Savvy Wealth, a digital-first platform for financial advisors centered around modernizing human financial advice, announced the successful close of a $72 million Series B funding round, led by Industry Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on private technology investments. Savvy will leverage the fresh funding to accelerate its core technology offering, hire top technical talent and expand recruitment of independent advisors and advisory teams to its affiliate registered investment advisor (RIA), Savvy Advisors. The firm will also accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to build personalized knowledge bases on each client, providing predictive, real-time intelligence tailored to individual financial profiles and needs. Ritik Malhotra, Founder and CEO of Savvy Wealth. “At Savvy, we’re embedding AI inside the core of our CRM and advisor-facing tech stack to ‘10x’ their capabilities – unlocking predictive, real-time insights that strengthen human relationships. As modern advisors continue to choose independence, Savvy’s boutique culture, cutting-edge technology and full-service platform offers them a welcome home where their voice matters.” Recently surpassing $2 billion in assets under management, Savvy continues to build upon the sophistication of its offering, which includes solutions designed to meet the complex needs of high-net-worth investors. As Savvy expands its client base, it plans to evolve into a modern wealth management platform that offers more premium services to vertically integrate all of an individual or family’s financial needs.
Ripple taps OpenPayd’s global fiat infrastructure, including real-time payment rails, multicurrency accounts and virtual IBANs to offer a rail-agnostic and fully interoperable cross-border payments solution; applies for a national banking charter
Financial services infrastructure provider OpenPayd launched a partnership with blockchain company Ripple. The collaboration will see OpenPayd’s global fiat infrastructure, including real-time payment rails, multicurrency accounts and virtual IBANs, support Ripple Payments into euros and British pounds. “By combining Ripple Payments with OpenPayd’s rail-agnostic and fully interoperable fiat infrastructure, we are delivering a unified platform that bridges traditional finance and blockchain,” OpenPayd CEO Iana Dimitrova said. “This partnership enables businesses to move and manage money globally, access stablecoin liquidity at scale, and simplify cross-border payments, treasury flows and dollar-based operations.” Ripple Payments is Ripple’s cross-border payment solution, employing blockchain, digital assets and a network of payout partners to deliver cross-border payments and on/off ramps for banks, FinTechs and cryptocurrency firms. The partnership is part of OpenPayd’s efforts to expand its newly launched stablecoin infrastructure, with the company providing direct minting and burning capabilities for Ripple USD (RLUSD). Businesses will be able to convert between fiat and RLUSD, accessing OpenPayd’s suite of services usinag a single API.
Visa and Mastercard are casting themselves as the connective tissue and playing to their strengths of global scale, trusted rails, built-in fraud protection, and tokenization tech to gain from the shift in card swipe fees to stablecoin payments
A major turf war is heating up in the payments worldand Visa and Mastercard suddenly find themselves on defense. Stablecoins like USDC are gaining traction, with companies like Shopify, Coinbase, and Stripe quietly rerouting payments around traditional card networks. For merchants, the pitch is irresistible: faster settlement, fewer fees, and no middlemen. With U.S. businesses spending roughly $187 billion a year on card swipe fees, even a small shift could redraw the map. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has hinted the stablecoin marketnow at $253 billioncould reach $2 trillion in the next few years. That’s not a side bet. That’s a direct hit. Visa and Mastercard aren’t sitting still. They’re flipping the narrativecasting themselves as the connective tissue for all things digital, stablecoins included. Visa is letting banks issue digital tokens and pilot stablecoin settlement directly on its network. Mastercard, meanwhile, just teamed up with Paxos to mint and redeem USDG, its fiat-backed stablecoin. The two networks are leaning into their edge: global scale, trusted rails, built-in fraud protection, and tokenization tech that masks sensitive data at checkout. That’s not just defense. It’s a strategic pivot.
Modernizing existing REST APIs requires identifying APIs with OpenAPI specs, evaluating which APIs you want AI agents to have access to, configuring the MCP server, handling authentication and authorization, and deploying using the sidecar pattern
This blog discusses how organizations can modernize existing REST APIs with minimal effort by exposing them as tools via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP is a universal standard that allows AI models to interact with external tools, data sources, and applications, effectively serving as a bridge between AI systems and the broader digital ecosystem. To modernize existing REST APIs, follow a 4-step process: Understand your application’s API surface: Use a well-documented REST API with an OpenAPI specification; Wrap your API with FastMCP: FastMCP is a lightweight server that automatically converts API endpoints into tools that AI agents can understand and call; Deploy both your existing application and the MCP server together using Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) and AWS Fargate with a sidecar pattern; Build the AI agent with Strands Agents SDK: Strands provides a clean interface for connecting to MCP servers and integrating with Amazon Bedrock. To adapt this pattern for your existing applications, identify APIs with OpenAPI specs, evaluate which APIs you want AI agents to have access to, configure the MCP server, handle authentication and authorization, deploy using the sidecar pattern, and test and iterate. Benefits of this approach include minimal changes to existing applications, incremental modernization without a complete rewrite, scalable architecture, security by design, and cost-effectiveness. To get started with modernizing your own applications, review the Strands Agents SDK documentation, explore Amazon Bedrock for available AI models, identify applications with well-documented REST APIs, start with a proof of concept using a non-critical application, consider authentication and security requirements for production deployment, and limit API endpoints the agent has access to through FastMCP configuration options.
