hodler

7 May 2026, 22:31

Solv Protocol Will Dump LayerZero, Migrate $700M Tokenized Bitcoin Tech to Chainlink

Solv Protocol will move its tokenized Bitcoin infrastructure to Chainlink, following Kelp DAO's lead after it blamed LayerZero for a hack.

7 May 2026, 22:30

Two Days Left: Get 50% Off a Second Pass to Bitcoin World Disrupt 2026

BitcoinWorld Two Days Left: Get 50% Off a Second Pass to Bitcoin World Disrupt 2026 Bitcoin World Disrupt 2026 is offering a limited-time promotion: buy one pass and receive 50% off a second pass of the same type. The offer expires on May 8, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT. After this deadline, ticket prices will increase, and the discount will no longer be available. The event is scheduled for October 13–15, 2026, in San Francisco, California. Event Details and Speaker Lineup Bitcoin World Disrupt 2026 is expected to gather over 10,000 founders, investors, and technology leaders. The three-day program includes more than 250 sessions covering topics such as artificial intelligence, fintech, climate technology, biotech, hardware, and cybersecurity. Confirmed speakers include Nina Achadjian, Partner at Index Ventures; Rajeev Dham, Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures; Josh Reeves, CEO and Co-founder of Gusto; Grant Lee, CEO and Co-founder of Gamma; and Shailendra Singh, Managing Director at Peak XV. The full lineup continues to expand. Startup Battlefield 200 and Networking Opportunities A central feature of Disrupt is the Startup Battlefield 200, where early-stage companies pitch live to a panel of venture capitalists and a global audience. This session provides visibility into what investors are currently prioritizing and how founders respond to real-time feedback. Attendees also have access to roundtables, the Deal Flow Café, and curated networking sessions designed to facilitate direct connections between investors and startup teams. Why the Discount Matters for Attendees The 50% discount on a second pass is designed to encourage attendees to bring a co-founder, colleague, or partner. Organizers emphasize that having a second person allows for real-time comparison of insights from sessions and conversations, which can accelerate decision-making on product direction, fundraising strategy, and hiring. The offer applies to all pass types: Founder, Investor, Attendee, Non-profit, and Expo+. Conclusion With two days remaining before the May 8 deadline, the promotion offers a cost-effective way for teams to attend a major technology conference. After the deadline, standard pricing applies. For those considering attendance, the decision to register now locks in both the discount and the opportunity to participate in what organizers describe as a high-density environment for market intelligence and networking. FAQs Q1: When does the 50% off second pass offer end? The offer ends on May 8, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Q2: Can I use the discount on any pass type? Yes, the promotion applies to all pass types: Founder, Investor, Attendee, Non-profit, and Expo+. Q3: Is the discount automatically applied at checkout? Attendees should verify the discount is applied during registration. The offer requires purchasing one pass at full price to receive 50% off a second pass of the same type. This post Two Days Left: Get 50% Off a Second Pass to Bitcoin World Disrupt 2026 first appeared on BitcoinWorld .

7 May 2026, 21:31

Voi founders raise $16M from a16z for new AI startup Pit, aiming to automate enterprise back offices

