As the IMF’s April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report calls for enhanced regulatory oversight of cross-border stablecoin flows to emerging markets, Fuutura’s compliance-first architecture across identity, payments, and trading is built to support exactly this kind of regulatory oversight

Fuutura, a blockchain infrastructure company building a compliance-first financial ecosystem for the global market, today set out its position on rising cross-border stablecoin flows to emerging markets, following the IMF’s call for enhanced regulatory oversight in its April 2026 Global Financial Stability Report.

The IMF’s findings reflect a structural shift in how money moves across emerging economies. Cross-border flows of the two largest dollar-pegged stablecoins, Tether and USD Coin, rose from approximately $12 billion in early 2020 to $316 billion by early 2025, outpacing flows of Bitcoin and Ethereum. A significant share of those flows has been directed toward emerging markets, with cumulative net inflows accelerating since late 2023. The IMF’s concern is that rapid stablecoin adoption in emerging markets, absent appropriate regulation and backstops, could lead to currency substitution, weaken the transmission of monetary policy, increase capital flow volatility, and create challenges for capital flow management measures.

The IMF report also acknowledges that stablecoins, with adequate regulation, could offer improved settlement efficiency, faster cross-border payments, increased competition in the payment space, and broader access to digital finance. The same flows that warrant enhanced oversight also reflect genuine demand for financial services that legacy infrastructure has consistently failed to deliver in emerging markets.

Fuutura is being built to make both possible at once. A compliance by design approach facilitates the very regulatory oversight the IMF is advocating. That same architecture allows the platform to serve users in markets unreached by legacy financial infrastructure. What that looks like in practice is best described by the people who have built it.

“The IMF’s findings lay bare something that anyone working in cross-border financial services across emerging markets has been seeing for years. The flows are real, the demand is structural, and the existing infrastructure has not been built to give regulators the kind of visibility they need to do their work properly. That is the gap our infrastructure is built to address, across cross-border payments, identity verification, and the trading layer that connects users to the global financial system. Compliance is not something we have layered on top of an existing platform. It is part of how the system functions at every level.” Ellis McGrath, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Fuutura

The architectural choice that defines Fuutura is the integration of compliance at a foundational level. Most digital asset platforms operate perimeter compliance, with KYC and AML conducted at onboarding and transaction monitoring sitting on top of an existing technology stack. Fuutura’s design records verified KYC and AML attestations on-chain and ties them to the user’s wallet, so that every interaction with the platform is gated by the presence of that attestation at the smart contract level. This applies across the entire ecosystem. Whether a user is opening a wallet, executing a trade on the exchange, or moving funds across borders, the same compliance design governs every interaction. The result is infrastructure where compliance is enforceable on every transaction and auditable by regulators at the on-chain level.

“The platforms that earn regulators’ trust will be the ones that make their work easier. The IMF’s call for proportionate monitoring of stablecoin flows reflects a broader truth about the relationship between innovators and regulators in this industry. Architecture that is open to inspection by default. A company posture that welcomes the questions responsible oversight requires. We believe the future of digital finance depends on builders and regulators working together, and we have designed Fuutura to support that relationship across every product on the platform.” Oliver Cook KC, Co-founder and Chief Legal Officer, Fuutura

Fuutura is building for a market where existing financial infrastructure has consistently failed to deliver. The cross-border stablecoin corridors identified by the IMF are one part of that market. The broader scope is the millions of people and businesses across emerging economies who require digital identity, secure custody, and access to global financial markets in a single connected environment. The company’s launch marks the beginning of a phased rollout, with further ecosystem development planned as the platform scales across the markets it was designed to serve.

About Fuutura

Fuutura is a blockchain infrastructure company building a compliance-first financial ecosystem facilitating participation in the global financial system from underserved markets with a focus on the Global-South. The platform combines digital identity verification, a wallet, and a trading exchange into one unified ecosystem, giving users access to crypto and tokenised real-world assets through a single environment. Fuutura is pursuing licensing in multiple jurisdictions. Built with KYC and AML integrated at an architectural level, Fuutura is designed to be open to regulatory oversight by design. Fuutura is building infrastructure to extend digital finance to markets that legacy banking has not reached.

BNBTradeBot has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence-based cryptocurrency trading platform, reflecting a broader shift in the digital asset sector toward automation and data-driven decision-making.

Market Context

Interest in cryptocurrency trading continues to expand globally, alongside growing demand for systems capable of processing real-time data, adapting to volatility, and operating continuously. Industry focus has increasingly moved beyond basic trade execution toward tools that integrate analysis, automation, and responsiveness to market conditions.

