• 38% of finance professionals who personally hold crypto view it as a growth opportunity with strong upside potential
• 96% of professional investors are optimistic about crypto’s future as an asset, vs just 39% of beginner investors
• 25% of finance professionals describe crypto primarily as a high-risk asset — falling to just 1 in 10 among those who personally invest
• 8% of respondents cite payments utility as a reason to hold crypto, yet wider merchant acceptance and regulatory integration are seen as critical drivers of future adoption
• 42% of finance professionals cite regulatory uncertainty as their primary barrier to greater institutional involvement

Sandmark has today published the first edition of its Crypto Intelligence Report, uncovering how credible and reliable intelligence are building real conviction among finance professionals and investors.

The study captured the attitudes and behaviours of over 5,000 finance professionals and crypto investors across Australia, Brazil, India, Singapore, South Korea, UAE, UK and the US. Conducted in partnership with the global consumer audience insights platform GWI, the report fills a significant gap in existing market research by focusing specifically on the financially literate crypto investors: those working within and alongside the financial industry.

“Most crypto research focuses on retail sentiment. We wanted to understand how finance professionals – people who work with risk and capital every day – actually perceive and engage with crypto. What we found challenges a number of assumptions,” said Michelle Fotopoulou, Chief Marketing Officer at Sandmark.

Experience contextualizes risk

Just one in ten finance professionals who own crypto perceive it as high risk, compared to 25% of the wider professional finance community. Optimism and confidence rise in line with active participation, peaking among institutional investors and long-term holders. Beginners remain the least certain. The data consistently shows that hands-on experience, supported by reliable market intelligence, is what builds genuine conviction.

Regulation is recruitment

Regulatory uncertainty remains the primary barrier to broader institutional participation, alongside volatility and governance concerns. Yet across all respondent groups, crypto is viewed as a long-term strategic asset with strong upside potential, rather than a short-term trade. As regulatory clarity improves, the market’s next growth phase is widely expected to be led by institutions.

Michelle said: “Strong regulation acts as a catalyst for engagement. As jurisdictions put protections in place, activity accelerates, with greater confidence unlocking broader adoption.”

Public figures: formative but divisive

High-profile individuals continue to play an outsized role in shaping sentiment, often in conflicting ways. Among a pre-defined shortlist of public figures, Elon Musk drives the strongest positive sentiment (51%), while Donald Trump generates the most negative (38%), despite also ranking as the second most cited positive influence (17%). Among crypto holders who identify Musk as their strongest positive influence, 77% report high optimism toward crypto’s future as an asset. The study reflects how public figures are capable of simultaneously amplifying enthusiasm and undermining trust.

An evolving but maturing market

Michelle concluded, “It’s fascinating to see the evolution of sentiment in the crypto market, particularly in the case of institutions and finance professionals. While social media drives discovery, real market data is in higher demand. Investors need consistent, actionable market intelligence to understand the evolving crypto ecosystem.”

About Sandmark

Established in 2025 by a Switzerland-based entrepreneur, Sandmark operates internationally with editorial hubs in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America. Sandmark is led worldwide by traditional and new financial media professionals who have decades of experience covering a range of markets from banking to commodities, and FX trading to equities research.

The Sandmark Team is comprised of 20+ global employees – including journalists, researchers and data analysts – that are united in the mission to deliver clear, credible, and context-rich reporting.

The wealth and trust industry is at an inflection point. Rising client expectations, growing regulatory complexity, and increasing operational demands are pushing banks, wealth management firms, and trust organizations to seek smarter, more efficient ways to operate. For firms that manage sensitive financial data and high-stakes client relationships, the pressure to modernize, without sacrificing security or governance, has never been greater.

Fi-Tek LLC, a leading provider of technology solutions for the wealth and trust industry, is answering that call. The company has announced the full production rollout of its artificial intelligence strategy – a purpose-built initiative designed to enhance operational efficiency, strengthen decision-making, and streamline workflows across the wealth administration lifecycle.

At the heart of this initiative is GWiz, Fi-Tek’s AI ecosystem built to extend and enhance its Global Wealth Enterprise Suite (GWES). GWiz brings intelligent, enterprise-grade AI directly into the day-to-day operations of wealth and trust professionals – enabling natural language access to institutional knowledge, AI-powered document intelligence for trust administration, and automation of complex back, middle, and front office processes.

