the extensive capabilities utilizes AI to optimize the forecasting process even further, minimizing work and saving contact centers both time and resources. Also known as AI automated forecasting, this solution views historical data quickly and under an analytics lens to create recurring and optimized forecasts with minimal human involvement. With the first iteration based around call volume and average handle time forecasting, this solution involves only a singular set up experience for the end user. Once the initial configuration has been established, AI and machine learning are leveraged to automatically retrain the models and make predictions, then automatically generate staffing requirements and publish the results. With this technology, an end user of the CommunityWFM product could build a recurring forecast built to their desired parameters that will auto generate every other Friday. The end user only needs to complete the initial set up process and the forecast will be created automatically on their behalf moving forward. The date range can vary in many ways to meet the ever-changing demands of a contact center.
Visa sees stablecoins ‘massively expanding’ its opportunities to provide fraud prevention, dispute resolution and compliance checks, along with connections to bank payment rails
Visa’s stablecoin strategies could include the launch of its own coin someday. “This is just another mechanism for value exchange,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of cryptocurrency, said. “I see it massively expanding our addressable market.” Many analysts see stablecoins as a potential opportunity for Visa, and not a threat. Stablecoin payments are in theory cheaper than card fees, they still require services such as fraud prevention, dispute resolution and compliance checks, along with connections to bank payment rails and fiat currency conversion. Visa wants to serve as a bridge as the flow of money shifts, using its infrastructure to help make stablecoins more mainstream for merchants and consumers. “They are going after the land grab of empowering every possible stablecoin platform with a payment capability,” said Richard Crone, chief executive officer of payments consultant Crone Consulting. “This is a really big opportunity.” Visa says, “Our focus is on what we can do today: scale stablecoin-linked cards, enable stablecoin settlement, and work closely with our bank partners to help them leverage stablecoins across a range of use cases. That’s our near-term priority and what’s active in the market right now.” “We are piloting and partnering with stablecoin companies … as we build out our stablecoin settlement stack … we are working to streamline treasury operations, improve liquidity management and enable quick and more cost effective cross-border transactions,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said.
Routable integrates FedNow for instant B2B payments, expanding 24/7 vendor payout access to 85% of US bank accounts—including regional banks—within its AP automation platform
Routable added the FedNow® Service to the instant payment capabilities accessible through its accounts payable automation platform. The FedNow Service expands the availability of instant payments for customers who transact with smaller or regional banks. Routable customers can now send instant payments to 85% of bank accounts via FedNow and the RTP® network’s real-time payments, which are already available on the platform. The platform displays which vendors can receive instant payments so that Routable customers can choose the best method for every payment. “By expanding access to instant payments, our customers have more control over when and how to pay their vendors and contractors,” Routable co-founder and CEO Omri Mor said. Instant payments are available through Routable 24/7/365 so companies can send funds in seconds – even on weekends and holidays. Routable displays which vendors are eligible to receive instant payments, enabling customers to choose the best method for every payment.
Akeyless enables AI agents to authenticate using dynamic, just-in-time verifiable machine identities such as cloud IAM roles eliminating the need to embed secrets in code, containers, or pipelines
Akeyless, the Unified Secrets & Machine Identity Platform for the AI-driven Era, announced the launch of Akeyless SecretlessAI, a breakthrough solution purpose-built to secure the rapidly expanding universe of AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Akeyless SecretlessAI™ eliminates the need to embed secrets in code, containers, or pipelines. Instead, it introduces dynamic, just-in-time secrets provisioning, where AI agents and MCP servers authenticate using verifiable machine identities — such as cloud IAM roles or Kubernetes service accounts. Akeyless extends traditional secrets management by integrating with advanced identity frameworks like SPIFFE (Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone) through its SPIRE plugins, enabling a ‘secretless’ authentication model for workloads. Additionally, Akeyless offers built-in PKI-as-a-Service capabilities that automate the lifecycle of certificates, including issuance, renewal, and revocation, all within a secure and scalable SaaS platform. Based on centrally managed policies, Akeyless provisions ephemeral, tightly scoped secrets at runtime. This approach drastically reduces the window of compromise and supports Zero Trust and Least Privilege principles. The solution offers comprehensive auditing and centralized governance, providing visibility into every request and action. It enables policy-based access control and full lifecycle automation, empowering security and DevOps teams to enforce compliance without slowing innovation.