Platform Overview

The BNBTradeBot platform incorporates machine learning models designed to adjust trading strategies based on evolving market data. According to the company, the system monitors market activity on an ongoing basis and modifies its approach in response to detected patterns, rather than relying solely on fixed rules.

The platform includes automated trading functions, account monitoring, and performance tracking features. The company notes that results may vary depending on market conditions, reflecting the volatility associated with digital assets.

Industry Trends in AI Trading

The use of artificial intelligence in financial markets has expanded in recent years, including applications in portfolio management, predictive analytics, and trade execution. This trend has been particularly pronounced in cryptocurrency markets, where continuous trading and rapid price movements create demand for automated systems.

Market participants have also highlighted considerations around transparency, system design, and user understanding as adoption increases.

Positioning

BNBTradeBot enters a market where financial technology and artificial intelligence continue to converge. The company positions its platform within ongoing efforts to integrate advanced analytics into more accessible trading tools, as interest in automation and efficiency remains a defining theme in digital asset markets.

About BNBTradeBot

BNBTradeBot is a cryptocurrency trading platform that utilizes artificial intelligence and quantitative models to support automated trading strategies.

Utexo, the Bitcoin-native execution and settlement layer for stablecoin payments, today announced a collaboration with x402 to bring USDT compatibility to the x402 payment protocol and support real-time, agent-to-agent transactions with settlement speeds as fast as 50 milliseconds.

x402 is an open protocol that allows payments to be embedded directly into HTTP requests using the HTTP 402 “Payment Required” status code. This allows applications, APIs, and autonomous systems to pay for services in real time without relying on accounts or pre-funded balances.

With Utexo’s integration, developers using x402 will now be able to transact in USDT, expanding beyond its initial support for USDC and increasing access to one of the most widely used stablecoins in global markets.

Utexo’s infrastructure is designed to handle confidential, low-latency transactions, making it well suited for machine-driven payments where speed, privacy and reliability are critical. In April, 2026, Utexo joined the Linux Foundation as an official member.

Viktor Ihnatiuk, Co-Founder and CEO of Utexo, said, “x402 introduces a new way for value to move across the internet by embedding payments directly into requests. Supporting USDT within this framework expands access significantly and gives developers the performance they need to build real-time, agent-driven systems.”Kevin Leffew, x402 Projects Lead at Coinbase, added, “Our goal with x402 is to make payments a seamless part of how the internet works. Expanding access to more stablecoins improves performance and broadens asset support, which helps accelerate adoption among developers building autonomous and API-based services.”

The integration supports a growing category of use cases where software systems transact independently. This includes paying for API calls, accessing data on demand, and coordinating services across platforms without manual intervention.

As AI systems and autonomous agents become more widely deployed, the need for fast, programmable payments continues to increase. By combining x402’s protocol with Utexo’s settlement infrastructure, the collaboration supports a model where transactions can happen as quickly and efficiently as the requests that trigger them.

About Utexo

Utexo is a Bitcoin-native execution and settlement layer for stablecoin payments. By combining Lightning Network’s instant execution with RGB’s privacy-preserving asset issuance, Utexo’s API and SDK enable payment operators to process USDT transactions instantly with predictable costs and full and private execution.

About x402

x402 is an open payment protocol designed to make payments a native part of the internet by embedding them directly into HTTP requests. The protocol builds on the long-unused HTTP 402 status code to allow servers to request payment in response to a query, enabling instant, per-request transactions for APIs, data services, and machine-driven applications.

Early development and adoption of x402 has been closely aligned with the growing stablecoin ecosystem around USDC, including tooling and infrastructure that has emerged alongside networks and developer platforms associated with Coinbase. This has positioned x402 as a natural fit for developers already building with onchain payments and API-native financial flows.

By expanding support to USDT and integrating high-speed settlement through Utexo, x402 is broadening its reach beyond its initial base and moving toward a more asset-agnostic standard for internet-native payments.

Uniblock, the managed infrastructure layer for blockchain applications, has raised $5.2 million in funding ($7.5M to date). The round brings together investors across the US, Japan, India, Singapore, and the Solana ecosystem, including SBI, AllianceDAO, CoinSwitch, Blockchain Founders Fund, Hustle Fund, AAF Management, NGC Ventures, Alchemy, MoonPay among others, with angel participation from executives at Kraken, Uber, and CoinList.