Critically, Fi-Tek’s AI capabilities are hosted entirely within a secure AWS cloud environment, ensuring sensitive client data is never exposed to public large language models. With strict authentication protocols, IP whitelisting, and rigorous governance controls, firms can harness the power of AI while maintaining full regulatory compliance.

Fi-Tek has already identified more than 40 AI-driven use cases across the wealth administration lifecycle, with several now live in production. A dedicated internal AI team, comprising AI engineers and cloud technology specialists, continues to expand the GWiz ecosystem, with an agentic integration layer on the horizon to connect third-party tools and consolidate workflows across systems.

In the words of Suvo Chatterjee, VP Product and Technology, “Our goal is to deliver AI capabilities that empower wealth and trust professionals – not replace them. By combining industry expertise with modern AI technologies, we are helping firms operate more efficiently while continuing to deliver the high-touch service their clients rely on.”

www.Fi-Tek.com

Financing included participation from Senior Financial Executives and Institutional Investors to Support Expansion of Digital Trading, Distribution, and Settlement Systems

Ironlight Group, Inc. (“Ironlight”), a financial technology company developing infrastructure for tokenized securities, today announced the close of its $21 million Series A financing.

The round was backed by senior Wall Street and financial services executives, including Greg Braca, former President and CEO of TD Bank, alongside institutional investors such as Sei Development Foundation and Laidlaw Private Equity.

Proceeds will be used to scale Ironlight Markets’ ATS which integrates issuance, distribution, and trading, and Ironlight Technologies which provides the platform and settlement options for tokenized securities. Ironlight Markets’ ATS is operated pursuant to SEC Regulation ATS and FINRA oversight.

“Ironlight Group was built to modernize core market systems in a way institutions can adopt,” said Rob McGrath, CEO of Ironlight Group Inc. “This financing accelerates the build-out of a marketplace that unifies core capital markets functions within the U.S. regulatory framework.”

Ironlight’s ecosystem supports tokenized securities across private equity, structured products, fixed income, private credit, and real estate. By combining traditional market structure with blockchain-native, atomic settlement, the platform enables more efficient post-trade workflows for institutions and wealth advisors.

“The question is no longer whether assets can be tokenized; it’s whether institutions can trade them safely. We believe Ironlight Group is building the missing layer of infrastructure to support institutional participation in tokenized securities markets.” said Hugh Regan, Managing Member, Investment Banking & Alternative Investments at Laidlaw Private Equity.

Following the recent appointment of Greg Braca as Executive Chairman, Ironlight Group is advancing development of its marketplace as tokenized securities gain traction across private markets and alternative assets.

About Ironlight Group

Ironlight Group Inc. is an Austin–based financial technology company developing infrastructure for global tokenized securities markets. Its subsidiary, Ironlight Markets, LLC (CRD 330576) is a registered broker-dealer and FINRA member that conducts M&A advisory, private placements, and operates an Alternative Trading System for digital and traditional securities.

Squarespace, the design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build, grow, and run their businesses online, today announced the launch of Squarespace Balance. The new financial account is designed to help merchants manage business finances and earn rewards within the Squarespace platform.

Integrated directly with Squarespace Payments, Balance allows merchants to access funds within hours, earn cash rewards on balances held, and spend easily with a business Visa Card. By keeping earnings, spending, and cash flow management in the same place as the rest of their business, Balance simplifies financial oversight and reduces operational complexity. Designed specifically for small businesses, Balance makes the day-to-day of running a business easier, more efficient, and more cost-effective.

“Squarespace Balance rounds out our suite of financial tools by offering a native financial account that helps merchants manage their business finances and earn rewards, all in one place,” said Dan Chandre, SVP, Commercial at Squarespace. “It reflects our belief that financial services should feel like a natural extension of running a business, not another system entrepreneurs have to manage.”

Since launching Squarespace Payments in 2023, Squarespace has continued to expand its financial ecosystem to better support entrepreneurs globally. In 2025, the company introduced Squarespace Capital3 to offer fast, flexible financing to eligible merchants. Additional tools such as Pay Links extend selling flexibility by allowing merchants to create and accept payments instantly through shareable links and QR codes, while features like Tap to Pay allow users to sell in-person without additional hardware.