BitcoinWorld Voi founders raise $16M from a16z for new AI startup Pit, aiming to automate enterprise back offices Stockholm has produced another artificial intelligence startup worth watching. Pit, founded by the co-founders of European scooter giant Voi, has secured a $16 million seed round led by prominent venture capital firm a16z. The company is building an AI-powered platform designed to automate internal business processes for large enterprises, positioning itself as an “AI product team as a service.” From scooters to software agents Pit is led by CEO Adam Jafer, who spent seven years at Voi, helping scale the company to nearly 1,000 employees across 13 countries. He is joined by Voi CEO Fredrik Hjelm, who remains at the helm of Voi but is listed as a Pit co-founder, and Filip Lindvall, another Voi co-founder who serves as a founding engineer at Pit. The engineering team also includes former iZettle and Klarna engineers, as well as Andreas Hjelm, Fredrik Hjelm’s brother. Jafer told Bitcoin World that his vision for Pit emerged from watching AI models evolve from simple chatbots into agentic systems capable of executing tasks. “The aha moment for the bigger opportunity was when the models were no longer just chatbots that generate text, but became more agentic and could do things,” he said. Initially, he saw an opportunity to replace low-hanging SaaS tools with custom in-house apps, but quickly recognized a broader market need. How Pit differentiates in a crowded market The startup enters a competitive space filled with AI agent-building platforms and vibe-coding tools. Pit aims to stand out with a two-part product offering: Pit Studio, which allows enterprise employees to guide the system through processes that could be automated; and Pit Cloud, which delivers the resulting software with enterprise-grade governance, certifications, and auditability. Pit began pilot testing in mid-January with customers in telecom, healthcare, and logistics, focusing exclusively on internal processes. “Nothing customer facing, no conversational AI, just pure back-office, service and support functions that we turn into automations so that you can give back time to people to focus on your core business,” Jafer said. Enterprise sales and European advantage Pit is hiring solution engineers — a trend among AI companies deploying forward-deployed engineers (FDEs) to drive enterprise adoption. Jafer emphasized that large customers are “looking to buy outcomes. They want processes to go faster.” He also noted that Pit is not positioning itself as a job-cutting tool, but rather as a way to move employees “upstream to do more valuable things for the business.” The startup’s European DNA could also prove advantageous. “We’re going after industrials, and there’s plenty of that in Europe,” Jafer said. He added that clients appreciate Pit’s agnostic approach to AI and cloud vendors, which allows it to align with sovereign tech preferences. “EU models running on EU compute is top of mind for almost every CIO we’re meeting,” he said. Controversy and team composition Pit has not been without controversy. Jafer posted on LinkedIn in recent months that “agents now do most of what junior engineers used to do,” a statement he has since softened. “It may have started like that, but you need a good mix as you scale,” he said with a smile. Fredrik Hjelm also addressed the all-male appearance of the founding team on X, writing that while the company was “founded by tech bros, from Voi and Klarna,” it now includes women on the team. Bitcoin World confirmed that Pit employs at least one woman in a communications role. a16z’s bet on Stockholm The $16 million seed round was led by a16z, with participation from Lakestar, Pit’s founders, and Nordic family offices. Hjelm explained that the relationship with a16z began years ago when partners visited Stockholm to explore European tech opportunities. “We didn’t need the money to get going, but we wanted the strongest backers we could find,” he said. The round closed quickly, with Jafer confirming that Pit spent little time shopping the deal to other firms. Stockholm has emerged as one of Europe’s most active startup hubs, home to other AI successes like Lovable. a16z has been actively scouting the region for the next European unicorn, and Pit fits that profile. Conclusion Pit enters a competitive market with a clear focus on automating internal enterprise processes, a strong founding team from Voi, and backing from a top-tier venture firm. Its success will depend on execution, differentiation, and its ability to meet the demanding governance and security requirements of large enterprise clients. For now, it is another sign that Stockholm’s AI ecosystem is maturing rapidly. FAQs Q1: What does Pit’s AI platform actually do? Pit builds custom software that automates internal business processes like back-office tasks, service and support functions, using AI agents that learn from the client’s operations. Q2: Who are the founders of Pit? Pit was founded by Fredrik Hjelm (CEO of Voi), Adam Jafer (former Voi executive), and Filip Lindvall (Voi co-founder). The engineering team includes former iZettle and Klarna engineers. Q3: How much funding has Pit raised and from whom? Pit raised a $16 million seed round led by a16z, with participation from Lakestar, the founders, and Nordic family offices. This post Voi founders raise $16M from a16z for new AI startup Pit, aiming to automate enterprise back offices first appeared on BitcoinWorld .

7 May 2026, 21:18

Block beats adjusted profit expectations, but it posted a $308.7 million net loss for the first quarter