Alongside the raise, Uniblock has shipped a suite of AI-native developer tools built for how blockchain development actually happens today.

The Infrastructure Problem

Blockchain infrastructure has entered a new phase. Stripe has entered the crypto arena in a big way with its $1.1B acquisition of Bridge for stablecoins, Privy for wallets and now Tempo, its own Layer 1 blockchain for payments, with Mastercard, Visa, and UBS already testing on the network. Mainstream media networks broadcast Polymarket prediction market odds in live news tickers alongside war coverage and election results. Tokenized assets trade on regulated exchanges.

At the same time, AI agents are beginning to read and write blockchain data autonomously, and developers increasingly build through AI coding assistants rather than reading documentation line by line.

No single blockchain data provider covers every chain an application may need. No single provider can guarantee uptime. Without a managed orchestration layer, every team builds and maintains its own routing and fallback system. AI agents face the same fragmentation with less tolerance for it.

Uniblock Today

Uniblock operates the managed infrastructure layer between blockchain applications and the 55 data partners they depend on. One API key provides access to over 300 blockchains and more than 3,000 APIs, with patented auto-routing that handles provider selection, failover, and data normalization. Over 3,000 projects and 4,000 developers run on the platform. Customers including Plume Network, Stellar Blockchain, Hypernative, Oku Trade, nReach, and Apechain run production workloads. Plume Network and Apechain run Uniblock as managed RPC infrastructure through ecosystem partnerships.

AI-driven API consumption is a growing segment on the platform. It accelerates Uniblock’s own development, powers the product’s intelligent routing engine, and represents a new category of infrastructure consumer.

AI-Native Developer Tools

Alongside the raise, Uniblock has shipped a suite of AI-native developer tools designed for how blockchain development happens today:

• MCP Server. AI agents call Uniblock’s unified APIs directly with no humans in the loop. Live at a public endpoint.
• LLM-Optimized Documentation (llms.txt). Structured API reference built for AI consumption. When a developer’s AI assistant queries Uniblock integration details, the answer is accurate.
• Agent Skills. Ready-to-paste context for Claude, Codex, Cursor, and other AI coding environments. Developers drop these into their IDE so the AI writes correct Uniblock integration code on the first attempt.

“Two shifts are happening at once. Mainstream companies are bringing production workloads to blockchain, and AI agents are starting to read and write chain data autonomously. Both need the same thing: reliable infrastructure across hundreds of chains. That’s what Uniblock runs.”
Kevin Callahan, CEO and Co-Founder, Uniblock

“The next wave of blockchain adoption will depend on infrastructure that simplifies an increasingly complex ecosystem while maintaining dependable performance. Uniblock is building exactly that through a single API layer that simplifies multi-chain access for developers, enterprises, and AI-driven applications, and we are pleased to support the team as it enters this next phase of growth.”
Eiichiro So, CEO & Managing Director of SBI Ven Capital

“Stripe bought Bridge for $1.1B. Visa is embracing onchain. AI agents are transacting autonomously. All of them need reliable multi-chain infrastructure. Uniblock built it. 3,000 projects already run on the platform and that number only grows from here.”
Aly Madhavji, Managing Partner, Blockchain Founders Fund

Use of Funds

Capital will accelerate platform expansion: deepening chain coverage, scaling the intelligent orchestration engine, and building new API categories including stablecoins, wallets, and prediction markets. Investment continues in AI developer tooling, enterprise go-to-market, and ecosystem partnerships across the US, Japan, India, Singapore, and the Solana ecosystem. The team is scaling engineering and operations from its Canadian headquarters.

About Uniblock

Uniblock is the managed infrastructure layer for blockchain applications. A single API connection provides access to 300+ blockchains and 55 data partners through patented auto-routing with intelligent orchestration. AI-native developer tools, including an MCP server, LLM-optimized documentation, and Agent Skills, are live and in production. 3,000 projects and 4,000 developers run on the platform. Headquartered in Canada. Visit uniblock.dev.

Led by a robust background in leverage executives, OmenX introduces perpetual-style mechanics to the $1B+ forecasting sector, enabling institutional-grade hedging and capital efficiency.

OmenX, a prediction trading platform that turns real-world events into tradable markets, today announced the successful close of its multi-million dollar angel funding round. The announcement marks the official launch of the OmenX Public Testnet, bringing in one of the world’s first leverage mechanics to the rapidly expanding prediction market industry.

