News Heat Trend
Insider: Manus reportedly seeks $500 million in funding, valuation may double to $4 billion
- According to people familiar with the matter, AI Agent startup Manus is preparing a new round of $500 million in funding, with the deal nearing completion and the company's valuation expected to double to $4 billion. This would be Manus's first funding round since splitting from Meta.If the funding is completed as planned, Manus will become the highest-valued startup in China's Agentic AI sector. Negotiations are still ongoing, and specific terms may change. The identity of new investors has not yet been disclosed. Manus's existing investors include Tencent, HSG, and ZhenFund. (Bloomberg)
AI company Nuance completes $50 million Series A round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
According to Business Insider, Seattle-based artificial intelligence company Nuance has announced the completion of a $50 million Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Accel, NVIDIA's NVentures, South Park Commons, and Define Ventures. Founded last year by three former Apple researchers, Nuance aims to develop multimodal AI models with enhanced emotional understanding capabilities. The company completed a $10 million seed round led by Accel in July of last year.
AI company Discovery Loop, co-founded by former Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, sees valuation surge to $50 billion within weeks
Odaily reports: Sources familiar with the matter say that Discovery Loop, an AI startup co-founded by former Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, is in talks for a new funding round, with its valuation having climbed to $50 billion—five times higher than the roughly $10 billion valuation target from just weeks ago.Discovery Loop's other three co-founders are Sanjay Ghemawat, Quoc Le, and Oriol Vinyals. The company focuses on using AI to run thousands of experiments in parallel to accelerate the pace of scientific and engineering research. Its first funding round was led by Radical Ventures and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed, Kleiner Perkins, Doerr Capital, and others. (Business Insider)
The US government has sold the Anthropic shares held by two former FTX executives. The buyer and the use of proceeds remain undisclosed.
According to Business Insider, the federal government previously seized Anthropic shares held by FTX fraud case co-conspirators Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh (valued at $10 million and $40 million, respectively) and sold them in 2025 to existing Anthropic investors. As Anthropic's valuation surged to $96.5 billion, the estimated value of these shares at the time of sale ranged from $250 million to $1.1 billion. However, there has been no record of the proceeds being transferred to the FTX bankruptcy liquidation account, leaving it unclear whether the funds will be used to compensate millions of FTX victims.
Ethena Foundation plans to end monthly investor unlocks; after USDe reaches its milestone, 95% of net revenue will be used to repurchase ENA.
According to Crowdfund Insider, the Ethena Foundation has announced a series of adjustments to mitigate selling pressure from early investor unlocks. The foundation has completed over-the-counter buybacks of the remaining locked ENA tokens held by certain large seed round investors and agreed with major investors to terminate their remaining vesting schedules early. Starting October 5, no investor tokens will remain subject to lock-up, while team tokens will maintain their original lock-up and vesting terms.
Waymo Founder Sebastian Thrun Announces Founding of New Robotics Startup Dulo
According to Business Insider, Waymo founder Sebastian Thrun announced the founding of new robotics startup Dulo at the San Francisco robotics conference Actuate; the company is currently still in stealth mode. According to a webpage hosted by Stanford University, Dulo is dedicated to building a "foundation model for hardware design," with the goal of achieving "hyper-fast manufacturing." The team includes core talent from Waymo, Google Brain, and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Thrun did not disclose funding details, product details, or launch timeline. Notably, in the first quarter of 2026, financing in the physical AI sector reached a record $16.3 billion.
US House Oversight Committee Expands Investigation into Insider Trading on Prediction Markets, Involving Platforms Including Hyperliquid
Odaily News: James Comer, Chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee and Republican Representative from Kentucky, has expanded an investigation into insider trading on prediction markets, requesting that Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange Inc., the operator of PredictIt, explain their identity verification procedures as well as measures to identify and prevent insider trading.In letters sent Tuesday to the CEOs of the three companies, Comer requested relevant documents and information, stating that the committee is investigating whether these platforms are fulfilling their legal obligations and taking sufficient measures to identify and stop insider trading before it occurs.