Squarespace Balance is available to new users in the United States at no additional cost and with no additional fees. Availability will expand to existing users in the coming months. 

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a design-driven platform that gives entrepreneurs the tools to establish a powerful online presence on their own terms. For over 20 years, we’ve helped millions across more than 200 countries and territories build, grow, and run their businesses online. Our integrated, AI-powered suite of products includes websites, domains, ecommerce, payments, marketing tools, and appointment scheduling through Acuity. Every product is built with the same belief — that how you show up online matters. For more information, visit www.squarespace.com.

Company unveils new Agentic AI capabilities in Invoice Lifecycle Management Platform, paving way to autonomous AP

The future of finance is intelligent, and Basware, the global leader in Invoice Lifecycle Management is delivering it today. The pioneer and leader in accounts payable unveiled new AI agents in its market-leading Invoice Lifecycle Management Platform that unleash the power of Agentic AI to transform invoice processing and make autonomous accounts payable a reality.

“The immediate future of finance involves near-perfect, touchless invoice processing,” said Jason Kurtz, CEO, Basware. “The future involves Agentic Finance, where AI entities transact on behalf of the enterprise to drive faster, smarter decisions and real business outcomes. This is the future we are creating at Basware and preparing our customers for today. We are on a journey to get our customers to 100% automated, 100% compliant, and 100% protected invoice processing.”

The Dawn of Agentic Finance

And the time has never been better. Pressure is mounting on finance to figure out how to use AI to drive efficiencies and savings across the business and deliver ROI. According to a global survey conducted by FT Longitude on behalf of Basware, 61% of 200 finance leaders across the US, UK, France and Germany polled say their organizations have rolled out AI agents largely as an experiment, simply to see what the technology could do. And one in four admit they still don’t fully understand what an AI agent looks like in practice. But the time for experimenting with AI is done. The C-Suite wants results.

With Basware, finance leaders can leverage an intelligent platform embedded with AI to drive a modern process for managing the invoice process from end-end that delivers immediate ROI and long-term efficiency and growth. And they can do it today.

From Automation to Autonomy

In November, Basware launched InvoiceAI, an advanced solution delivered on its Invoice Lifecycle Management Platform that leverages generative AI, AI agents, natural language processing and deep learning to enhance the invoicing process from ingestion to reconciliation, and introduced two new AI agents. Designed to supercharge the skills of AP teams, the agents don’t replace humans. Instead, they act as digital teammates, supporting execution of key tasks so that their human peers can focus on strategic activities:

• AP Business Agent – Offers contextual, real-time guidance on actions and next best steps to take when handling invoices to streamline and remove friction from the process.
• AP Data Agent – Allows users to query invoice data using natural language questions such as “Show me all invoices awaiting approval in Germany,” or “Which suppliers gave us early payment discounts this month?,” and delivers instant answers to drive optimal actions.

“When AI agents handle the repetitive questions to business users, AP teams are freed up to ask strategic questions that lead to real impact,” said Kurtz. “That’s how you move from processing transactions to driving strategy.”

Trusted by Design

It sounds great in theory, but finance teams will only delegate work to AI if they feel that they stay in control of what AI is allowed to do, that every AI action is auditable and explainable, and that there is a single, governed execution path for AI/agent actions, not lots of disconnected bots.

Recognizing this, Basware’s approach to Agentic AI is built on trust by design. “Autonomy without trust is just risk,” Kurtz said. “Our platform is uniquely designed to ensure that every AI decision is explainable, auditable, and governed through the same controls finance teams already rely on. That’s how we help our customers safely delegate more to AI while staying 100% compliant and 100% protected.”

With Basware, every AI agent action flows through a single, governed execution path within the Invoice Lifecycle Management Platform, enforced by a central policy engine and a series of autonomy gates. These gates apply each customer’s business rules, compliance requirements, and risk thresholds before any action is taken. The result is that AI can take on more of the work, while finance teams retain full visibility, control, and a complete audit trail for every autonomous decision.

