🤖 Alibaba’s Qwen Unveils Preview of Flagship AI Model

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. launched a preview version of its flagship Qwen3.8 Max model, which it described as comparable to leading frontier AI models and second only to Anthropic PBC’s Fable 5.

The Sunday release came only days after Chinese startup Moonshot AI unveiled a powerful offering. Kimi K3’s performance rivals top offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI and helped upend perceptions of China’s AI capabilities while roiling global technology stocks.

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🤑 Bitcoin’s quantum problem gets a recovery tool

A new zero-knowledge proof system from Project Eleven offers a practical way to recover bitcoin locked under BIP-361’s proposed freeze of quantum-vulnerable coins, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s holdings.

📌 BIP-361, published in April by Jameson Lopp and five co-authors, would block new deposits to vulnerable addresses after three years and freeze whatever remained after five, stranding coins in more than a third of bitcoin's supply, including the roughly 1.1 million BTC attributed to pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

⬇️Project Eleven and Jim Posen, lead developer of the Binius proof system, built a zero-knowledge proof around it.

🟠The scheme exploits the fact that quantum computers can break elliptic curve signatures but not the one-way hashing used in modern wallet key derivation, allowing only true owners with seed material to prove control.

🟠The user proves they know the key material sitting above their address in the wallet's derivation tree, that it derives the address in question, and binds the proof to a specific message, so the same proof can authorize the migration transaction. None of the key material is disclosed.

Project Eleven's runs in 910 milliseconds on the CPU alone, counting circuit construction, proof generation and self-checking, which it puts at 16 times faster. Excluding the one-time setup, which a real prover would build once and reuse, the gap widens to roughly 60 times. 🚀

❗️Benchmarks show Project Eleven’s prototype is dramatically faster than prior work, but it remains unaudited, incomplete, and would require contentious changes to blockchain rules before it could protect any live coins.

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🇮🇶🇺🇸Iraq signs 48 deals with US companies during PM’s visit to Washington

Iraq has struck dozens of agreements and partnerships with American companies, many in the oil sector, during a visit to the US by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.

“A total of 48 agreements, memoranda of understanding, cooperation agreements and partnership declarations were signed between public and private sector entities in Iraq and the United States,” — the Iraqi leader’s media office said.

They include cooperation and partnerships involving the ministries of oil and electricity with ExxonMobil, KBR, GE Vernova, Shell and Halliburton, as well as several deals related to the construction of a major crude oil pipeline between Iraq and Syria.

Iraq also signed a deal with Starlink, which dominates the global satellite communications sector, to introduce services to the country.

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🇯🇵 Amazon Japan Delivery Drivers to Be Paid in Crypto Stablecoin JPYC

AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, a major Japanese logistics services company that counts Amazon Japan as a client, will introduce the yen-denominated JPYC stablecoin for payments such as outsourcing fees to around 2,300 business partners, including individual truck drivers.

AZ-COM Maruwa is signing a business alliance with JPYC Inc. and putting up 1 billion yen (about $6.7 million) as part of the tie-up. The company confirmed that this will be the first large-scale corporate use of JPYC in Japan, giving the token its most meaningful commercial footprint since it went live under the country’s revised Payment Services Act.

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🇮🇳5paisa Capital partners with OpenAI for AI-powered investing in India

5paisa Capital Ltd, a fintech company and discount broker, has partnered with OpenAI to integrate advanced AI across the investing and trading journey.

🔜 This tie-up will enable the delivery of personalised, AI-driven advisory and decision support across the investing journey, making 5paisa Capital the first broking platform to make its services accessible within ChatGPT.

🔜 As part of the collaboration, 5paisa plans to deploy AI across its platform to help users discover opportunities, understand market developments, analyse portfolios, and make more informed decisions, it said.

"By combining 5paisa's deep understanding of investor needs with OpenAI's cutting-edge AI capabilities, we aim to create a more intuitive, personalised, and informed investing experience, while ensuring that investors remain firmly in control of their decisions," — the company's MD and CEO, Gaurav Seth, said.

As part of the next phase of the collaboration, he said, 5paisa also plans to make its services accessible within ChatGPT, enabling users to engage with investing and trading experiences through conversational AI.

As of the time of publication, OpenAI has not issued a separate official confirmation of the partnership.

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🖥 Nvidia CEO meets Japanese industry leaders to boost AI partnerships

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Tokyo’s Kanda district, where he met with senior officials from Japanese technology and advanced manufacturing companies that represent the depth of the global chip supply chain. The meeting was attended by leaders from Kioxia, specializing in flash memory; Shin-Etsu, for silicon materials; Tokyo Electron, for chipmaking equipment; and Ajinomoto, the exclusive supplier of advanced chip packaging layers.

Huang praised Japan’s chip technology and its key role in AI supply chains, affirming that the Japanese ecosystem is a cornerstone of the supply chains necessary for the advancement of AI technologies. Nvidia is relying on deepening collaboration with Japanese suppliers to upgrade supply chains, ensure their flexibility, and keep pace with global innovation in this field.

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🇨🇱🛰 Starlink activates emergency satellite service across 11 regions of Chile as winter storm knocks out mobile networks

Subtel reported 614 critical telecom sites down on Friday. Entel customers from the Atacama Region to Los Lagos can now send SMS over Starlink Direct to Cell in areas where the ground network has failed. Power outages are the main cause.

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🤖 China’s BrainCo unveils mind-to-robot platform at World AI Conference

Chinese tech unicorn BrainCo has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first integrated “brain-to-robot” platform that lets users control robots using only their thoughts, without moving a muscle. The launch of the Brain-Controlled Robot AI Platform was announced at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai.