New York State Sues Polymarket, Alleging It Operates an Unlicensed Gambling Business
According to Crowdfund Insider, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul have filed a civil lawsuit against QCX LLC, the operating entity behind Polymarket US, alleging that it ran an unlicensed gambling business by offering event contracts for sports, elections, and other occurrences to local users through prediction markets without authorization from the New York State Gaming Commission. The complaint also notes that the minimum age for mobile sports betting in New York is 21, whereas Polymarket allegedly permits users aged 18 to 20 to participate. New York seeks a court order to halt Polymarket’s related operations and advertising campaigns within the state, demanding the forfeiture of alleged illicit gains, compensation to users, and civil fines of up to three times the relevant earnings; for unauthorized sports betting activities, the state also mandates an additional $100,000 penalty for each instance of providing or attempting to provide such services. Polymarket Chief Legal Officer Neal Kumar stated that the company plans to contest the lawsuit. According to reports, Polymarket subsequently filed its own lawsuit, arguing that such event contracts fall under the exclusive regulatory authority of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
3 Insider Trading Investigations Approved, CFTC Involves Polymarket Biden Pardon, Iran War, and Google Contracts
Odaily News: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has previously secretly approved 3 insider trading investigations into Polymarket trading, involving Biden pardon, Iran war, and Google-related event contracts. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig approved an investigation in May into contracts related to the Biden pardon, after a trader had profited over $300,000 from the related market; in the same month, the CFTC also approved an investigation into Iran war contracts, after a group of suspicious accounts was exposed for profiting $2.4 million with a win rate of approximately 98%. In July, the CFTC further launched an investigation into Google-related Polymarket contracts, focusing on individuals who may have used non-public information about Google's 2025 search rankings to trade. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is also conducting a parallel investigation, and Polymarket stated that it has referred the relevant matters to law enforcement and is cooperating with the investigation.
Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission Investigates Huatai Financial Holdings' Hong Kong Office: Case Involves Clients Using Insider Information to Short Futu and Tiger Brokers
According to reports from Caixin, multiple sources revealed that the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has visited the offices of Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) located at The Center in Central to conduct an investigation, with some employees questioned. The inquiry stems from the possibility that certain clients' trades at the securities firm may be connected to the insider trading incident involving US stock options at Futu Holdings and Tiger Brokers in May this year. Late yesterday evening, a source close to Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) stated that the SFC's investigation has nothing to do with the company itself and only involves individual clients. Unlike the mainland's securities trading regime, regulators in the Hong Kong market cannot directly see through to the trading activities of brokerage clients from the exchange. Therefore, investigating improper trading practices by broker clients typically requires cooperation from the securities firms. Previously reported, the Futu-Tiger options insider trading case has identified 45 individuals, with combined illicit profits totaling $155 million.
Ondo Finance Appoints Former Global Financial Markets Association Executive Allison Parent as Chief Policy Officer
According to Crowdfund Insider, Ondo Finance has appointed Allison Parent as Chief Policy Officer to engage with policymakers and regulators and advance regulatory and industry standards for tokenized assets. Parent previously served as an Executive Director at the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) for nearly 10 years. Her career also includes roles as Head of Global Policy and Strategy at Barclays, Senior Policy Advisor and Market Legal Counsel at the Bank of England, and General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget, where she contributed to landmark post-financial crisis legislation such as the Dodd-Frank Act.
US CFTC Fines Former White House Aides $172,000 in Insider Trading Contract Case
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that Gabriel Perez was ordered to disgorge $107,539.02 in illicit profits and pay a $65,000 civil penalty, totaling approximately $172,000, for utilizing material nonpublic information obtained during his federal government tenure to trade presidential mention-type event contracts on prediction market platforms.
Garrett Jin shared ZEC withdrawal records: two transactions totaling approximately 202,100 ZEC, worth approximately $315 million.
The representative for "BTC OG Insider Whale," Garrett Jin, has sequentially posted two Binance ZEC (Zcash) spot withdrawal screenshots, accompanied by corresponding Zcash blockchain explorer links. Records show that on December 20, 2025, the account successively withdrew 134,000 ZEC and 68,076.23 ZEC from its Binance spot wallet, totaling approximately 202,100 ZEC. Valued at the current price of roughly $1,560 per ZEC, the holdings in this address are worth approximately $315 million.
"1011 Insider Whale" representative opened a long position of 1,330 BTC, now sitting on an unrealized profit of $3.05 million
Odaily News: According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the "1011 Insider Whale" representative opened a long position of 1,330 BTC and is now sitting on an unrealized profit of $3.05 million.
The "1011 Insider Whale" proxy withdrew 35,001 ETH from Binance and deposited it into HyperLiqud
According to Lookonchain monitoring, the "1011 Insider Whale" proxy withdrew 35,001 ETH from Binance and deposited it into HyperLiqud.
"1011 Insider Whale" Proxy: Bitcoin Could Face Downside Risk If It Continues to Linger Around $76,500
Garrett Jin, proxy for the "1011 Insider Whale," posted on X that the current situation for Bitcoin bulls is "not very optimistic," and that he does not want BTC to continue staying above $76,500.Garrett Jin believes that the longer the price stays at this level, the greater the likelihood that it will break below this support and seek support at lower levels; if BTC is to show a stronger trend, it needs to reclaim and hold above $78,300.