And more AI innovation from Basware is on the way, with future agents that will go beyond surfacing insights and help prioritize actions, automate resolutions, and connect the dots across systems to support faster, smarter decision-making at scale. Among the agents planned for release:

• Supplier Agent – Will support managing invoice disputes and payments queries. Agent will automatically call supplier and explain dispute, summarize call and next steps, and thereby achieve quicker resolutions.
• AP Pro Agent – Will use generative AI to help AP clerks solve processing questions in real time through simple, natural-language queries, reducing delays and manual effort.

Billerud, which creates paper and packaging materials, was an early adopter of Basware’s InvoiceAI and is already seeing the benefits the solution can deliver.

“Since day one, we’ve perceived the desired values from the project,” commented Jesper Persson, Business Developer at Billerud. “The quality of invoices has improved considerably, and the AI continues to evolve and improve with each passing day. The efficiency gains we achieved translated directly into tangible cost savings, paving the way for a rapid return on investment within just a few months,” he said.

Crossing the AI-Delegation Chasm

Basware will continue to invest in AI innovation across its Invoice Lifecycle Management platform and deliver new capabilities that leverage the latest advancements to help its customers cross the AI delegation chasm and unlock the real value of the technology for their business. The capabilities will be rolled out throughout 2026.

“At Basware, AI is not a buzzword or a bonus feature. It is an integral part of our business, and we will continue to apply and use it intelligently, securely, and ethically to enable our customers to drive cost efficiencies, enhance operations and sharpen their competitive edge,” Kurtz said.

About Basware

Basware is how finance leaders in global enterprises can finally automate their complex, labor-intensive invoice processes and stay compliant with regulatory change. Our AP automation and invoicing platform helps you achieve a new level of efficiency – in a matter of months – while reducing errors and risks. We bring a unique combination of true automation, complete coverage, and deeper expertise to make it all just happen for our customers. That’s why the world’s most efficient AP departments at thousands of companies rely on Basware to handle over 170 million invoices per year. Basware. Now it all just happens.

QuickFund AI (Powered by TruTrade), a proprietary trading capital platform focused on structured trader evaluation and disciplined capital allocation, today announced the continued expansion of its funding framework designed to provide independent traders with access to structured trading capital.

As global markets experience heightened volatility and rapid directional shifts, demand for disciplined capital access models has increased. QuickFund AI’s approach centers on clearly defined risk parameters, structured evaluation standards, and systematic oversight intended to promote responsible participation in modern financial markets.

Rather than offering unrestricted capital access, QuickFund AI utilizes a rules-based evaluation process designed to assess consistency, risk management discipline, and adherence to defined trading parameters. The company states that its model prioritizes structured performance metrics and governance standards to ensure capital allocation aligns with clearly established guidelines.

“Our objective is to expand access to capital through structure, not speculation,” said a QuickFund AI spokesperson. “Independent traders often lack institutional-level infrastructure and oversight. By implementing clearly defined evaluation criteria and disciplined risk controls, we aim to create a framework that supports responsible capital deployment in volatile environments.”

QuickFund AI ‘s funding structure emphasizes transparency, clearly communicated rules, and systematic risk controls. The platform highlights capital efficiency, drawdown management, and adherence to defined trading limits, aligning trader incentives with long-term sustainability rather than short-term outcomes.

According to the company, demand for structured capital solutions continues to grow as more independent traders seek disciplined pathways to funding. QuickFund AI maintains its focus on refining evaluation systems and operational controls to promote consistency and oversight.

By focusing on discipline and clearly defined capital parameters, QuickFund AI aims to contribute to the evolving landscape of proprietary trading models designed for modern market conditions.

To learn more about QuickFund’s structured capital evaluation framework and how independent traders can apply for funding, visit www.quickfund.ai

About QuickFund AI

QuickFund AI (Powered by TruTrade) is a proprietary funding platform that empowers traders with institutional-grade capital. Through TruTrade’s AI ecosystem, QuickFund AI enables users to scale their trading capabilities, manage risk with greater precision, and access funded accounts built for consistent, professional-level results.

In today’s trading environment, access to capital has become one of the most decisive factors separating consistent traders from those who remain stuck at the retail level. While trading strategy, discipline, and risk management are essential, even highly skilled traders face real limitations when operating under capital constraints. Platforms such as QuickFund AI (powered by TruTrade) reflect this shift toward more structured capital access models for qualified traders. This evolution has fundamentally changed how professional traders think about scalability, consistency, and long-term performance.