The funding round saw participation from a strategic consortium of North American and global venture firms, including Paramita VC, Penrose Ventures, and M77 Ventures, alongside the founders of several centralized exchanges.

While platforms like Polymarket have high volumes, the sector remains hindered by capital inefficiency, often requiring users to lock up substantial liquidity in static positions until settlement. OmenX transforms this experience by introducing a high-performance event based trading environment where capital works harder. By integrating the seamless, high velocity mechanics of crypto perpetuals, OmenX allows traders to amplify their conviction through leverage while maintaining the flexibility to enter and exit positions instantly. This shift from static betting to a fluid, capital efficient marketplace significantly lowers the barrier to entry, enabling users to manage global risk and capture market movements with the speed and seamless action on the platform.

“The world has seen what prediction markets can do for price discovery. Now, OmenX is showing what they can do for professional traders,” remarked James, Founder of OmenX and Former Head of Futures at Binance and Bybit. “We aren’t just building a prediction market; we are building the infrastructure to treat global events as a liquid, tradeable asset class with institutional-grade leverage.

The OmenX team, composed of experts in the scaling leverage ecosystem, has engineered a matching engine capable of handling the volatility of global news cycles. Following the Testnet launch, OmenX will introduce AI-driven forecasting agents, further decentralizing the “truth layer” of the internet.

The OmenX Public Testnet is now open to the global community. Participants are invited to join the OmenX Points System, a rewards framework designed to incentivize the stress-testing of the platform’s leveraged mechanics and liquidity depth. OmenX is positioning itself for a comprehensive Mainnet launch on Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 incubated by Coinbase. By building on the Base ecosystem, OmenX ensures institutional-grade security and high-speed execution for every trade. Further details will be released via official channels.

ABOUT OMENX

OmenX is the foundational infrastructure for the next generation of event-based derivatives. By merging the speed of top-tier exchange engines with the transparency of on-chain data, OmenX makes outcome-based trading liquid, flexible, and accessible to a global audience.

To learn more about OmenX, please visit: https://beta.omenx.com/

I-ON Digital, Instruxi and RAAC partnership illustrates emerging infrastructure linking gold-backed assets, stablecoins, and on-chain liquidity markets

The convergence of traditional finance (“TradFi”) and decentralized finance (“DeFi”) is moving from concept to implementation, as real-world asset (RWA) tokenization begins to establish a new foundation for global capital markets.

For small-cap investors and institutional observers alike, this shift represents a critical inflection point: the emergence of infrastructure capable of connecting regulated, asset-backed financial systems with blockchain-based liquidity and settlement networks.

From Fragmentation to Integration

Historically, TradFi and DeFi have operated in parallel:

• TradFi offers regulatory structure, institutional trust, and deep capital markets
• DeFi delivers programmability, continuous liquidity, and capital efficiency

Bridging these systems has remained a central challenge until the recent rise of tokenized RWAs, which allow tangible assets to be represented, financed, and deployed on-chain.

Market participants increasingly view RWA tokenization as one of the most significant growth vectors in digital finance, with long-term projections ranging into the hundreds of billions, and potentially trillions, of dollars.

Infrastructure in Practice: I-ON Digital and RAAC.io

A growing number of platforms are now moving beyond theory, building integrated systems that connect asset origination, stablecoin issuance, and decentralized liquidity.

I-ON Digital Corp., in partnership with Instruxi (https://www.instruxi.io/) RAAC (https://raac.io), provides a case study in how this convergence is being operationalized.

At the core of this model:

• Digitized Gold-Backed Assets (IONau): Real-world gold exposure is structured into a blockchain-compatible financial instrument designed to align with traditional secured asset frameworks.
• Stablecoin Layer (pmUSD): These assets support the issuance of pmUSD, a stablecoin engineered to maintain stability through structured collateralization tied to underlying real-world value.
• Liquidity Infrastructure: pmUSD is deployed across established decentralized finance protocols and liquidity pools, enabling yield generation, market depth, and continuous capital deployment.

This vertically integrated approach, linking asset backing, issuance, and liquidity, addresses one of the primary limitations of earlier digital asset models: the disconnect between real-world value and on-chain utility.

The Role of Liquidity: From Concept to Market Depth

A defining feature of the next phase of digital finance is not simply tokenization, but liquidity at scale.

Deep, programmatic liquidity pools surrounding instruments like pmUSD are critical for:

• Efficient price discovery
• Scalable yield generation
• Institutional-grade entry and exit pathways
• Reduced volatility through structured collateral frameworks

By establishing liquidity infrastructure alongside asset issuance, platforms can move beyond static token models toward dynamic financial ecosystems capable of supporting meaningful capital flows.

