Crypto-native media had a rough 2025. Monthly traffic fell by a little over 33% across the year, sliding from nearly 106 million visits in January to just under 71 million in December. At first glance, this looks like a market that ran out of steam. But maybe, we’ve just grown used to interpreting signals from […] The post More Money Moved Through Stablecoins in 2025, Even as Crypto Media Lost a Third of Its Readers appeared first on TechBullion.

Western Union has completed its acquisition of Singapore-based digital wallet Dash from Singtel after receiving all required regulatory approvals. The deal gives Western Union its first wallet in Asia Pacific and adds Dash’s Singapore platform to its global network, which spans more than 200 countries and territories. Dash, operated by Singcash, was launched in 2014 and has grown to more than 1.4 million users. The wallet allows users to pay bills, send money overseas, and access services such as savings, investments and insurance. It is available to users regardless of their telco or banking provider. Vince Tallent, Vince Tallent, Head of Asia Pacific at Western Union, said, “By combining Dash’s local innovation and trusted customer relationships with Western Union’s global network and digital platform, we are expanding how, where, and when we serve our customers. Together, we will be better positioned to meet them in the moments that matter — whether they are sending money across borders, managing everyday payments, or accessing financial services digitally — and to deliver more seamless, convenient, and reliable experiences that truly support their needs.” Gilbert Chuah Gilbert Chuah, Head, Financial & lifestyle Services, International Digital Services, Singtel, said, “Dash has been an important part of Singtel’s digital journey, and we are proud to have built a trusted and inclusive mobile wallet in Singapore. As it enters its next phase with Western Union, we are confident that its strong local foundation, combined with Western Union’s global scale, will unlock greater value for customers.”     Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by Western Union The post Western Union Completes Dash Acquisition, Marking First Wallet Deal in APAC appeared first on Fintech Singapore.

For financial institutions, growth involves deepening relationships with existing customers. At a time when switching financial institutions comes at a low cost and fintechs offer many of the same benefits as traditional banks, customer engagement and financial wellness have become strategic priorities. For traditional financial institutions whose offerings can seem static, providing personalized experiences that help customers save smarter, build better financial habits, and feel more in control of their financial lives can help retain and win over clients. The banks that succeed will be those that can embed themselves into customers’ day-to-day financial decisions. At FinovateSpring 2026, five companies are focused on helping banks do exactly that. From savings and financial wellness tools to engagement platforms and next-generation consumer experiences, these solutions are designed to drive loyalty, increase product adoption, and deliver measurable value to both customers and institutions. Plinqit Business HYS by Plinqit helps banks compete for deposits while giving small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) more effective ways to manage their cash. The platform is designed to drive deposit growth by offering high-yield savings experiences tailored to business customers, an area where many traditional banks have struggled to differentiate. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan and founded in 2015, Plinqit enables financial institutions to attract and retain SMB deposits without overhauling their existing infrastructure which ultimately helps level the playing field to compete against larger competitors and digital-first challengers. Goodfin Goodfin is expanding access to alternative investments by opening institutional-grade opportunities to a broader range of investors. Its platform is designed to help financial institutions and fintechs offer differentiated wealth-building tools such as private equity, venture capital, and pre-IPO deals that go beyond traditional stocks and bonds. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, Goodfin enables banks to meet growing customer demand for access to alternative assets, while positioning themselves as gateways to more sophisticated investment opportunities. Level Level helps auto lenders reduce losses by identifying and recovering missed value in total loss insurance claims. Its AI-powered claims management platform centralizes workflows into a single portal, enabling lenders to detect undervalued claims and dispute them at scale. Backed by licensed claims experts, Level combines automation with human oversight to increase recoveries, reduce deficiency balances, and accelerate time to payment. Headquartered in New York and founded in 2023, the company offers banks, credit unions, and lenders a way to improve operational efficiency while directly impacting the bottom line. BankUniverse BankUniverse delivers a privacy-first intent engine that helps financial institutions identify and convert high-value prospects without relying on sensitive personal data. By analyzing user intent signals rather than personal identifiers, the platform enables banks to drive digital sales while maintaining strong data privacy standards. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Greece, BankUniverse helps institutions increase conversion rates while navigating growing regulatory and consumer expectations around data protection. Bluum Finance Bluum Finance provides a unified platform for embedded investing, combining brokerage, custody, and reporting into a single API. Its infrastructure allows financial institutions and fintechs to launch fully compliant investment offerings quickly, without the complexity and cost typically associated with building these capabilities in-house. Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Bluum enhances its offering with AI-powered advisory tools that deliver personalized investment experiences. The platform is built for a wide range of providers looking to bring investing into their existing customer journeys. Why banks should care Financial wellness and engagement are quickly becoming primary drivers of growth instead of nice-to-have features. Banks are under pressure to increase deposits, deepen relationships, and create new revenue streams while competing with fintechs that are often more agile and user-focused. Platforms that help customers save more effectively, access new investment opportunities, or receive more personalized financial guidance can translate directly into higher balances, stronger loyalty, and increased product usage. At the same time, these tools enable banks to expand their role in customers’ financial lives without significantly increasing operational complexity. Whether it’s embedding investing capabilities, improving digital acquisition, or unlocking overlooked sources of value in existing portfolios, financial wellness platforms offer a practical way for institutions to drive both customer outcomes and business performance. Photo by www.kaboompics.com The post Five Companies Powering Financial Wellness and Consumer Engagement appeared first on Finovate.       

