Author: GT

Bhutan, the South Asian country located in the Himalayan region, has partnered with Binance Pay and the country’s fully digital DK Bank to launch a national-level crypto payment system for tourism. The partnership marks the first time a tourism product has accepted cryptocurrency at a national level. Tourists can avail a range of tourism services, including flight and hotel tickets, visa and Sustainable Development Fee (SDF) fees, monument entry fees, and local shopping, using Binance Pay via static and dynamic QR code payments. More than 100 merchants in Bhutan are now live with Binance Pay and DK Bank. The service…

Design company Figma today announced multiple features, including AI-powered site and web app creation, a way for marketers to create assets in bulk, and a new drawing tool. With this launch, the company is taking on other creative solutions such as Canva and Adobe, along with AI-powered website and prototype creators such as WordPress, Wix, Hostinger, and Replit. The company’s website creation tool is called Figma Sites. The startup said that often designers build prototypes of what a site should look like within Figma. With the new AI-powered tool, they can easily create websites and even publish them. Once the…

Ever wondered what happens when a company trying to build a ‘brain for the world’ needs to grow up, fast, without selling its soul? Well, OpenAI has just given us a peek as it pledges to keep its nonprofit core amid broader restructuring.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has laid out their roadmap, and the headline news is: they’re rejigging the money side of things, but their core mission to make Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) work for all of us remains bolted down.In a letter, Altman wrote: “OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be.” It’s a bold statement, but…

Bitcoin surged above $97,000 late Tuesday, then slid to $96,500 in Asian hours Wednesday as India conducted airstrikes in parts of Pakistan to intensify tensions from the past few weeks. A planned meeting to discuss U.S. and China tariffs sent risk assets higher in the hours since the U.S. stock market closed on Wednesday, as reported, but those gains reversed as news of India’s “Operation Sindoor” emerged in the early hours. Traders expect to see more volatility in the days ahead as the regional tussles further damage risk-taking sentiment among traders, though eventually leading to a move higher as bitcoin…

Uber is expanding its presence in Turkey with its latest acquisition.  The ride-hail and delivery giant has acquired an 85% controlling stake in Trendyol Go, the online meal and grocery delivery business based in Istanbul, for about $700 million in cash. The deal gives Uber instant market share for Uber Eats in the country, where Uber currently only operates a ride-hail service.  Uber’s acquisition announcement comes a day before the company is scheduled to report its first-quarter earnings. And with consumer spending projected to fall in 2025 due to President Trump’s tariffs, investors will want reassurance that Uber is still…

The price of gold has surged almost 29% this year, solidly beating the 3.8% gain in bitcoin (BTC). Even so, that’s failed to deter investors eager to add the largest cryptocurrency to their portfolios. BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has attracted a net $6.96 billion in inflows since the start of the year, the sixth-largest amount of all exchange-traded funds, according to data from Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas. SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), the world’s largest physically backed gold ETF, slipped to the number seven position Monday with net inflows of $6.5 billion. IBIT’s outperformance indicates institutions’ persistent confidence…

NewLimit, a startup that aims to increase how long people can live a healthy life by genetically programming their cells, has raised a $130 million Series B led by Kleiner Perkins. New investors Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross, and Khosla Ventures also invested, as did returning backers Founders Fund, Dimension Capital, Elad Gil, Garry Tan, Patrick Collison, and others. The fundraise comes two years after the company raised a $40 million Series A. Founded over four years ago by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (pictured above), former GV partner Blake Byers, and stem cell professor Jacob Kimmel, NewLimit claims it has made…

(Bloomberg) — In this year’s hotly contested race for New Jersey governor, some Democratic hopefuls are embracing a strategy that helped propel Republican Donald Trump back to the White House: They support crypto, and they’re not afraid to say it. Most Read from Bloomberg At least half of the six candidates vying for the Democratic nomination have a history of backing efforts around cryptocurrencies, including US Representative Mikie Sherrill, who leads some polls in the primary race. Two others — Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and US Representative Josh Gottheimer — are actively talking up digital assets as part of…

Every developer has their own unique style of writing code. Despite companies establishing best practices and drawing up documentation, it can be hard for developers to understand someone else’s codebase. To solve this problem, Dennis Pilarinos built a tool called Unblocked — an AI-powered assistant that answers contextual questions about lines of code. Pilarinos is a seasoned professional at building developer tools. He has worked as a director at Microsoft and Amazon, working on Azure and Amazon Web Services. Later, Pilarinos built a continuous integration platform for remote teams called Buddybuild, which was acquired by Apple in 2018, and he…

People take photos in front of a giant Google logo at Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on Aug 13, 2024 where the “Made by Google” media event was held today.Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty ImagesNuclear developer Elementl Power said Wednesday it’s signed an agreement with Google to develop three sites for advanced reactors. It’s the latest example of tech giants teaming up with the nuclear industry in an effort to meet the vast energy needs of data centers. Google will commit early-stage development capital to the three projects, although the exact terms of the deal remain private.…