What Is a Crypto Basis Trade and How Funds Farm It for Yield
What Is a Crypto Basis Trade and How Funds Farm It for Yield
Judith Murphy
Judith Murphy is a financial journalist and market analyst covering AI, technology stocks, and emerging market trends. She has contributed to multiple financial publications and brings a data-driven approach to her coverage of the technology sector and its impact on global markets.
Nous Research is finalizing a $75 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation
Nous Research, maker of the open-source Hermes agent, is closing a funding round led by Robot Ventures and USV that roughly doubles its valuation to $1.5 billion. The deal, reported by TechCrunch, lands days after Together AI raised $800 million at $8.3 billion, underscoring how open-source AI infrastructure is still pulling in serious money even as investors grow wary of thinly built AI wrapper companies.
Washington Moved 8.8 Million in Bitcoin, and This Is Not the End of Crypto
Arkham flagged an 8.8 million dollar Bitcoin transfer from the US government to Coinbase Prime, the same custody pipeline that once handled seized Samourai Wallet coins, reviving fears of a government sell-off. The evidence, including a nearly identical scare last year and Trump's 2025 no-sell executive order, points to routine custody, not liquidation.
Amazon Bets On TwelveLabs To Turn Video Into The Next AI Battleground
TwelveLabs closed a $100 million Series B on July 1, 2026, co-led by NEA and Naver Ventures, with Amazon investing directly and naming AWS as the startup's preferred cloud partner. The deal points to a bigger shift: cloud giants are becoming kingmakers in the AI funding stack, backing niche foundation-model startups like TwelveLabs rather than building everything in-house.
Zcash Rallies Past $500 as Traders Bet the Ironwood Fix Actually Holds
Zcash has clawed back above $500, up double digits this week, as traders bet that the July 28 Ironwood hard fork will fix the counterfeiting flaw that crashed ZEC nearly 50% in June. The bug was found by a security researcher using Anthropic's Opus 4.8 model, and futures open interest is already climbing on confidence the fix holds.
Helsing is closing in on an $18 billion valuation as Europe's defense tech boom accelerates
Munich-based Helsing is closing in on a $1.2 billion round at an $18 billion valuation, led by Dragoneer and Lightspeed, as Europe's rearmament push fuels a defense AI boom. The new price tag still leaves Helsing far behind Anduril's $61 billion valuation, and its autonomous weapons remain unproven in full combat conditions.
JPMorgan Cuts MiniMax's Price Target a Second Time as Zhipu Pulls Ahead
JPMorgan cut its MiniMax price target for the second time in weeks, from HK$300 to HK$240, after a dilutive HK$16 billion share and bond sale followed a lockup-driven stock crash. The bank raised its target on rival Zhipu the same month, citing pricing power MiniMax couldn't hold onto.
Meta Is Quietly Becoming One of the World's Biggest Chipmakers
An internal memo reviewed by Reuters shows Meta will begin production of its custom AI chip, codenamed Iris, in September, with testing complete in six weeks and no major issues found. The chip is part of a plan to double Meta's AI computing capacity to 14 gigawatts by 2027 and reduce reliance on Nvidia GPUs.
Gold Is Falling While Missiles Fly Over the Strait of Hormuz
Gold is sliding toward $4,100 an ounce even after Iran's Revolutionary Guard fired missiles at a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, as a stronger dollar and rising oil-driven inflation fears offset safe-haven demand. Silver, meanwhile, is holding near $60 and outpacing gold for most of 2026, with J.P. Morgan and Reuters analysts eyeing $80 by year-end.
Iran's New Leader Vows Revenge While Markets Watch the Strait of Hormuz
Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei broke five months of silence to vow revenge for his father's assassination, prompting Trump to threaten a thousand missiles in response. Markets have stayed calm so far, but Strait of Hormuz shipping is running at barely a third of normal.
SK Hynix's CEO Says the Memory Chip Crunch Will Outlast This Decade
SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung says the AI-driven memory chip shortage will persist beyond 2030, days after the company's record $26.5 billion Nasdaq debut. Samsung and Micron are making similar calls even as Morgan Stanley warns the stocks themselves look overbought.
What Is an AI Agent Marketplace and How Agents Get Bought and Sold
What is an AI agent marketplace? It's the emerging infrastructure where autonomous AI agents get bought, sold, and hired for tasks, sometimes by other agents with no human clicking approve. Real platforms like Coinbase's x402, Salesforce AgentExchange, and Virtuals Protocol are already testing how this AI agent economy actually settles payment.
World oil demand is set to fall for the first time since 2020, and the Gulf can't shrug it off
The IEA says global oil demand will fall in 2026 for the first time since 2020, driven mainly by war disruption in the Persian Gulf, but the steady rise of electric vehicles is quietly making Gulf state budgets harder to balance underneath it.
US grants the UAE license free access to advanced AI chips after reclassifying its export status
The Commerce Department reclassified the UAE from a restricted export control tier to Group A:5, clearing license free access to advanced Nvidia and AMD AI chips. The move builds on last November's G42 chip approval and ties directly to the UAE's Major Defense Partner status and its role in Operation Epic Fury.
Tencent Leads Buyback of AI Startup Manus From Meta at Original Price
Tencent is in talks to become the largest shareholder in Manus, leading a Chinese investor consortium buying the AI agent startup back from Meta at its original $2 billion valuation. The move unwinds a December 2025 acquisition that Beijing's regulators ordered reversed in April over foreign ownership concerns.
AI Data Centers Are Quietly Pumping Pollution Into the Cities Built to Host Them
Gas turbines installed to power AI data centers, including 33 illegal ones at xAI's Colossus site in Mississippi, are pumping out pollution now tied to lawsuits, a Department of Justice intervention, and tens of millions in estimated health damages. With the EPA declining to set national standards, mayors and state legislatures are racing to fill the void.