Why It Matters for Small-Cap Investors

For investors focused on emerging growth sectors, the TradFi-to-DeFi bridge represents a foundational shift comparable to the early development of electronic trading or exchange-traded funds.

Key considerations include:

• Early Infrastructure Positioning: Companies building compliant, scalable rails may capture disproportionate value as adoption accelerates
• Institutional Tailwinds: Evolving regulatory clarity around stablecoins and digital assets is lowering barriers to institutional participation
• Expanded Addressable Markets: Tokenization introduces liquidity and accessibility to asset classes historically constrained by geography or structure
• Compounding Network Effects: Integrated ecosystems—combining asset backing, stablecoins, and liquidity—can scale rapidly as usage increases

A Structural Shift in Capital Markets

The integration of TradFi and DeFi is increasingly being viewed not as a replacement of existing systems, but as an extension that enhances efficiency, transparency, and capital mobility.

As real-world assets move on-chain and liquidity infrastructure matures, the ability to seamlessly connect regulated financial assets with decentralized markets may define the next generation of financial leaders.

About I-ON Digital Corp.

I-ON Digital Corp. is a U.S.-based digital asset infrastructure company focused on real-world-asset tokenization, regulated gold-backed digital instruments, and digital asset banking services. The Company’s platform enables institutions to digitize, tokenize, manage, and distribute physical and in-situ assets within compliant, treasury-grade frameworks.

A strategic partnership brings Mansory into the LUKSO ecosystem through validator participation, economic alignment, Universal Profile onboarding, strategic introductions, and early product testing.

For three decades, Mansory has built its name around custom automotive craft, material precision, and a clear sense of identity. Through a strategic partnership with the Foundation for the New Creative Economies, or FNCE, and LUKSO, the company is now bringing that same standard into web3.

This partnership is built around participation. It brings Mansory into the LUKSO ecosystem through validator participation, economic alignment around Mansory utility token and LUKSO, Universal Profile onboarding, strategic introductions, and early product testing. That mix matters because it ties brand presence to infrastructure and product.

Mansory brings a premium brand standard to onchain identity

Mansory has always operated with a strong point of view. The brand is known for custom builds where finish, materials, and detail are part of the product itself. A move into digital identity only makes sense if that same level of control and authorship can carry across.

That is where LUKSO fits. LUKSO was built for digital identity, brand-owned presence, and new forms of community participation. Universal Profiles give brands a native way to hold assets, publish identity, manage permissions, and interact across applications without reducing the brand to a wallet address.

For Mansory, that matters because digital presence cannot be a side layer. It has to feel official, intentional, and connected to the standards the brand already applies in the physical world.

“We built Universal Profiles so that digital ownership actually means something. Mansory understands that. They have spent decades making sure every detail of a car is intentional. That is the same philosophy. When a brand like Mansory puts identity onchain, it is not a tech experiment. It is the next logical step for how they already think about craftsmanship.” – Fabian Vogelsteller, Co-Founder of LUKSO

FNCE also matters here. As the independent Swiss foundation backing the LUKSO ecosystem, FNCE sits at the point where cultural use cases, ecosystem growth, and partner development meet. Its role gives this partnership a clear frame: bring a premium cultural brand into the ecosystem in a way that can support actual product and identity work.

What the partnership includes

The partnership can be explained through four main working parts. Together they show how Mansory enters the LUKSO ecosystem at both the brand level and the infrastructure level.

Validator participation and network alignment

The first part is validator participation and network alignment. The announced partnership includes Mansory contributing to validator participation on the LUKSO blockchain network through Stakingverse. That places the brand inside the network rather than at the edge of it.

The partnership also includes economic alignment around Mansory’s utility token (MNSRY) and LUKSO. LUKSO will become a staker of the Mansory token, which creates a shared incentive structure across both ecosystems.

Strategic introductions and advisory

The second part is strategic introductions and advisory. Mansory brings decades of access across luxury automotive, fashion, and high-net-worth lifestyle circles. LUKSO brings access to a builder-led ecosystem of creative brands, developers, and digital-native communities.

That two-way access is one of the strongest parts of the story because it makes the partnership useful in both directions. Mansory gains proximity to new onchain tools and communities. LUKSO gains a partner with real brand reach in premium cultural sectors that are often discussed in web3 but rarely engaged in a serious way.