According to BrainCo, its platform works by capturing brain signals via an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset worn by the user. AI-based algorithms then decode these neural signals to identify the user’s intentions, translating them directly into robotic actions.

The platform is compatible with a wide range of third-party hardware, including humanoid robots, robotic arms and robotic dogs. For example, a robotic arm can be directed to grasp a cup and pick up an apple based solely on brain signals.

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🇫🇷🤑 France considered Ripple and XRP for digital euro, CPA Australia report shows

Ripple and XRP were mentioned as possible foundations for Europe’s central digital currency, according to a report by CPA Australia.

📝 The document refers to Ripple’s proposal to offer a private variant of the XRP Ledger designed for use by central banks. This initiative aims to deliver a solution where digital currencies can be issued and managed with enhanced security, control, and flexibility.

The CPA Australia report notes that “France has openly discussed Ripple/XRP as a possible platform to Europe’s central digital currency,” underlining favorable features including strong trust among banking institutions.

➡️ According to CPA Australia, Ripple and XRP received support from banks due to their operation on a permissioned model, where only selected nodes validate transactions, in contrast to the decentralized and permissionless approach of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

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🤖 Jeff Bezos and UK government invest in £2bn British startup CuspAI

Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, and the UK government have invested in a £2bn British AI startup that is aiming to become the “search engine for rare materials” that accelerates the next wave of technological breakthroughs.

The Cambridge-based CuspAI has launched the AI Materials Foundry, a coalition of more than 48 tech companies, industrial firms and research facilities. The goal of this body — whose members include Nvidia Corp., Meta Platforms Inc., and Hyundai Motor Group — is to pool computing and scientific resources with the aim of building software that can help researchers develop new materials for chipmakers and other industries at a faster pace and for a lower cost than today’s methods.

“The world simply can’t make the progress it needs to with known materials, that much is clear. That’s what we’re on a mission to solve – combining frontier agentic AI with deep domain expertise, exclusive data access and close customer partnerships,” — said the CuspAI co-founders Dr Chad Edwards and Prof Max Welling.

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⚡️🌐 Google is developing a server chip designed to optimize its Gemini AI model

The semiconductor, called Frozen v2, may be deployed as soon as 2028. The chip is separate from Google’s tensor processing units, or TPUs, and would reduce the amount of data the chip has to move around, making it faster at responding to queries.

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🇧🇷 Brazil’s securities regulator sets up task force with 60-day deadline for tokenization proposal

Brazil’s securities regulator, the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM) said it created a working group to draft an experimental framework for tokenized securities. The regulator said the framework will cover the registration, custody, trading and settlement of securities using distributed ledger technology.

🔜 The group must send its first proposal to the CVM’s board within 60 days of being formally installed, while a broader review will run for 120 days, with a possible 30-day extension.

🔜 The group brings together 14 CVM departments and may consult government agencies, market associations, self-regulatory bodies and outside specialists. It will also review cybersecurity risks, international regulatory models and results from earlier sandbox programs.

❗️Brazil already applies securities law according to a token’s economic characteristics. The CVM’s 2022 guidance clarified that using blockchain does not change whether an asset qualifies as a security.

The new review will focus on what happens around the asset. 🚀

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🤑 From Network Activity to RWAs: Meet Allium Labs' New Stellar Dashboard

➡️ With the new Stellar dashboard from Allium Labs, you can track real-time data on the network, from active addresses to smart contract operations to fees. The dashboard also includes a deep dive into RWAs, where you can dig into views like RWA market cap by issuer.

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🛩 Boeing Wins First Philippine Airlines Order in Two Decades

Philippine Airlines plans to place its first order for Boeing Co. aircraft in almost two decades, with the airline agreeing to purchase as many as 20 787-10 Dreamliners. The Southeast Asian carrier announced the deal at the UK Farnborough International Airshow — one of the industry’s marquee events. The aircraft will be delivered from 2031.

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⚡️Trump announced a 50% tariff on some Canadian goods starting next month

The administration took three actions using Section 338 of Tariff Act of 1930, a law never before used to impose tariffs, but which the administration says allows it to respond to discriminatory treatment of U.S. products.

The items subject to the new tariff include milk and cream, hockey equipment and alcohol — but not major resource imports including energy, potash, fish and critical minerals. Goods covered by separate duties on industries, including autos and steel, will also be spared.

“While the Administration continues to secure fair and reciprocal trade deals with our trading partners, Canada, unlike other partners and allies, continues to retaliate against the United States for its efforts to rebalance trade and protect U.S. industry in national-security sensitive sectors,” — USTR Jamieson Greer said.

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🏦 Bank of Korea prepares for live CBDC transactions with 9 banks in September

The second phase of BOK's CBDC program is scheduled for September with real-transaction testing.

"The Bank of Korea will provide the infrastructure for the institutional CBDC, and each bank will conduct its own business using deposit tokens," a BOK official told YNA. "From the second phase, we will lay the groundwork for commercialization."

🔜 The BOK’s second phase will expand to include a total of nine participating banks, including Gyeongnam Bank and iM Bank. The country’s top three banks, KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, and Woori Financial Group, are also participating in the CBDC project.

"The goal is to create an environment where the won can be traded freely regardless of time or place," Yonhap quoted the government as saying.

The South Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance announced plans to update its seven-decade-old national asset law to classify cryptocurrencies as national assets. That announcement builds on the country’s broader push to bring blockchain into public finance.

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