News linked to both this project and an event.
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 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.
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)
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 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.
Odaily Odaily News: AI personal assistant startup Pally has announced the completion of a $5.2 million funding round, led by Cyber Fund and Y Combinator, with participation from Pioneer Fund, Founders Inc, 468 Capital, and angel investors. The company is valued at $30 million and primarily provides AI personal assistant services through an SMS interface. Pally was launched in 2025, with its latest version released in June, and can sync with platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Granola, and Notion. After user authorization, Pally can book flights, manage inboxes, reply to messages, and reserve restaurant tables. Pally uses Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, as well as open-source models such as Kimi K3 and GLM 5.2. Co-founder Haz Hubble stated that the company will not sell user data or use related data to train models. (Business Insider)
Odaily News: OpenAI has issued a statement responding to Apple's previously filed trade secret lawsuit, calling Apple's allegations "hasty, aggressive, and factually flawed," and released email records as supporting evidence. OpenAI stated that Apple previously claimed it had contacted the company in February and received no response, but in reality, Apple's external counsel had sent the email to the wrong recipient due to a name mix-up. Additionally, Apple also acknowledged that it had not engaged in any relevant communication with OpenAI's General Counsel.Apple previously accused OpenAI of obtaining confidential information through former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan. OpenAI denied the allegations and stated that Apple employees proactively sought advice from Liu on documents and technical issues after his departure, because Apple had failed to promptly revoke the departed employees' system access. (Business Insider)
According to Politico, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday aimed at restricting members of Congress and their families from trading stocks. However, the bill faced division within the Democratic Party, as some Democrats argued it lacked sufficient strength. The legislation, named the "Stop Insider Trading Act," is the first congressional stock trading ban bill to be voted on by the full House of Representatives. It ultimately passed with a vote of 232 to 198, with 13 Democratic lawmakers voting in favor. Among the total 93 lawmakers who co-sponsored the bill, only two were Democrats. Another, more restrictive bill—which would require lawmakers and their families to sell stocks they currently hold—garnered broader bipartisan support but failed to reach a full House vote. Most Democrats believe the passed measure is insufficient because it does not include a mandate to divest existing holdings. The bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration. (Jinshi)
amid growing insider trading concerns surrounding prediction markets, Goldman Sachs has prohibited its employees from trading prediction market contracts related to the bank's own events, elections, financial markets, macroeconomic data, and geopolitics. Financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America are also formulating or updating relevant policies. Bank of America, in particular, has begun clarifying prohibited practices in prediction market trading to its employees.Previously, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice accused a Google employee of using non-public information to trade "Search of the Year" related contracts on Polymarket, profiting approximately $1.2 million. Legal experts note that the CFTC still lacks well-established case law in enforcing insider trading rules for prediction markets, and the wide variety of prediction market contracts further complicates regulatory oversight.Currently, Kalshi and Polymarket have respectively launched employment verification tools and collaborated with Chainalysis and Palantir to monitor suspicious trading activities. (CNBC)
According to the UK’s Financial Times, Tencent is set to launch an embedded AI agent within WeChat. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that Tencent is currently testing a prototype of this AI agent, which can assist users in performing various tasks directly inside WeChat. The company plans to initiate the regulatory approval process required before launch as early as this month. Once regulatory review is complete, Tencent will first conduct a gray-release test with a small group of external users, followed by a phased, gradual rollout. The official launch date has yet to be determined. A person who viewed an early product demonstration said users need only swipe right from WeChat’s main interface to summon the AI agent’s chat window. Sources indicated Tencent has designated this project as its top strategic priority, with management focusing intensely on refining details—yet scaling up to full deployment remains hampered by insufficient computing power supply. Internally, Tencent has preliminarily estimated the cost investment to be extremely high, and it remains unclear whether sufficient revenue can be generated in the short term to offset these costs.
Odaily报道, “BTC OG insider whale” Garrett Jin has released his “Weekly Market Strategy Signal.” In his analysis, he points out that the current geopolitical situation and the trajectory of the US dollar are deadlocked: despite US strikes on Iranian-related targets, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz remain unresolved. Although US Secretary of State Rubio signaled “positive news,” the peace agreement proposed by Iran has already been vetoed by the White House.Long-term US Treasury yields continue to hover in the 5.07% – 5.18% range, reaching their highest levels in 19 years. The S&P 500 index briefly hit a new high before quickly pulling back. Garrett Jin believes that a single positive or negative catalyst is insufficient to change the market landscape. Only when at least two of the three key factors—the credit environment, Federal Reserve policy, and geopolitical conditions—converge can the market experience a substantial shift.On another front, capital expenditure in the AI sector is accelerating its shift from the United States to Asia. ByteDance plans to increase its capital expenditure to as high as $70 billion this year, while Tencent and Alibaba are also ramping up their investments. Competition in the AI arena has now escalated to the level of national competition.
According to WIRED, Michael Selig, Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that the agency is leveraging artificial intelligence to investigate insider trading on prediction markets such as Polymarket. Over the past year, multiple traders on Polymarket are suspected of using non-public information to place early bets on geopolitical events—including Venezuela’s surprise military action and the Iran war—and reaped substantial profits, drawing widespread attention. Previously, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was arrested for allegedly profiting from betting on the Maduro arrest incident on Polymarket using classified intelligence—marking the first criminal insider trading case involving a prediction market in the United States.