eToro has opened crypto trading to residents of New York, allowing users to buy and sell digital assets alongside stocks, ETFs, and options on its platform. The move expands the company’s crypto services to 48 U.S. states and follows approval from New York financial regulators.Regulatory Milestone AchievedThe company secured both the New York State BitLicense and Money Transmitter License after years of engagement with state authorities. These are among the most stringent licenses in the country and permit eToro to operate fully within the state’s complex regulatory framework.“New York is the epicenter of financial markets and a hub of innovation,” said Andrew McCormick, Head of eToro U.S. “Completing our U.S. footprint here reflects our commitment to broadening responsible access to the next generation of financial markets.”Expanding Access to Digital AssetsWith the latest approval, eToro can now offer crypto trading to more than nine million New Yorkers. The platform provides a single interface for multiple asset classes, supported by educational tools and a social investing community.According to eToro’s internal survey, 36% of U.S. retail investors already hold crypto, and another 17% plan to increase their exposure, underscoring rising participation in digital markets. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

As France  and Germany push digital sovereignty up the policy agenda, a more practical question is emerging: who actually owns the data driving Europe’s AI systems?  As models become increasingly commoditised, competitive advantage is shifting to the data layer, thereby raising the stakes around who owns and controls it. In an AI-driven economy, proprietary data — not models — creates an opportunity for competitive advantage.   Analytics startup Countly is a product analytics and customer engagement platform built on an open-source, self-hosted foundation.   The company helps organisations reduce reliance on third-party platforms by enabling them to capture, analyse, and act on their own user data—while maintaining full control over it. It operates on the belief that data privacy and actionable insights are fundamentally interconnected. I spoke to Onur Alp Soner, CEO and co-founder of Countly, to learn more.  The business opportunity Embedding data sovereignty into a company’s commercial strategy can strengthen product differentiation, build regulatory trust, and unlock new partnership opportunities, particularly in sectors where data control is critical, such as healthcare, finance, and public services. Countly’s platform is built on an open-source, self-hosted foundation that helps companies collect and process operational and usage data from their software products, essentially enabling them to understand how users interact with apps and services and improve those experiences.  Soner sees his company as an early mover. Founded in 2013, Countly was built around self-hosted analytics long before data sovereignty became a defining issue in Europe.  According to Soner: “Basically, our main focus is data control and data ownership. We want companies to have complete control over the data they collect — that’s why we’ve existed since day one.” He contends that the conversation has simply evolved in waves. When he founded Countly, he started from a simple idea: if you don’t control your data, you don’t control your systems.  From GDPR to AI: how the data ownership debate evolved Long before AI regulation entered the conversation, Soner was already working with European organisations in finance, telecoms, healthcare, and the public sector that needed to know precisely where their behavioural data lives, who can access it, and how it’s used. “Right now, the spotlight is on AI. Before that, it was GDPR. Even when we started, the issue was that products in the market were collecting your data and giving you free analytics in exchange for using that data for their advertising business. I’m not just talking about Google — there were other competitors too. One of the most prominent was Flurry. That model was fundamental at the time. What’s changed is that different events — whether regulation or growing concerns about US companies using your data — have brought more attention to the importance of ownership. So we started Countly with the idea that businesses should control their own data. We didn’t want a third party using that data for purposes the business doesn’t even know about.” AI is making data ownership economically viable There’s been a long-standing idea that people or companies should own and monetise their data by extracting economic value from data assets, but that model never fully materialised in earlier innovation waves like IoT and website browsing (Gener8 is an interesting outlier).   But AI is now changing the equation, with the data that fuels machine learning systems, as a highly valuable company asset, whether directly (selling data) or indirectly (using data to generate revenue).  However, for Soner, that positioning around data ownership hasn’t always been straightforward. Of the big themes — data monetisation, regulation, and AI — he believes AI is the most promising for helping businesses understand the importance of the data layer and data control. “Before that, it was really hard to market concepts like privacy, data ownership, and data control. It always ended up being framed as a regulation issue. But it’s not just about regulation. Your data is the only truly unique thing about your business.” “Your data is your only moat”: the challenge for startups. However, the challenge is that large players give away so much for free. How do you compete with that? Soner admits that for large companies, it might be easier, but for startups, it’s very difficult to say: ‘We won’t use all these free tools — we’ll stick to our principles.’ That’s a hard stance to maintain.” AI doesn’t create value in isolation. Rather, it amplifies the quality of the data it is trained on. Without control over that data, companies risk outsourcing their long-term competitive advantage. The missing layer in Europe’s AI debate So what are we talking about when we talk about a sovereign data layer? At the heart of Soner’s argument is a simple framework where the AI ecosystem exists as three layers: First, compute: GPUs, infrastructure, and physical machines. Second, models: LLMs like OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral. Third, the data layer. “The first two layers get most of the attention. But the data layer is just as important and arguably more so — and it’s not being discussed enough.” He contends that conversations with large companies, this often becomes a regulation issue:  “Because of GDPR, we can’t do this.” But the real question is — why are you sending that data to external tools in the first place? This is operational data that feeds your AI models. It’s what makes AI valuable. AI amplifies whatever you already have — or don’t have — as a business. But because everyone is afraid of missing out on AI, they focus on the exciting parts and ignore the “boring” ones: data control, data cleaning, and organisation-wide tracking strategies. Those are actually the critical conversations.” Making sovereignty sell: from regulation to user value So how do you incentivise companies to prioritise data ownership while still staying competitive? Soner points to Apple as a rare example of successfully turning privacy into a product feature. “They communicate clearly: your data stays on your device. That’s the right approach. It’s not about saying, “We’re a German company, we follow strict regulations.” Customers don’t care about that. They care about what’s in it for them.” So you need to translate data sovereignty into tangible user benefits: “This is how we protect your data. This is how we keep it in our infrastructure. And you still get great functionality.” That’s a much more understandable story.” Europe wants control but runs on foreign tech But can a European company really claim digital sovereignty if it relies on US infrastructure, analytics, or models? Soner admits that even Countly, which is building infrastructure for this purpose, still relies on technologies from US or Chinese companies.  This creates a paradox. He admits: “There’s no way around it. Take databases — almost all major ones are US-based. So the question isn’t whether you use external technology—it’s how you use it. It’s about layering.” Rather than full independence, data sovereignty becomes a deliberate architectural strategy, deciding what stays in-house and what can be outsourced. For example, you can control your data flows, decide what leaves your system and build proprietary datasets. He suggests that while you can use tools like Google Analytics, you should be mindful of what data you are sending and why.  “Maybe you intentionally only use such a tool for high-level metrics, while keeping detailed user data in your own infrastructure. Because data is where long-term competitive advantage comes from. Companies like Instagram, Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb are all data businesses. If you blindly use tools without thinking about your data flows, you lose that advantage.” Make data ownership part of your company culture Soner suggests that even for small companies, if you build data ownership into your story early, it becomes part of your culture. “At Countly, every decision goes through that lens of data ownership. You can’t just say, “Let’s use this SaaS tool” or “Let’s plug in this AI." There’s always a level of mindfulness. That becomes part of how the organisation grows.” Europe can build, but can it keep its companies? Europe’s challenge is not building companies, but keeping them. Looking ahead, I wanted to understand what a truly sovereign European digital infrastructure would look like. Soner explained that in the first instance, Europe needs strong infrastructure: data centres, electricity, and networking. "Everything else depends on that." However, this can not be considered in isolation from European talent.  He asserts that while Europe is already building strong companies, the migration of companies to the US for capital and a broader ecosystem is a bigger issue, admitting, “We almost did the same ourselves." "So the key question becomes: how do you make it attractive for founders to stay? That comes down to funding, incentives, and ecosystem support. If Europe can strengthen that, it can retain talent and companies—and that’s probably the most strategic investment it can make right now.” Stop benchmarking the US and China and start building leverage In terms of competitiveness, Soner asserts that we’re focusing on the wrong thing and that, while the debate often becomes "the US is ahead, China is ahead," the real race right now is about AGI and who gets there first. “Still, that doesn’t mean Europe should wait. We can’t wait for others to define the future,” he says. “We need to build our own systems, support our own companies, and retain our talent. If we do that, it’s perfectly fine to use global technologies—but on our own terms. Control of the data layer — not just the models — will define who captures value in AI.” The real opportunity for Europe lies not in competing on models, but in owning the data layer that underpins them.