Universal Profile onboarding

The third part is Universal Profile onboarding. Mansory will onboard onto Universal Profiles on LUKSO and establish an official onchain brand identity. Creating a brand-owned presence that can travel across applications and community touchpoints.

Universal Profiles are smart-contract based digital accounts designed for identity, assets, metadata, permissions, and interaction across platforms. For Mansory, that creates a base layer for authenticated brand presence, direct community connection, gated experiences, and future digital touchpoints tied to the brand.

Early product testing

The fourth part is early product testing. Mansory will act as an early tester for LUKSO’s upcoming product releases and give feedback from the perspective of a premium global brand. That matters because LUKSO is not only gaining a recognizable partner. It is gaining product input from a company known for exacting standards around finish, presentation, and user expectation.

This feedback loop is also useful for the ecosystem. Products shaped with demanding brand input are more likely to meet the needs of cultural brands, premium communities, and teams that care about the full user experience rather than a narrow technical feature set.

“We have always pushed boundaries in automotive design. Partnering with LUKSO is a natural extension of that mindset, bringing the same standard of excellence to our digital presence. Universal Profiles give us a way to connect with our community that matches the exclusivity of what we build.” – Matthieu Humbert de la Touche, Head of Growth at Mansory

What this means for collectors, communities, and brands

For collectors and communities, the value of this partnership is not abstract. A brand like Mansory carries a strong identity and a defined relationship with its audience. Bringing that relationship onchain creates room for clearer brand verification, closer community touchpoints, and new forms of participation that feel native to the brand rather than bolted on later.

For LUKSO, the story is also wider than one brand announcement. It shows that culture-led infrastructure can attract partners who care about presentation, authorship, and community standards. That does not mean every luxury brand will move the same way. It does mean there is now a clearer example of how a premium brand can enter web3 through identity, infrastructure, and product collaboration at the same time.

Onchain presence works best when it reflects how a brand already thinks about ownership, community, and value. Mansory is not changing its standards to fit the medium. It is testing whether the medium is mature enough to carry the standards it already has.

About Mansory

MANSORY is a luxury automobile modification company that has spent more than three decades shaping a distinct position in the automotive world through custom design, premium materials, and close attention to detail. The brand works across some of the best-known names in the sector, including Aston Martin, Audi, and Bentley.

Its recent move into web3 through the MNSRY token gives Mansory a growing digital community layer. Source materials describe token-holder access to community benefits, merchandise discounts, exclusive events, a virtual garage, and limited-release opportunities. Final public wording for those benefits should match the latest approved Mansory copy.

About LUKSO

LUKSO is a Layer 1 blockchain built for digital identity, creativity, and culture. Founded by Fabian Vogelsteller and Marjorie Hernandez, LUKSO introduces standards and tools designed to help brands, creators, and communities build expressive and verifiable digital presence onchain.

About FNCE

The Foundation for the New Creative Economies, or FNCE, is the independent Swiss foundation backing the LUKSO ecosystem. Its role is to enable, nurture, and expand creative, cultural, and identity-centric onchain innovation built on LUKSO.

Rain, the decentralized prediction markets protocol, announces the launch of its AI agent-ready SDK and a $5 million grant program to support developers and creators worldwide in building, launching, and monetizing their own independent prediction market platforms. Open to builders and creators globally, the initiative aims to accelerate the growth of decentralized prediction markets by giving builders access to the funding and infrastructure needed to launch new platforms on top of the Rain protocol.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently described OpenClaw as part of a broader shift in AI, from systems that answer questions to ones that can actually perform work. OpenClaw lets us have a personal agent, much like Microsoft let us have a personal computer. Rain is built precisely for this shift, exposing the full stack of prediction markets – creation, pricing, trading, liquidity, and resolution – as simple, composable primitives. With Rain, builders using OpenClaw agents can take a single prompt and generate a live prediction market without manual coding or centralized gatekeepers. This allows anyone with an idea to turn it into a functioning market product more quickly than traditional development would allow.

Prediction market platforms have dominated public discourse over the past few months and have quickly gained unprecedented popularity. Yet even as platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi pursue valuations approaching $20 billion and present themselves as part of a more open financial future, much of the ecosystem remains far more centralized than it appears. Most platforms offer APIs and SDKs that limit interaction to markets the platform itself created. This creates an environment where developers can build discovery, analytics, or trading tools around these markets, but they cannot create new ones independently.