3 Insider Trading Investigations Approved, CFTC Involves Polymarket Biden Pardon, Iran War, and Google Contracts
Odaily News: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has previously secretly approved 3 insider trading investigations into Polymarket trading, involving Biden pardon, Iran war, and Google-related event contracts. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig approved an investigation in May into contracts related to the Biden pardon, after a trader had profited over $300,000 from the related market; in the same month, the CFTC also approved an investigation into Iran war contracts, after a group of suspicious accounts was exposed for profiting $2.4 million with a win rate of approximately 98%. In July, the CFTC further launched an investigation into Google-related Polymarket contracts, focusing on individuals who may have used non-public information about Google's 2025 search rankings to trade. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is also conducting a parallel investigation, and Polymarket stated that it has referred the relevant matters to law enforcement and is cooperating with the investigation.
“1011 Insider Whale” Proxy Closes $107 Million BTC Long Position
Odaily News: According to on-chain analyst Ember CN’s monitoring, Garrett Jin, the proxy for the “1011 Insider Whale,” has just closed a $107 million BTC long position, totaling 1,331 BTC.
Oracle's internal AI rollout initially faced obstacles, but adoption reached 80% within three months of deploying ChatGPT Enterprise.
According to Business Insider, Oracle Co-CEO Magurk acknowledged that the company had not yet found a way to effectively leverage generative AI across the entire workforce last year. The turning point came in April and May this year, when Oracle deployed ChatGPT Enterprise and Codex, achieving an adoption rate of 80% within three months. Previously, Oracle had already invested billions of dollars to help other enterprises run AI.
Waymo Founder Sebastian Thrun Announces Founding of New Robotics Startup Dulo
According to Business Insider, Waymo founder Sebastian Thrun announced the founding of new robotics startup Dulo at the San Francisco robotics conference Actuate; the company is currently still in stealth mode. According to a webpage hosted by Stanford University, Dulo is dedicated to building a "foundation model for hardware design," with the goal of achieving "hyper-fast manufacturing." The team includes core talent from Waymo, Google Brain, and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Thrun did not disclose funding details, product details, or launch timeline. Notably, in the first quarter of 2026, financing in the physical AI sector reached a record $16.3 billion.
Microsoft Excel's COPILOT function will no longer be supported on September 14.
Microsoft Excel's COPILOT function will cease support on September 14. This feature allows users to describe requirements in natural language and invoke Copilot to generate results. It was tested for Frontier and Insider users in August last year and was originally planned to launch in January 2027. Microsoft decided to deprecate it because Copilot already has multiple interaction entry points, such as floating action buttons and sidebars, and does not recommend users use this function for numerical calculations.
Bitcoin miner MARA pledges 18,750 BTC for $750 million loan to expand AI and energy infrastructure
Odaily News – Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings disclosed in its latest quarterly SEC filing that it has pledged 18,750 BTC as collateral for two Bitcoin-backed loans, totaling $750 million in principal.Among these, financing provided by Coinbase Credit includes a refinancing of the original $150 million credit facility plus an additional $300 million in new funds; Two Prime Lending separately provided a $300 million loan. Both loans have been fully drawn, with a combined financing cost of approximately 7.56%, primarily maturing in August 2028.The pledged 18,750 BTC were valued at approximately $1.2 billion at the time of the transaction. If a decline in Bitcoin's price pushes the collateral ratio below the agreed level, MARA could face margin call requirements; otherwise, the related BTC may be subject to liquidation risk.The new funds will mainly be used for general corporate purposes and to support MARA's acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power. The transaction has an enterprise value of approximately $1.5 billion. Long Ridge owns a natural gas power plant in Ohio, USA, with an expected installed capacity of 505 MW, along with over 1,600 acres of industrial land. MARA plans to further develop the site into a base for Bitcoin mining, AI, and high-performance computing infrastructure. (Crowdfund Insider)
Lovable completes $400 million Series C funding round, valuation doubles to $13.3 billion
Odaily News: AI software development startup Lovable has announced the completion of a $400 million Series C funding round, led by Menlo Ventures, with Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, co-leading. The company's valuation now stands at $13.3 billion, doubling from the $6.6 billion valuation at its December funding round. Lovable co-founder and CEO Anton Osika stated that the company's annual recurring revenue has nearly tripled since December. In March, Lovable disclosed that its annual recurring revenue had reached $400 million, up from $300 million a month earlier and $200 million at the end of 2025. Lovable helps users build software through natural language prompts. The company says that since its launch in November 2024, over 60 million projects have been created on the platform. (Business Insider)
"1011 Insider Whale" Representative: SK Hynix Rebound May Be Short Covering, AI Storage Cycle Enters Return Verification Stage
"1011 Insider Whale" representative Garrett Jin released a weekly analysis stating that while he previously suggested gradually positioning in memory chips and buying on dips, the market did not experience the expected pullback. He has sold half of his previous rebound positions during the surge, not because the investment logic has changed, but due to concerns regarding the capital structure driving the rise, stating, "This looks more like a short squeeze than a final confirmation of fundamentals by the market." Rapid capital covering short positions can create short-term gains for memory chip stocks like SK Hynix, but cannot sustain the trend alone. Risks associated with Korean leveraged ETFs have not been fully released, but the decline in asset size is mainly due to NAV shrinkage rather than investor exit. Currently, cumulative net subscriptions for related financial products remain at historic highs and have not turned negative. Garrett Jin emphasized that the decline in Korean leveraged ETF size does not indicate market bearishness on memory demand. SK Hynix's 2026 capacity is already sold out, and Micron's orders are covered until 2028, with demand remaining strong through the second half of 2027. However, the memory industry is essentially still cyclical. Stock prices have already surged by hundreds of percentage points in advance, and cyclical stocks are typically difficult to sustain long-term growth driven solely by valuation expansion. The current market is entering a new phase of the AI capital expenditure cycle, shifting from "rewarding investment" to "evaluating investment returns." Regarding Bitcoin, Garrett Jin stated it continues to meet the bottoming conditions established since the July lows, and he currently maintains the position view established near $60,000.