LinePoint Partners platform enables UHNW breakaway financial advisors and single family office (SFO) executives to independently operate and grow their practices without designing from scratch in-house
One new entrant to the family office industry, LinePoint Partners, aims to help advisors leaving wirehouses and private banks build up an array of services needed to work with wealthy clients. Andrew Sternlight, LinePoint’s president and chief investment officer, said what sets family offices apart from other wealth managers is the priority family offices place on preserving wealth for future generations, charitable causes or other recipients. “That’s where we think, by extending that sort of family office infrastructure to advisors or to one or two executives of a family office without building out their teams entirely,” Sternlight said. “That’s where we can provide a bit of a solution that has the benefits with that multigenerational lens, but not the cost of designing from scratch in-house.” Andrew Lom, U.S. head of financial services and global head of private wealth at the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, agreed that the true differentiator for family offices is the emphasis they place on making sure clients can bequeath their wealth exactly how they want. Ron LaVelle, a principal in the private wealth practice of the accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly, said clients have the ultimate say on what their family office does. With the list of possible service offerings always growing, and the number of multifamily offices serving several wealthy families also rising, it’s becoming ever more rare for firms to be able to do it all. In fact, LaVelle said, he tends to be wary of firms that claim to be everything for everyone.
PayPal’s BNPL volume growth of >20% exceeded 18% growth in core business; debit card TPV across PayPal and Venmo grew more than 60% while monthly active accounts grew more than 65%
Pivoting from macroeconomic concerns to capturing wallet share, PayPal is making an aggressive play to dominate checkout lanes. PayPal’s own footprint edged higher as active accounts rose 4% from the March quarter to 438 million. PayPal’s installment payment portfolio again grew more than the core business. “In the second quarter, BNPL volume grew more than 20% and monthly active accounts climbed 18%,” CEO Alex Chriss said. He added that average order values using BNPL run “more than 80% higher” than a standard branded checkout transaction, a statistic the company is using to recruit merchants who already accept PayPal but have yet to surface its installment options early in the shopping journey. For merchants, the pitch is that PayPal’s know your customer (KYC) infrastructure and access to “the largest ecosystem of payment-ready wallets” will simplify compliance when bots, not humans, initiate transactions. Debit card TPV across PayPal and Venmo grew more than 60% while monthly active accounts grew more than 65%, Chriss said. Two million users tapped a PayPal or Venmo debit card for the first time in the quarter, reinforcing Chriss’s thesis that cardholders transact more often and choose PayPal at checkout six times as frequently as non-card users. PayPal added yield rewards for holding PYUSD, expanded issuance to the Stellar and Arbitrum blockchains and said PYUSD would power PayPal World transactions that settle in local currency on the back end. The company also announced “Pay with Crypto,” earlier this week, which will convert more than 1,100 cryptocurrencies into PYUSD or fiat at checkout. Chriss said it positions PayPal as processor, not custodian. PayPal reported second-quarter net revenue of $8.29 billion, up 6% from the March quarter’s $7.79 billion and 5% year over year. Total payment volume rose by the same sequential 6% to $443.5 billion. Active accounts inched up to 438 million, reversing last year’s attrition but still growing more slowly than volume. Transaction margin dollars, a company metric that strips out operating costs, increased 7% year over year to $3.84 billion, or 8% when interest on customer balances is excluded. Non-GAAP earnings per share climbed 18%. Management again raised full-year guidance for both transaction‑margin dollars and earnings per share, even while acknowledging an “uneven” consumer backdrop in some corridors. The absence of dire macro commentary was itself a signal: PayPal believes its checkout strategy, not the economic cycle, will determine whether it can accelerate growth.