Stripe

A small business owner is suspicious of a potential scam involving a customer who provided necessary documents like W9 and Tax ID but raised red flags due to sudden business activity resumption after years of inactivity. The customer requested an upfront payment via Stripe, agreed to a long lead time, and the business owner's lawyer suggested verifying the address, which yielded inconclusive results.

Open Standard launched Open USD, a stablecoin backed by over 140 financial institutions and technology partners, including Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. The stablecoin aims to create a shared infrastructure for tokenized dollars, with governance managed collectively by a board of partner organizations. Its economic model allows partners to mint and redeem tokens at no cost while sharing reserve earnings after a management fee.

Visa, Mastercard, and over 140 companies, including Stripe, BlackRock, and Coinbase, launched Open USD, a dollar-pegged stablecoin designed to redistribute stablecoin market economics. The project aims to challenge existing stablecoins like USDC and USDT by offering no fees and sharing reserve income with users, managed by an independent organization.

Stripe cofounder John Collison and business leader Charlie Munger argue that pursuing two college majors is essential for Gen Z to thrive in an AI-driven job market. They emphasize the value of multidisciplinary skills, with Collison highlighting combinations like software and finance, while Munger and AI pioneer Daniela Amodei stress the importance of cross-disciplinary thinking and humanities for adapting to AI advancements.

Stripe cofounder John Collison predicts double majors will excel in the AI era due to their multidisciplinary skills. He cited rising numbers of double majors at US universities and emphasized the value of combining fields like software and marketing. Collison also highlighted 'high-agency people' as well-positioned to leverage AI advancements.

The MIT Technology Review introduces a new Engineering issue highlighting ambitious projects like tunneling under the seafloor and volcanic cooling. Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI are funding a $500M nonprofit to combat respiratory infections, while a recent asteroid risk was resolved by global scientists. The article also covers China's new fastest supercomputer and security flaws in US systems.

Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI are funding a $500-million nonprofit called Intercept to prevent respiratory infections like the common cold and flu. The initiative aims to eliminate respiratory viruses through vaccines and air-cleaning systems, with support from Bill Gates and other investors.

Federated Realty LLC, also known as Federa, is accused of being a scam after a user lost $12,000 in a house bid and has been unable to recover the deposit. Complaints have been filed with multiple agencies including BBB, Florida Attorney General, and FTC, with DBPR currently investigating. The user warns others to check reviews before participating in Federa's online auctions.

Allium, a New York-based crypto analytics startup, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Amplify Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Theory Ventures. The company provides blockchain data analytics to institutional clients like Visa and the U.S. Federal Reserve, positioning itself to capitalize on growing institutional interest in crypto and AI-driven financial transactions.

Four AI companies—OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Waymo—raised $188 billion in Q1 2026, representing 60% of all venture capital deployed that quarter. Early-stage founders face challenges due to capital concentration, but opportunities remain for companies with strong defensibility and agentic AI solutions.

Big Tech companies like Stripe, Google, Shopify, and Microsoft are actively building a carbon removal credit market by committing upfront capital to purchase future credits, aiming to create demand certainty for startups. These efforts focus on scaling carbon removal technologies despite challenges like inconsistent pricing and lack of regulatory enforcement.

Animoca Brands cofounder Yat Siu argues Asia will lead in integrating AI and blockchain before the West, citing Asia's comfort with money and the West's polarization between capitalism and anti-capitalism. He highlights blockchain's role in enabling autonomous AI transactions and criticizes credit card companies for high fees compared to on-chain transactions.

Anthropic released Claude Fable 5, a 'Mythos-class' AI model with safeguards restricting cybersecurity, biology, chemistry, and distillation queries to its Opus 4.8 model. The model exceeds previous Anthropic models in capabilities but is limited in access, with a 'trusted access program' planned for a version without full safeguards.

John and Patrick Collison sold their Alamo Square home for $9.1 million, breaking a price record but falling $2 million below the asking price.

The UK government's Gov.uk platform is replacing Stripe with a Dutch payment system. The move marks a shift away from the U.S.-based payment processor to a Netherlands-based alternative.

Startup Battlefield is returning to Sydney on August 19 in partnership with Stripe, a leading technology company. The event will take place at the Stripe Tour Sydney and is expected to be a memorable night for the Australian startup ecosystem.

A new Magecart campaign is using Stripe's API infrastructure to host a credit card-stealing payload and exfiltrate data from checkout pages. The campaign abuses Stripe's services to store and transfer stolen payment information.

The UK’s Government Digital Service (GDS) has replaced Stripe with Dutch provider Adyen as its payment processor for the GOV.UK Pay service under a three-year contract worth up to £25.3 million. The contract covers 17% of payments and over 70% of organizations using the service, with GDS migrating around 1,000 services to Adyen while ensuring no loss in functionality for users.

Former Stripe engineer Saikat Chakrabarti lost his bid to succeed Nancy Pelosi in California to a candidate backed by Ripple's Chris Larsen.

Payment giants Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are reported to be backers of a soon-to-launch stablecoin platform. The collaboration suggests growing industry interest in stablecoin technologies.