Related news
US House Oversight Committee Expands Investigation into Insider Trading on Prediction Markets, Involving Platforms Including Hyperliquid
Odaily News: James Comer, Chairman of the U.S. House Oversight Committee and Republican Representative from Kentucky, has expanded an investigation into insider trading on prediction markets, requesting that Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange Inc., the operator of PredictIt, explain their identity verification procedures as well as measures to identify and prevent insider trading.In letters sent Tuesday to the CEOs of the three companies, Comer requested relevant documents and information, stating that the committee is investigating whether these platforms are fulfilling their legal obligations and taking sufficient measures to identify and stop insider trading before it occurs.
New York State Sues Polymarket, Alleging It Operates an Unlicensed Gambling Business
According to Crowdfund Insider, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul have filed a civil lawsuit against QCX LLC, the operating entity behind Polymarket US, alleging that it ran an unlicensed gambling business by offering event contracts for sports, elections, and other occurrences to local users through prediction markets without authorization from the New York State Gaming Commission. The complaint also notes that the minimum age for mobile sports betting in New York is 21, whereas Polymarket allegedly permits users aged 18 to 20 to participate. New York seeks a court order to halt Polymarket’s related operations and advertising campaigns within the state, demanding the forfeiture of alleged illicit gains, compensation to users, and civil fines of up to three times the relevant earnings; for unauthorized sports betting activities, the state also mandates an additional $100,000 penalty for each instance of providing or attempting to provide such services. Polymarket Chief Legal Officer Neal Kumar stated that the company plans to contest the lawsuit. According to reports, Polymarket subsequently filed its own lawsuit, arguing that such event contracts fall under the exclusive regulatory authority of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Garrett Jin shared ZEC withdrawal records: two transactions totaling approximately 202,100 ZEC, worth approximately $315 million.
The representative for "BTC OG Insider Whale," Garrett Jin, has sequentially posted two Binance ZEC (Zcash) spot withdrawal screenshots, accompanied by corresponding Zcash blockchain explorer links. Records show that on December 20, 2025, the account successively withdrew 134,000 ZEC and 68,076.23 ZEC from its Binance spot wallet, totaling approximately 202,100 ZEC. Valued at the current price of roughly $1,560 per ZEC, the holdings in this address are worth approximately $315 million.
"1011 Insider Whale" representative opened a long position of 1,330 BTC, now sitting on an unrealized profit of $3.05 million
Odaily News: According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the "1011 Insider Whale" representative opened a long position of 1,330 BTC and is now sitting on an unrealized profit of $3.05 million.
Oracle's internal AI rollout initially faced obstacles, but adoption reached 80% within three months of deploying ChatGPT Enterprise.
According to Business Insider, Oracle Co-CEO Magurk acknowledged that the company had not yet found a way to effectively leverage generative AI across the entire workforce last year. The turning point came in April and May this year, when Oracle deployed ChatGPT Enterprise and Codex, achieving an adoption rate of 80% within three months. Previously, Oracle had already invested billions of dollars to help other enterprises run AI.
The "1011 Insider Whale" proxy withdrew 35,001 ETH from Binance and deposited it into HyperLiqud
According to Lookonchain monitoring, the "1011 Insider Whale" proxy withdrew 35,001 ETH from Binance and deposited it into HyperLiqud.