As interest in prediction markets continues to grow, Rain is opening the system up to a wider group of builders. Developers and AI agents will have access not only to existing markets, but also to the infrastructure needed to create and launch their own applications and prediction markets directly on the protocol. The $5 million grant program will allocate $3 million directly to development building on the protocol, while the remaining $2 million will fund a daily rewards system designed to incentivize ongoing activity across the ecosystem. Rain is the first protocol in the industry that lets anyone create and launch fully functional prediction markets on any topic, in any language. Builders maintain full control over their product, branding, and regulatory strategy, while using Rain as the underlying technology layer.

The program also gives builders a direct path to participate in the category’s growth. Every builder earns a flat 0.5% share of the trading volume they generate. The commission is paid directly from Rain’s token allocation, creating a predictable revenue stream for builders who drive activity on the platform.

“In the past year, prediction markets have become one of the most talked about sectors in the market, and Rain is now changing how these platforms are built,” says Roy Shaham, CEO of Rain. “We designed our SDK specifically for OpenClaw and AI agents, allowing anyone to take an initial prompt to a fully live, functional platform. With a $5M pool that is nearly double the industry standard, we give creators the resources to move beyond just pulling data and actually launch their own platforms and create their own markets. By making it easy for anyone to bring their ideas to life with OpenClaw and Rain’s SDK, we are building a colorful ecosystem that pushes the boundaries of what prediction markets can become.”

About Rain:

Rain is a decentralized protocol that provides the infrastructure for anyone to build their own prediction market platforms or applications. Using the machine-readable Rain SDK, developers and AI agents can launch independent markets and niche apps. Rain features private, invitation-only markets, AMM, account abstraction, AI market and dispute resolution, cross-chain support, and more. For more information, visit: https://www.rain.one/.

Frigg, a Swiss fintech startup focused on bringing renewable energy infrastructure investments on-chain, announced continued expansion of its platform following recognition at the European Blockchain Convention startup competition, where the company received second prize.

The platform connects institutional investors with renewable energy developers, facilitating investments in solar, wind, battery storage, and hydropower projects globally. According to the company, Frigg has already supported several multi-million-dollar financing deals in renewable energy infrastructure.

Tokenized infrastructure as a real-world asset category

While many tokenized real-world asset (RWA) initiatives have focused on sectors such as real estate, commodities, and art, Frigg addresses renewable energy infrastructure. These infrastructure projects often generate revenue through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and electricity sales.

Frigg’s platform is designed to support the full investment lifecycle, including project sourcing, due diligence, financial modeling, and post-investment monitoring. The company’s internal risk analysis framework, known as the Frigg Score, evaluates project economics using metrics such as projected internal rates of return (IRR) and debt service coverage ratios.

Multiple investment structures

The platform supports different types of investment structures depending on investor risk profiles. These include senior secured debt positions backed by operational renewable assets, as well as equity or junior debt positions in development-stage projects.

According to Frigg, senior secured infrastructure debt positions can offer projected yields in the 8–10% range, depending on the structure of the financing and contractual revenue arrangements. Development-stage investments may offer higher potential returns but also carry additional construction and market risks.

The platform’s tokenization framework allows investors to access fractional exposure across multiple projects, geographies, and financing structures.

Example project financing

One example of a project facilitated through the platform is a 5 MW solar photovoltaic installation with battery storage in Norway.

Project details include:

• Project: 5 MW Solar PV + 2 MWh Battery Storage, Norway
• Structure: senior secured debt
• Minimum investment: $100,000
• Target yield: approximately 9.5% annually
• Term: 7 years
• Collateral: operational solar and battery storage assets supported by power purchase agreements

Recent infrastructure financing

Frigg recently facilitated CHF 4.5 million in construction financing for Hydropower AS, a Norwegian developer building a 9.8 MW solar park combined with battery storage capacity.

The Vikersund project has since moved from financing to operation, and the company reports that it is currently working with the developer on refinancing and potential expansion opportunities.

Institutional due diligence framework

All projects on the platform undergo technical, financial, and legal review before being made available to investors. The platform provides project documentation including financial projections, cash flow models, and risk assessments.

While investments are tokenized for settlement and fractional ownership, the company states that the underlying legal structures remain aligned with institutional financing standards.

Qualified investors interested in renewable energy infrastructure opportunities can review current projects and platform information through Frigg’s platform. The company provides project documentation, technical specifications, and investment terms for each opportunity prior to participation.

About Frigg

Frigg is a Swiss fintech company developing blockchain infrastructure for renewable energy financing. The platform connects institutional investors with renewable energy developers and supports tokenized investments in infrastructure projects worldwide.