Robinhood has introduced AI agents for stock trading, allowing retail investors to compete with institutional investors. The tools will expand to options, futures, and cryptocurrency, with plans to include credit card purchase agents. The move raises concerns about risks for everyday investors but highlights tech CEOs' promises of consumer-friendly AI.

Fold Holdings secured a $150 million senior secured revolving credit facility from Encina Lender Finance to expand its Bitcoin Credit Card program. The funding avoids equity dilution and enables growth through a structure tied to credit card receivables, with the card operating on Visa and Stripe infrastructure and offering Bitcoin-based rewards.

Stripe, the payment processing company, has drawn criticism for allegedly being too accommodating toward 'friendly fraud,' where customers dispute charges they authorized. The article on Gingerlime highlights concerns about Stripe's chargeback policies, with Hacker News comments reflecting mixed reactions. The post has 79 points and 23 comments on Hacker News.

Kontigo was a Maduro-backed cryptocurrency application that allowed users to hold and spend USDC through a card in Venezuela. The platform lost support from Rain, Stripe, and Bridge after journalist Jason Mikula reported on its sanctions exposure.

Tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are questioning the value of philanthropy compared to their for-profit companies, marking a shift from earlier charitable pledges. This raises questions about how the new generation of AI-age billionaires will be remembered compared to historical figures like Andrew Carnegie who endowed major institutions. Some experts predict a return to 19th-century style philanthropy focused on broader societal flourishing rather than metrics-driven giving.

qpayd is a self-hosted Bitcoin and Lightning merchant server designed to simplify cryptocurrency payments for merchants. It offers features like Stripe-style webhooks, on-chain payment support, and an embeddable checkout modal, eliminating the need for custodial services or complex ecommerce infrastructure.

MoneyGram has been named as the anchor remittance validator for Tempo blockchain, which is backed by Stripe. This partnership will enable MoneyGram to validate remittance transactions on the Layer 1 blockchain and integrate stablecoin settlement for global flows. The collaboration aims to enhance the efficiency of cross-border transactions.

Mercury, a fintech firm, has reached a valuation of $5.2 billion after a funding round, representing a 49% increase in 14 months. The company has thrived despite the collapse of pandemic-era valuations. Mercury is compared to other successful fintech firms like Ramp and Stripe.

MoneyGram has partnered with Tempo to support stablecoin settlement and validate transactions across its global payments network. This partnership deepens MoneyGram's push into blockchain payments. The collaboration is expected to enhance the efficiency of MoneyGram's remittance services.

The crypto industry has seen a surge in AI agents, with 2.3 million currently operating, and the market is expected to grow from $7.84 billion to $52.62 billion by 2030. However, crypto gateways have been slow to adapt, while crypto wallets such as Coinbase and Cobo have launched infrastructure supporting AI agents. This shift is expected to impact the market, with gateways without AI support likely to lose volume.

Kickstarter has reversed its new content guidelines, which prohibited certain sexual wellness products, and restored an earlier version of its rules. The changes were driven by requirements from payment processor Stripe. Kickstarter's COO Sean Leow issued an apology letter confirming the update.

Polymarket has launched prediction markets to track IPOs and valuations of private companies, initially focusing on AI, fintech, and crypto unicorns. The early offerings include companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Stripe, and Kraken. This move allows users to speculate on the future valuations of these prominent private companies.

Tempo has partnered with Morpho, a DeFi lender worth $7.5 billion, to expand its services beyond payments. This move is backed by Stripe, a prominent online payment processing system. The partnership aims to further establish Tempo in the financial technology sector.

The author is looking for alternatives to Gunroad and Itch.io that offer cryptocurrency payouts instead of traditional payment methods like Paypal and Stripe. They express frustration with current options. The search is for platforms similar to Gunroad or Itch.io.

John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, discussing how agentic commerce will reshape the internet. The event took place from January 19-23 and featured various political leaders, executives, and celebrities. John Collison's discussion highlighted Stripe's perspective on the future of online commerce.

John Collison, co-founder of Stripe, discusses the potential impact of agentic commerce on e-commerce, where AI agents shop on behalf of consumers. This shift may require retailers to adapt their strategies. Stripe has experience with various e-commerce changes.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, testified in court and rejected Elon Musk's claims that OpenAI and Microsoft tried to 'steal a charity'. Altman argued that shifting to a for-profit structure was necessary to develop safe AI. The trial is part of Musk's lawsuit against Altman, OpenAI, and others.

Stripe has been acquiring companies to build a centralized platform, including Bridge for stablecoin infrastructure and Privy for embedded wallets, and has built its own Layer 1 blockchain called Tempo. This has raised concerns about the lack of diversified infrastructure and potential difficulty in leaving the platform. Stripe now controls every layer of the crypto payments stack.

The discovery hub now has 2,715 services across three protocols, with 1,169 L402 Lightning services added overnight. The API is free and open, and quality grades cover all services. A new feature called reverse bounties allows agents to refer other agents and get paid.

Venmo is undergoing a significant makeover as its parent company PayPal restructures to spin it off as a standalone business unit, potentially laying groundwork for a sale. Stripe has expressed interest in buying PayPal. The timing of Venmo's makeover is notable given these developments.