According to Danny Rebello , CEO and Co-Founder of TruTrade, many traders underestimate how deeply capital availability impacts execution quality. “Strategy matters,” Rebello explains, “but capital determines how effectively that strategy can actually be deployed. Limited capital forces traders into over-leveraging, under-diversifying, or missing high-probability opportunities altogether.”

Capital Constraints Are the Silent Performance Killer

Retail traders often place unrealistic pressure on a single trading account to perform. This creates emotional decision-making, poor risk distribution, and inconsistent results, even when the underlying strategy is sound. By contrast, professional and institutional traders rarely rely on one account, one setup, or one position size.

This is the gap QuickFund AI was built to address.

QuickFund AI enables qualified traders to access funded trading capital without requiring them to risk substantial personal funds. Rather than trying to maximize returns from a single account, traders can operate across multiple accounts, diversify execution, and normalize performance over time—similar to institutional trading models.

How Funded Capital Supports Consistent Execution

Brian Nutt , COO and Co-Founder of TruTrade, notes that capital limitations are often the hidden reason traders abandon otherwise effective systems. “When traders don’t have sufficient capital, they’re forced to trade smaller than their strategy requires or take excessive risk to compensate. Both scenarios undermine long-term consistency.”

By removing survival pressure, funded capital allows traders to:

• Maintain predefined risk parameters
• Manage drawdowns responsibly
• Execute multiple strategies simultaneously
• Stay disciplined across changing market conditions

It’s important to note that QuickFund AI is not an investment product. It does not manage funds, provide trading advice, or guarantee outcomes. Instead, it provides a capital access framework designed to support disciplined, self-directed trading.

As markets continue to evolve, the ability to operate with sufficient capital will remain a defining competitive advantage. For traders looking to transition from constrained retail execution to a more professional trading model, capital access may matter more than any single trading strategy.

About QuickFund AI

QuickFund AI (Powered by TruTrade) is a funding facilitation service for qualified traders using TruTrade-compatible software, providing access to funded trading accounts while maintaining strict compliance boundaries. For more information, visit https://quickfund.ai

The DDC Group Transforms the Customer Experience Through DDC Evora Platform

The DDC Group, an AI-first operations partner, today announces the launch of the new DDC Evora agentic AI platform. This new offering introduces a new class of intelligent automation to the market, designed to transform customer engagement and operational efficiency for enterprises globally.

The platform is built to autonomously handle complex customer interactions with human-like empathy and reasoning. Its inaugural solutions include DDC Evora Voice and DDC Evora Sentiment.

The DDC Evora Voice transforms traditional contact centres into intelligent, outcome-driven engagement hubs—where every conversation is natural, contextual, and human-like. It listens, understands, and acts in real-time to deliver faster resolutions, higher satisfaction, and measurable business impact.

The DDC Evora Sentiment combines acoustic intelligence—tone, pitch, and stress—with linguistic sentiment and intent detection to reveal the emotional and contextual truth inside every interaction. It enables sharper decisions and more empathetic customer conversations by helping businesses listen, interpret, and act in real-time.

“This technology transforms the business landscape by moving beyond scripted bots to deploy truly agentic systems,” said Nimesh Akhauri, CEO of The DDC Group. “These predictive intelligent agents can understand complex intent, reason through context, and perform real actions. This creates a collaborative environment where automation, AI, and human expertise work in tandem for optimal results in a single operational system.”

The platform also provides powerful analytics and agent-assist features, offering live insights that drive performance coaching and improve the overall customer experience. By combining these functionalities, the platform delivers a consistent and contextual experience across all voice and digital channels.

About The DDC Group:

The DDC Group is an AI-first operations partner, redefining operations for the digital era, serving clients in the shipping and logistics, energy and utilities, retail and e-commerce, automotive, banking and finance, healthcare, and insurance industries. The DDC Group runs complex and high-stakes operations using intelligent automation, disciplined execution, and end-to-end accountability to deliver real-world impact at scale. Most providers promise efficiency. We promise results. To learn more about The DDC Group, visit theddcgroup.com.

EWR Digital, a Houston-based digital advisory firm, announced the formal positioning of Digital Information Governance as a core advisory discipline designed to help public and high-stakes companies control how they are interpreted across search engines and AI systems.