Block (NYSE: SQ) gave Wall Street a messy first-quarter report. The payments company beat adjusted profit expectations and lifted its 2026 gross profit forecast, but it also reported a $308.7 million net loss for common stockholders. The Jack Dorsey-led company now expects $12.33 billion in full-year gross profit for 2026. Its old forecast was $12.20 billion. The stock rose 7% after hours, after gaining about 9% this year before the earnings release. Block said, “We delivered year-over-year gross profit growth of 27% in the first quarter, with growth accelerating across both Cash App and Square.” It also said adjusted operating income grew 56% from last year because of “disciplined execution and gross profit strength.” Block raises its 2026 forecast as Cash App lending jumps and Square keeps growing Block benefited from a U.S. consumer that kept spending in the first three months of 2026. The labor market stayed steady, wages kept rising, and tax refunds gave households extra cash. Gasoline prices also climbed after the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which pushed up receipts at service stations. Block’s gross profit rose to $2.91 billion in the March quarter. That was up from $2.29 billion a year earlier. The company also reported $2.54 billion in June 2025, $2.66 billion in September 2025, and $2.87 billion in December 2025. That puts March 2026 above every quarter shown in the latest table. Source: Block Cash App did a lot of the heavy lifting. The peer-to-peer payments unit posted a 38% increase in gross profit. Its consumer lending originations rose 82% to $17.6 billion from last year. Square also grew faster in the quarter, giving Block another lift from merchants. The company did not break out every Square line in the notes provided, but it said growth improved across both core businesses. Block’s report landed during a good earnings season for payments companies. Visa (NYSE: V) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) also posted strong results, giving investors another sign that card spending and digital payments stayed firm. Block’s adjusted profit was $513 million, or 85 cents per share, for the three months ended March 31. Last year, adjusted profit was $355 million, or 56 cents per share. Adjusted operating income reached $727.7 million, compared with $466.3 million in March 2025. The margin for that figure rose to 25% of gross profit, from 20% last year. Block takes a heavy charge as restructuring costs and bitcoin losses hit the bottom line The tough part was the cost side. Block booked $852 million in restructuring and other charges in the first quarter. That included $742.8 million in contingencies, restructuring, and other charges, plus $109.5 million in restructuring share-based compensation. Earlier this year, Block said it would cut more than 4,000 jobs as part of a wider overhaul tied to artificial intelligence across its operations. The company is trying to get leaner, but the first-quarter numbers show the cost of doing that right now. The company posted an operating loss of $172.0 million in March 2026. That compared with operating income of $329.3 million in March 2025, $484.3 million in June 2025, $409.4 million in September 2025, and $485.4 million in December 2025. Source: Block Block’s amortization of acquired technology assets was $12.8 million. Acquisition-related and integration costs were $362,000. Amortization of customer and other acquired intangibles reached $34.2 million. The net loss figure was $308.6 million after including $86,000 tied to noncontrolling interests. Share-based compensation was $229.2 million. Depreciation and amortization came in at $96.0 million. Interest expense rose to $53.2 million. Block also recorded a $172.8 million remeasurement loss on its bitcoin investment, compared with a $93.4 million loss from the same item last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.01 billion, up from $812.8 million last year. Its margin stayed at 35% of gross profit, the same level as March 2025. That margin was 35% in June 2025, 31% in September 2025, and 32% in December 2025. Block’s total net revenue was $6.06 billion. Commerce enablement revenue was $2.94 billion, financial solutions revenue was $1.32 billion, and bitcoin ecosystem revenue was $1.80 billion. That bitcoin line was down from $2.33 billion last year. Total cost of revenue fell to $3.15 billion, with $1.32 billion from commerce enablement costs, $89 million from financial solutions costs, $1.73 billion from bitcoin ecosystem costs, and $13 million from acquired technology amortization. Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free .