Cloudflare’s pay per crawl service allows content owners to charge AI crawlers for access using HTTP 402 Payment Required responses with options to allow free access, charge configured prices, or block access entirely by using DNS proxying for functionality
Cloudflare has launched a pay per crawl service for content creators and AI companies, offering a new mechanism to monetize digital assets. The service addresses concerns from publishers who want compensation for their contributions to AI training datasets. The system allows content owners to charge AI crawlers for access using HTTP 402 Payment Required responses, providing three options: Allow free access, Charge configured prices, or Block access entirely. The service operates through Cloudflare’s global network infrastructure and requires publishers to use Cloudflare’s DNS proxying for functionality. Applications accepted through a dedicated signup portal. The service addresses the binary choice between complete blocking or uncompensated access, creating a third monetization option for digital content creators. Cloudflare serves as the Merchant of Record, handling billing event recording when crawlers make authenticated requests with payment intent. The company aggregates events, charges crawlers, and distributes earnings to publishers, simplifying financial relationships for smaller publishers lacking individual negotiation leverage. The system anticipates future agentic applications where intelligent agents receive budgets for acquiring relevant content. Pay per crawl represents one solution in the expanding toolkit for content protection, as research indicates AI search visitors provide 4.4 times higher value than traditional organic traffic, creating economic incentives for controlled access rather than complete blocking. The development coincides with Google’s AI Mode expansion and enhanced content labeling requirements. Content creators interested in pay per crawl can apply for private beta access through Cloudflare’s signup portal.
CARV’s AI roadmap portrays AI agents as sovereign, autonomous Beings that possess their own identity, memory, reputation, and agency; can own wallets, manage assets, earn income, and even fork new agents creating decentralized economies within blockchain networks
CARV is launching an AI roadmap to transition Web3-AI convergence from passive productivity tools to sovereign, autonomous AI Beings. These AI Beings will possess their own identity, memory, reputation, and agency, acting economically, socially, and politically within blockchain networks. CARV’s infrastructure, anchored by its proprietary SVM Chain, D.A.T.A. Framework, and CARV ID (ERC-7231), will enable AI agents to evolve and interact with both humans and other agents, creating decentralized, agent-powered economies. AI Beings are not just tools for users but sovereign actors in their own right. They can own wallets, manage assets, earn income, participate in governance, and even reproduce or fork new agents. Blockchain provides the necessary properties for such AI autonomy: verifiability, resistance to centralized control, and decentralized identity and governance. The AI Being Stack is a five-layer architecture designed to support every aspect of AI agent life cycles. The first wave of wallet-native AI agents, each anchored by CARV ID (ERC-7231), are embedded in consumer-facing AI apps incubated through CARV Labs. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) establishes context persistence and secure memory, allowing for coherent personalization across sessions and applications without centralizing user data. The Pulse evolution builds on the groundwork of Genesis, enabling agents to learn and evolve through on-chain feedback loops. The Convergence evolution transitions from being a foundational data layer to becoming the coordination engine for AI-native on-chain life, the AI Beings.
CARV’s AI roadmap portrays AI agents as sovereign, autonomous Beings that possess their own identity, memory, reputation, and agency; can own wallets, manage assets, earn income, and even fork new agents creating decentralized economies within blockchain networks
CARV is launching an AI roadmap to transition Web3-AI convergence from passive productivity tools to sovereign, autonomous AI Beings. These AI Beings will possess their own identity, memory, reputation, and agency, acting economically, socially, and politically within blockchain networks. CARV’s infrastructure, anchored by its proprietary SVM Chain, D.A.T.A. Framework, and CARV ID (ERC-7231), will enable AI agents to evolve and interact with both humans and other agents, creating decentralized, agent-powered economies. AI Beings are not just tools for users but sovereign actors in their own right. They can own wallets, manage assets, earn income, participate in governance, and even reproduce or fork new agents. Blockchain provides the necessary properties for such AI autonomy: verifiability, resistance to centralized control, and decentralized identity and governance. The AI Being Stack is a five-layer architecture designed to support every aspect of AI agent life cycles. The first wave of wallet-native AI agents, each anchored by CARV ID (ERC-7231), are embedded in consumer-facing AI apps incubated through CARV Labs. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) establishes context persistence and secure memory, allowing for coherent personalization across sessions and applications without centralizing user data. The Pulse evolution builds on the groundwork of Genesis, enabling agents to learn and evolve through on-chain feedback loops. The Convergence evolution transitions from being a foundational data layer to becoming the coordination engine for AI-native on-chain life, the AI Beings.
