Author: GT

ECB Governor Warns Trump’s Pro-Crypto Policies Could Trigger Global Financial Instability Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France and a key member of the European Central Bank (ECB), has warned that the U.S.’s increasing embrace of cryptocurrencies could lead to global financial instability. In an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche, Villeroy de Galhau criticized the Trump administration’s policies, claiming they are “sowing the seeds of future upheavals.” He noted that crises often begin in the U.S. and spread worldwide, warning that by encouraging non-bank finance and crypto assets, the U.S. is jeopardizing financial stability. Trump’s…

OpenAI will soon begin testing a way for business customers to connect apps like Slack and Google Drive to ChatGPT. OpenAI plans to start beta testing a new feature called ChatGPT Connectors, according to a document viewed by TechCrunch. ChatGPT Connectors will allow ChatGPT Team subscribers to link workspace Google Drive and Slack accounts to ChatGPT so the chatbot can answer questions informed by files, presentations, spreadsheets, and Slack conversations across those accounts. OpenAI plans to expand ChatGPT Connectors to other platforms, like Microsoft SharePoint and Box, in the future, according to the document. “This will allow employees using ChatGPT…

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) just made a move that could open up new capital inflows for both Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), among other cryptocurrencies large and small. Importantly, the same action could also end up routing a large and growing number of developers into the crypto sector, which would have major knock-on effects in terms of creating new opportunities for investors. But will those benefits result in concrete gains in XRP and Bitcoin’s price? It’s very possible, so let’s evaluate what just happened and estimate the odds of there being a meaningful amount of upside for an investor…

Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, and the overwhelming preference of investors for the property market of the country over stocks, Saudi Arabia remained data-poor in the real-estate sector until relatively recently. That was something Ahmed Bukhamseen wanted to change, and his company Quant set out to transform the property investment market and open up pricing information to buyers, speculators, and investors. As you might expect, at the core of Quant is data – advertised and realised prices, mapping, details of proposed and ongoing construction, geo-spacial data, imagery, and much more. We spoke to Ahmed at the recent MWC…

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has acquired Hotshot, a startup working on AI-powered video generation tools along the lines of OpenAI’s Sora. Aakash Sastry, Hotshot’s CEO and co-founder, announced the news in a post on X on Monday. “Over the past 2 years we’ve built 3 video foundation models as a small team — Hotshot-XL, Hotshot Act One, and Hotshot,” Sastry wrote. “Training these models has given us a look into how global education, entertainment, communication, and productivity are about to change in the coming years. We’re excited to continue scaling these efforts on the largest cluster in the world,…

Creating a startup that competes with your former employer can be risky. Apple, for example, once sued a former chip design executive who founded his own chip startup in a case that was dropped in 2023. A recent case involving logistics unicorn Flexport and a new competitor formed by two former employees sheds light on those risks. Flexport is suing the pair alleging that they stole thousands of its documents along with its source code to create their own rival startup, Freightmate AI — claims strongly denied by Freightmate. Both startups use technology to automate complex logistics and shipping processes. Flexport says it…

By Suzanne McGee (Reuters) – Canary Capital Group, a digital assets investment firm, said on Monday that it is seeking the green light from regulators to launch an exchange-traded fund tied to the spot price of Sui, a cryptocurrency associated with Sui Network, a blockchain service provider. That brings Canary’s list of cryptocurrency filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission to six, and again extends the roster of new ETF filings on a growing array of coins seeking regulatory approval submitted since the election of President Donald Trump last November. Trump’s pledge to shake up the regulatory treatment of the…

Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google’s new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images, including from images published by Getty Images and other well-known stock media outfits. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit image content. It’s a powerful capability, by all accounts. But it also appears to have few guardrails. Gemini 2.0 Flash will uncomplainingly create images depicting celebrities and copyrighted characters, and — as alluded to earlier — remove watermarks from existing photos. New skill unlocked: Gemini…

Ripple Labs has filed a trademark application for “Ripple Custody,” signaling an expansion into the crypto custody space. The trademark application, filed on Feb. 25, outlines four key use cases, including “custodial services in the nature of maintaining storage and possession of cryptocurrency […] for financial management purposes.” Crypto custody services are becoming increasingly important, especially following the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. in 2024. Major financial institutions like Coinbase, Citi, and BNY Mellon have already established their presence in this space, providing secure storage solutions for institutions and individuals. Ripple’s move suggests it is looking to enter…

The fintech segment, which saw massive growth during the pandemic and immediately after, had a fairly rough 2024, ending with the abrupt shutdown — and then unexpected acquisition — of accounting startup Bench. Though the rapid pace of funding has slowed, some fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams. In an effort to better understand just how many fintechs might fit into this category, I put out a call last year asking for fintech companies that are hiring. After just over an hour, I got more than a dozen responses. Over the span of a few days,…