1/ Crypto markets retreat as hot inflation data triggers selloff $BTC dropped to $118K after $124K peak, $ETH slips 1.3% to $4.5K. Trading volume jumps to $267B with 90% of top 100 tokens in the red.

AI is the best demoware ever invented. You can hack something in a weekend, post a screen share, and go viral. But turning that into a product people trust is brutal. The first time users lose trust, they’re gone. The gap between demo and production is massive. For all the AI investment so far, there are few breakout apps beyond frontier labs and coding tools. Closing that gap takes two capabilities: 1. Building a killer app - this is hard enough. 2. Bending an LLM to your will - this is breaking new ground, as we're all learning how to master them. It’s hard. But if you can do both, the opportunity is enormous.

Anyone can build an AI demo. Few can ship an AI product, especially in finance. @omeragoldberg, CEO @chaos_labs, and @diogomonica, GP @HaunVentures, discuss the gap between AI prototypes and production and why finance raises the stakes.

Control > Borrowed Security Stripe and Circle launching L1s is just the start. For years, the assumption was that enterprises would choose Ethereum, Solana, or another public L1 for their security. The fully decentralized future was the utopia we hoped for. In reality, when I talk to large banks and fintechs, this is not what drives their decisions. They are already regulated and audited. If they own the network, they see that as a stronger security guarantee. They choose the validators, control the upgrade process, and know exactly who is operating the infrastructure. If something goes wrong, there is direct recourse. Enterprises are liable to their customers, and the business will take the hit if they act in bad faith. And if you are moving trillions in stablecoin volume, no public network can offer meaningful economic security anyways. If decentralization and economic security are not priorities, what's left? Valid reasons to launch on a public L1 is distribution and DeFi interoperability. If you need that audience and those integrations, it can make sense. But for fintechs that simply want to move stablecoins, FX, or other RWAs faster and cheaper, and can bridge to other chains when necessary, owning the L1 eliminates value leakage and gives full control. Oracles and interop messaging protocols will be critical in breaking the data silos between private enterprise chains, public networks, and the broader web. Oracles and bridging protocols will grow in their sophistication over the next years to meet the requirements of neobanks, fintechs, etc. Decentralization will be a spectrum, will be interesting to see the distribution over time.

Chaos AI catching the reasons of the OKB move right away

Ethena's $sUSDe & $USDe have seen sharp growth, driven by liquid leverage strategies on @Aave. @ournetwork__’s latest issue dives into how this dynamic has fueled demand for both assets →

.@Aave has over $58B in TVL across @Ethereum, @Arbitrum, @Optimism, @0xPolygon, @Avax, and @Base. Dive into the alpha from @chaos_labs ➡️

JUST IN: Lending 🏦 | OurNetwork #361 👻 @aave | @chaos_labs ✨ @sparkdotfi | @seouldatalabs 🧮 @eulerfinance | @gmmiguelcruz 🌓 @SiloFinance | @ayham_eth Link to read 🔽

Announcements from @stripe and @circle’s (@arc) confirm our thesis: enterprise adoption will drive the next wave of stablecoin growth. We built the Chaos AI Stablecoin Hub to compare and analyze stablecoins and synthetic dollar assets. Join the waitlist:

1/ @_Qubic_ briefly seized 52.72% of @Monero's hashrate, crossing the threshold for network control Hashrate hit 3.01 GH/s as miners chased $3.13/day vs $0.64 on Monero. $QUBIC sales into stables drove $XMR down 28% in 30 days while $QUBIC rose 57%.