OpenAI has closed its latest funding round with US$122 billion in committed capital, valuing the company at US$852 billion post money. The round was anchored by strategic partners Amazon, NVIDIA, and SoftBank, with continued participation from Microsoft, alongside a diverse group of global institutional investors. For the first time, OpenAI also raised over US$3 billion from individual investors via bank channels. The company recently launched GPT‑5.4, its most capable model to date, and expanded Codex into a flagship coding agent. ChatGPT now reaches more than 900 million weekly active users, with over 50 million subscribers. Enterprise accounts for over 40% of revenue and is on track to reach parity with consumer by the end of 2026. API usage processes more than 15 billion tokens per minute, while Codex serves over 2 million weekly users. Compute remains central to OpenAI’s strategy. The company runs its infrastructure across multiple cloud and chip platforms, including NVIDIA GPUs, AMD, AWS Trainium, Cerebras, and its own chip in partnership with Broadcom. More compute enables more intelligent models, which drive better products, faster adoption, and higher revenue. OpenAI is also building a unified AI superapp, combining ChatGPT, Codex, browsing, and agentic capabilities in a single platform. Users are increasingly seeking a single system that can understand intent, take action, and operate across applications, data, and workflows. The funding provides OpenAI with resources to continue investing in research, infrastructure, and product development at global scale.     Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by thanyakij-12 via Freepik The post OpenAI Secures US$122B to Scale AI Infrastructure, Products, and Enterprise Services appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH.

Collaboration aims to enhance LSEG’s cloud capabilities for financial services. Highlights: LSEG partners with Dell to create a private cloud platform. New platform aimed at enhancing financial services infrastructure. Collaboration supports LSEG’s digital transformation goals. London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has announced a partnership with Dell to develop a private cloud platform. This initiative is designed to improve LSEG’s cloud services, enabling more efficient and flexible solutions for its financial services. The collaboration is part of LSEG’s ongoing digital transformation efforts, which include leveraging cloud technology to enhance operational capabilities. The new cloud platform is expected to streamline infrastructure and provide better services to LSEG’s clients.

A lawsuit filed in Northern California alleges that Google's AI features generated contact information for Epstein victims.

MLB is only the latest in a string of recently announced partnerships involving the prediction market.