Velotrade enters the crypto funded trading market with institutional foundations, aligned incentives, and a rule set built from scratch for crypto traders

Velotrade, founded by former institutional derivatives traders from JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America, today announced the launch of its crypto funded trading platform. The firm offers traders the opportunity to operate a prop trading account without risking their own capital. The account sizes range from $5,000 to $200,000, with considerable profit splits.

Velotrade is not a rebrand, a pivot from forex, or a first venture. The founding team brings combined decades of experience in capital markets, risk management, and financial technology. Their previous company, Velotrade Management Limited, operates a fintech trade finance platform that has paid out more than $2.5 billion to clients worldwide since 2016. That business continues to operate today as a separate legal entity. The founding team and the Velotrade name carry a track record covered by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Nasdaq. The crypto funded trading platform is operated by Velotrade Re Limited, a separate Hong Kong company incorporated in November 2025.

The decision to enter the crypto prop market came from a simple observation: most firms in the space are not built by or for traders.

“We looked at the crypto prop market and found firms run by people with little experience in trading, in risk management, or in running a financial services company,” said Gianluca Pizzituti, CEO and co-founder of Velotrade. “That shows. It shows in the rules, in the structure, in the fine print. We thought: there is an opportunity to build something the industry actually needs.”

A Different Business Model

Most prop firms generate the majority of their revenue from challenge fees. The more traders fail, the more fees they collect. Velotrade is built on the opposite logic.

The firm uses institutional liquidity bridges and AI driven hedging to mirror selected trader positions in real markets. When a funded trader is profitable, Velotrade earns alongside them. The business model only works if traders succeed.

“We are not here to collect challenge fees and hope people fail,” Pizzituti said. “Our revenue model is tied to trader performance. That changes everything about how you design rules, and how you treat the people trading your capital.”

Rules Written for Crypto, Not Borrowed from Forex

The majority of prop firms offering crypto instruments today were originally built for forex. Their evaluation frameworks reflect that: trailing drawdowns calibrated for pip range volatility, consistency rules, weekend holding bans, and restricted news trading windows. Applied to a 24/7 asset class with a fundamentally different liquidity and volatility profile, these rules create avoidable breaches that end funded accounts for reasons unrelated to trading skill.

Velotrade was designed from the ground up for crypto. The evaluation framework includes:

• No consistency rule. Traders are not penalised for having one large winning day or for varying position sizes based on conviction.
• No time limit. There is no cap on evaluation duration. Traders move at their own pace.
• News trading permitted. No restricted windows around market events.
• Weekend holding permitted. Positions can be held through weekends across all account tiers.

Two evaluation formats are available. The 2 step challenge targets traders who want maximum drawdown room (10% overall, 5% daily). The 1 step challenge offers a faster path to funding with tighter parameters (7% overall, 4% daily). Both run on DXtrade.

The full rule set is published on velotrade.com and written with institutional grade clarity. The stated standard: a trader should be able to read the rules once and know exactly where they stand.

Crypto Only

Velotrade does not offer forex, indices, or equities. The platform trades a wide range of cryptocurrencies with leverage of up to 6x on BTC and ETH. The decision is deliberate: build for one asset class and do it properly, rather than bolt crypto onto an existing infrastructure.

Payout Structure

Funded traders can request their first payout after 14 calendar days. Subsequent payouts are available weekly on request. All payouts are processed within 24 hours in USDC or USDT.

About the Founders

Gianluca Pizzituti, Chief Executive Officer
Formerly at the derivatives desk at Dresdner Kleinwort in London. Founded and ran a proprietary high frequency trading firm in FX and equity indices out of Singapore. In 2016, he founded Velotrade in Hong Kong and scaled the trade finance platform to over USD 2.5 billion in disbursements worldwide.

Vittorio De Angelis, Executive Chairman
Over 30 years in capital markets and risk management. Traded equity derivatives at JP Morgan and Dresdner Kleinwort in London, rising to Co Head of Equity Derivatives at Bank of America. Later served as Head of Brokerage at a global broker in Hong Kong.

About Velotrade

Velotrade Re Limited is a Hong Kong based company operating a crypto funded trading platform for disciplined traders. The founding team previously built Velotrade Management Limited (est. 2016), a trade finance platform that has paid out over $2.5 billion to clients worldwide and has been covered by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Nasdaq. The two companies are separate legal entities.

Challenge options, pricing, and the complete rule set are available at http://velotrade.com.