Robinhood launches its tokenized stock product on the Arbitrum blockchain, indicating the growing embrace of decentralized finance by established financial players
Robinhood has launched its tokenized stock product on the Arbitrum blockchain, a radical reimagining of how investors can engage with cryptocurrencies. The Robinhood Chain, a bespoke asset management framework, places Robinhood at the forefront of decentralized finance (DeFi). The Robinhood Chain, utilizing Arbitrum’s efficient Layer 2 scaling solutions, creates a trading environment designed for speed and affordability, attracting a diverse crowd of investors. The Robinhood Chain’s introduction has led to a surge in the value of Robinhood’s stock (HOOD), with analysts predicting a potential market share of $600 billion. However, the allure of tokenized assets is tempered by regulatory challenges, necessitating resource management to ensure innovation is not stifled by regulations designed to promote security. The emergence of tokenized assets is poised to revolutionize the investment sector, but investors must remain cautious due to the unpredictable nature of the crypto space. Robinhood’s partnership with Arbitrum demonstrates the growing embrace of decentralized finance by established financial players.
Israeli quantum startup Qedma just raised $26 million, with IBM joining in
Startup Qedma specializes in error-mitigation software. Its main piece of software, QESEM, or quantum error suppression and error mitigation, analyzes noise patterns to suppress some classes of errors while the algorithm is running and mitigate others in post-processing. IBM is both working on delivering its own “fault-tolerant” quantum computer by 2029 and collaborating with partners like Qedma. That’s because IBM thinks driving quantum further requires a community effort. “If we all work together, I do think it’s possible that we will get scientific accepted definitions of quantum advantage in the near future, and I hope that we can then turn them into more applied use cases that will grow the industry,” VP of Quantum, Jay Gambetta said. In all likelihood, it will first apply to an academic problem, not a practical one. In this context, it may take more than one attempt to build consensus that it’s not just another artificial or overly constrained scenario. Since last September, Qedma has been available through IBM’s Qiskit Functions Catalog, which makes quantum more accessible to end users. Qedma’s plans are hardware-agnostic. The startup has already conducted a demo on the Aria computer from IonQ, a publicly listed U.S. company focused on trapped ion quantum computing. In addition, Qedma has an evaluation agreement with an unnamed partner Sinay described as “the largest company in the market.” Recently, it also presented its collaboration with Japan’s RIKEN on how to combine quantum with supercomputers.
iOS 26 lends a frosted glass appearance to the Lock Screen clock, allows users to select lighting effects for any of the clock fonts, and choose a color to tint the glass for a realistic glass effect and can be resized to better match iPhone’s wallpaper
Liquid Glass is everywhere in iOS 26, and it starts right when you pick up your device. Here’s what you’ll see first when you upgrade to iOS 26. The two customizable control buttons on the Lock Screen are larger and have a floating, glass-like appearance like the other Liquid Glass interface options in iOS 26. The clock has a frosted glass appearance with the new “Glass” option, using lighting effects to make it look like glass in the real world. Glass can be selected for any of the clock fonts, and you can choose a color to tint the glass. Apple has multiple preset options, or you can select your own. When you tilt your iPhone, light reflects and glints with the movement, for a realistic glass effect. Notifications that are on your Lock Screen have a Liquid Glass aesthetic with a frosted glass look that leaves your wallpaper visible behind them. In addition to having a Liquid Glass aesthetic, the clock can be resized to better match your iPhone’s wallpaper using a new adaptive feature. When you’re customizing your Lock Screen, you can grab the corner of the time and drag it down to expand it. Adjusting the size of the time only works with the first font option, and only with the standard Arabic, Western numbering. With photo wallpapers, the time can automatically expand to fill in missing space, and it can change based on the image if you have Photo Shuffle set. The subject in photo wallpapers is meant to always be visible, and can overlap the time in unique ways in iOS 26. There is a new default wallpaper that was designed for iOS 26. It’s multiple shades of blue, with the same floating glass aesthetic that the rest of iOS 26 features. The wallpaper can subtly shift with iPhone movement. Aside from the Liquid Glass time, Spatial Scenes are the biggest change to the Lock Screen. 2D photos that you set as wallpaper can be turned into 3D spatial images that separate the subject of the photo from the background using depth information. When you move your iPhone, Spatial Scenes shift and move along with it, making the images feel alive. Spatial Scenes is a feature in the Photos app too, and it can be added to any image that you’ve taken with your iPhone, including older ones. Lock Screen widgets can be placed on the top of the display under the time, or at the bottom of the display. With the adaptive clock and new wallpaper options, widgets can also shift down automatically to ensure the subject of an image is always visible. Apple added a new Lock Screen widget for Apple Music search, but there are no other new Lock Screen widget options. What is new, though, is a new full screen Now Playing interface that shows album art. Artwork expands and animates right on the Lock Screen.