: Galaxy Research Head of Research Alex Thorn stated that the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January. The new draft features significant adjustments in several key chapters, including:A substantial rewrite of Chapter I concerning definitions and the scope of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authority; the addition of Section 109 on insider trading; an update in Chapter II changing "common control" to "coordinated control"; a rewrite of Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundary between DeFi and CeFi; an update to Section 404 incorporating the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjustments to Section 505 narrowing the scope of SEC authority limitations in the tokenization field; and a restructuring of the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, namely the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also noted that the developer protection provisions in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, found in Section 604, remain largely intact with only minor modifications, without weakening their core protections.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT has announced a $10,000 bounty for information regarding market makers involved in LAB’s spot trading on Bitget and perpetual futures trading on Bybit, Binance, and OKX—including passport details, identity verification documents, or insider information such as contract agreements and chat logs—targeting LAB’s founder (@vsadkovv). ZachXBT stated that these actors are further damaging the industry’s reputation and must not escape accountability.
Odaily News: Garrett Jin, representative of the "BTC OG Insider Whale," published an analytical article titled "A Painted Ceasefire," warning crypto traders not to be lulled by the surface-level market trends. While the market appears stable, underlying risks are continuously building. He pointed out that following Trump’s visit to China, the window for a US-Iran military conflict could reopen at any time. This current ceasefire is merely a delay in confrontation, not the beginning of favorable developments. Market sentiment is currently highly optimistic, with Saudi Arabia and Iran reaching a cooperation memorandum, impressive earnings reports from tech companies, rising South Korean stocks, and Bitcoin approaching the $82,000-$83,000 range. However, macro-level hidden dangers are gradually emerging: a liquidity drought in large corporate transactions, airline bankruptcies, banks provisioning for potential war losses in advance, and Berkshire Hathaway’s cash reserves hitting a new all-time high. Garrett Jin predicts that late May could be a key turning point. If tech giants continue to exceed performance expectations, the risk window may be delayed until the July earnings season. (Garrettsignal)
According to Business Insider, Google is developing a new AI “personal agent” for its Gemini app, internally codenamed Remy. The product is currently undergoing internal testing among employees and integrates with multiple Google services. It is described as a 24/7 personal agent for work, learning, and daily life. The report states that Remy can do more than just answer questions or generate content—it can act on users’ behalf, proactively handle complex tasks, monitor topics users care about, and learn user preferences over time. The public release timeline remains unclear, and a Google spokesperson declined to comment.
According to Crowdfund Insider, Circle’s French subsidiary, Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS (referred to as “Circle France”), received formal authorization from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on April 20 to provide custody and transfer services for its stablecoins USDC and EURC across the entire European Economic Area (EEA). Under Article 60(4) of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), this authorization enables Circle France to operate via the “passporting mechanism,” allowing customers in all EEA member states to access these services without requiring additional local licenses. Circle is the largest compliant issuer of electronic money tokens (EMTs) under MiCA regulation in the EU. The authorized custody services cover secure storage and management of clients’ crypto assets, while the transfer functionality supports seamless asset movement. Dante Disparte, Circle’s Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy and Operations, stated that this milestone reflects Circle’s commitment to operating within Europe’s regulatory framework and supporting the development of trusted digital financial infrastructure in France and across the EU. This authorization builds upon Circle’s prior authorization as an electronic money institution in France.
Garrett Jin, agent representing the “1011 Insider Whale,” stated that Trump’s launch of the so-called “Project Freedom” is not a de-risking signal, but is more likely to act as a “fuse” for a new wave of uncertainty. Multiple factors are converging, including energy inventory pressures, enhanced regional military deployments, shifts in policy and legal environments, and tightening diplomatic pathways. Individually, these variables do not constitute definitive signals, but their concentration within the current time window may elevate market volatility risks. Overall, investors are advised to maintain a cautious and hedging mindset, paying close attention to the potential disruption of market sentiment by macroeconomic and geopolitical variables.Although the market has interpreted this move as a sign of easing tensions, driving risk assets higher, the underlying structure is more akin to a strategic framework of “limited engagement plus potential response.” The action primarily maintains shipping security through coordinated shipping lanes, insurance support, and military standby, rather than direct escort operations. This approach could, in fact, amplify reactions to specific triggering events.
Garrett Jin, the agent of “1011 Insider Whale,” authored an analysis stating that Trump’s so-called “Project Freedom” is not a signal of risk mitigation but rather a “fuse” for a new wave of uncertainty. Although the market interprets it as a de-escalation and has driven risk assets higher, its underlying structure more closely resembles a “limited engagement + potential response” strategic framework. This initiative primarily maintains maritime security through coordination of shipping lanes, insurance support, and military readiness—rather than direct naval escort—potentially amplifying market reactions once triggered by specific events. Meanwhile, multiple factors—including energy inventory pressures, heightened regional military deployments, shifts in policy and legal environments, and tightening diplomatic channels—are converging. Individually, these variables do not constitute definitive signals; however, their concentration within the current time window may elevate market volatility risk. Overall, investors are advised to maintain caution and adopt hedging strategies, closely monitoring how macroeconomic and geopolitical variables could potentially disrupt market sentiment.
Polymarket posted on X platform, saying, "Last month, we released enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading. When we discovered that a user was trading based on government classified information, we referred the matter to the Department of Justice and cooperated with their investigation. Polymarket has zero tolerance for insider trading, and today's arrest proves the system is effective."The arrest referred to by Polymarket involved a special forces soldier who participated in the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and was taken into custody by U.S. federal authorities on Thursday. The soldier is suspected of profiting over $400,000 by betting on Maduro's removal from power. Sources say federal investigators believe that the commando placed over $33,000 in bets on the prediction market Polymarket just hours before President Trump announced Maduro's capture in January.For details on the insider trading related to the Maduro capture operation on Polymarket, please see When War is Settled Before the News is Out: How Prediction Markets "Priced In" Maduro's Capture 6 Days Early