As generative AI platforms increasingly shape investor perception, customer understanding, and market narratives, EWR Digital is reframing traditional SEO and visibility work as a governance and risk-reduction function, rather than a marketing tactic.

“Companies no longer just publish information — they are interpreted by machines,” said Matthew Bertram, CEO of EWR Digital. “When public information is fragmented or inconsistent, AI systems fill in the gaps. Digital Information Governance exists to prevent that.”

From Optimization to Governance

Digital Information Governance focuses on ensuring that a company’s public-facing digital information is accurate, consistent, and defensible across websites, search engines, and large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.

Rather than prioritizing traffic or rankings, the discipline emphasizes:

• A single, authoritative digital source of truth
• Entity and metadata consistency across platforms
• Alignment with approved disclosures and internal records
• Reduced information asymmetry for investors and stakeholders
• Lower reputational and valuation risk in AI-mediated environments

“SEO still plays a role,” Bertram added, “but it is a downstream execution layer. Governance comes first.”

Designed for CFO, IR, and Legal Leadership

EWR Digital’s Digital Information Governance work is typically engaged by CFOs, Investor Relations leaders, and Legal teams responsible for managing information risk, market clarity, and regulatory exposure.

The firm’s approach is already being adopted by organizations operating in regulated and high-visibility environments, including public companies, portfolio companies, and enterprises preparing for capital events.

The Digital Source of Truth

At the center of EWR Digital’s governance work is its Digital Source of Truth, a system that establishes one canonical, machine-readable record of an organization’s identity and narrative across the public web and AI systems.

This system is designed to reduce conflicting interpretations, prevent brand dilution, and ensure that AI-generated summaries consistently reference authoritative sources.

About EWR Digital

EWR Digital is a digital information governance and AI-visibility advisory firm based in Houston, Texas. The firm works with public and high-stakes organizations to reduce information risk, protect brand equity, and govern how markets, search engines, and AI systems understand their business.

For more information, visit:
https://www.ewrdigital.com/digital-information-governance

CIMG Inc. (“CIMG” or the “Company”), a business group specializing in digital health and sales development, which utilizes technology and marketing to enhance its business partners’ sales growth and commercial value, today announced that its tokenized stock, which it previously announced was authorized for issuance on the FlowStocks platform, has completed testing and has be officially launched for public trading on November 28.

The trading symbol for CIMG stock on FlowStocks is tIMG.

Starting November 28, 2025, CIMG shareholders will be able to tokenize their shares on FlowStocks, while the public can also purchase and transfer tIMG by depositing funds into their FlowStocks wallets.

Deposit instructions for the FlowStocks platform are as follows:

• Click the menu bar in the upper right corner of the FlowStocks page, select [Connect Wallet], and connect a commonly used wallet (e.g., MetaMask, OKX Wallet, etc.).
• Go to the product purchase page and click Deposit, or select [My Assets] -> [Deposit] from the menu bar. Choose the currency for deposit, enter the amount, and authorize the payment.
• After the transaction is submitted successfully, wait for on-chain confirmation.
• Return to the [My Assets] page to view your deposit history.

Clarification on Underlying Assets:

A total of 15,000,000 shares of CIMG—corresponding to this tokenization—have been fully transferred into FlowStocks Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and duly registered under the Transfer Agent (TA) system. These shares have been tokenized on-chain at a 1:1 ratio and minted as tIMG tokens, serving as the underlying asset backing for the token.

In the initial phase of the tIMG launch, CIMG and FlowStocks will jointly introduce incentive programs for purchasing tIMG, such as token rewards for users who reach certain deposit or purchase thresholds.

Alice Wang, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of CIMG, stated, “We believe that stock tokenization is becoming a trend. It enables round-the-clock access to tokenized equity trading. By introducing tokenization, we are not only upgrading our financial infrastructure but also aiming to provide greater convenience for our investors.”

About CIMG Inc.

CIMG Inc. is a global business group in the digital health industry, built around cryptocurrency strategies. The company leverages AI and cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin and stablecoins) to drive industry growth, helping clients maximize user acquisition and brand management value. Its current portfolio includes brands like Kangduoyuan, Maca-Noni, Qianmao, Huomao, and Coco-mango.