7 May 2026, 21:00

The rise of digital twins is letting firms bypass real people to boost profits

Large companies are moving away from traditional surveys and turning to AI-generated replicas of real people, a shift that offers faster insights but also sparks concerns about employment and data privacy. A viral TikTok can make a brand famous in hours, but many companies still rely on twelve-week research cycles. By the time results arrive, the data is often obsolete. There’s often a delay between getting feedback and understanding what it means. Because of this, big companies can struggle to respond quickly when trends change fast. Many companies believe that digital twins are the solution. These are digital copies of real things, systems, or even people. Companies use them to try out ideas and see what might happen before doing it in real life. Major banks and pharmaceutical companies are already utilizing this technology to predict how people would react to important events or freshly released items. Testing happens in seconds instead of weeks The technology is currently gaining momentum in high-tech businesses. Researchers at the University of Glasgow built a digital twin system that uses machine learning to check computer networks. Their new method can measure how well a network is working in just 4.78 seconds. Older methods took about 33 hours to do the same job. Because it is so much faster, engineers can test many more situations, especially as networks become more complex. The same demand for quick information is altering consumer research. A startup named Brox has generated 60,000 digital duplicates of actual individuals. These are not simply estimates, but highly detailed profiles based on extensive interviews, with some comprising up to 300 pages of material about a single person. Instead of depending primarily on traditional statistical models, firms may now run multiple simulations in hours rather than months. Hamish Brocklebank, who runs Brox, explained the difference. “You can create 10,000 truly synthetic digital twins [using LLMs], but the answers will still normalize into a very tight distribution, which is not realistic when you’re actually asking real people,” he said. Because Brox already has these twins ready to go, a major pharmaceutical company can ask the digital crowd questions and get reliable results in hours, skipping the entire step of finding real people to interview. Automation targets higher-paid workers The rapid push toward automation has a disadvantage. According to MIT economist Daron Acemoglu , many businesses utilize automation primarily to save money rather than to increase efficiency. According to his research, employers are more willing to replace people with higher compensation. The study also demonstrated a significant impact on income inequality. Automation accounted for 52% of the increase in income disparity between 1980 and 2016. Acemoglu noted that the higher a worker’s pay, the more corporations are incentivized to automate that position. He also argued that this focus on cutting labor costs has reduced many of automation’s potential benefits. According to the research, efforts to lower wages erased 60% to 90% of the productivity gains automation was supposed to create, resulting in what he described as relatively weak productivity growth. Privacy is also becoming an important problem. A team at IMDEA Networks Institute uncovered that prominent AI systems , including ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity AI, use tracking techniques developed by Google and TikTok. These trackers may collect information about what users talk about, such as chat titles and web addresses. Digital twins are formed utilizing highly personal information, such as childhood experiences, behaviors, and relationships. When paired with third-party tracking, these technologies can gather and handle massive volumes of sensitive data. The AI simulation and digital twin industry is expected to reach $21.33 billion by 2030. *]:pointer-events-auto [content-visibility:auto] supports-[content-visibility:auto]:[contain-intrinsic-size:auto_100lvh] R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" data-turn-id="request-WEB:c37a672c-c3b7-4143-bc66-bf1250cca7b4-4" data-testid="conversation-turn-10" data-scroll-anchor="false" data-turn="assistant"> As companies use more and more very realistic virtual versions instead of real people, there are growing concerns about losing jobs and about privacy. Another issue is how real these systems can look. Digital twins and AI tools can seem so real that some people might even think they are truly conscious or “alive.” Your bank is using your money. You’re getting the scraps. Watch our free video on becoming your own bank

7 May 2026, 19:50

Bumble to kill the swipe in major app overhaul as CEO bets on AI dating

BitcoinWorld Bumble to kill the swipe in major app overhaul as CEO bets on AI dating Bumble is preparing to abandon the swipe, the signature gesture that defined a generation of dating apps. In an interview with Axios on Thursday, CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd confirmed that the company will remove swiping as part of a comprehensive app redesign scheduled for the final quarter of this year. Why Bumble is ditching its defining feature The decision comes after several quarters of declining user numbers. In the first quarter of this year, Bumble’s paying user base fell 21% to 3.2 million, down from 4 million in the same period last year. The company has been under pressure from investors to reverse the trend, and the redesign represents a significant strategic shift. Wolfe Herd described the move as a deliberate reset. “We made a clear choice to prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on well-intentioned, engaged members,” she said during this week’s earnings call. “That decision reduced overall scale, but meaningfully improved the health of our ecosystem.” The role of AI in Bumble’s future Bumble is expected to lean heavily into artificial intelligence with the new interface. The company is developing an AI dating assistant called Bee, and Wolfe Herd has repeatedly described AI as “a supercharger to love and relationships.” While dating apps already use algorithms to suggest matches, Bumble’s vision appears more ambitious, including concepts such as personal AI bots that could interact with other bots on behalf of users. However, the approach carries risks. Gen Z users have shown growing skepticism toward overt AI features in social platforms, and some of Wolfe Herd’s described futures evoke dystopian scenarios that may not resonate with younger demographics. What the redesign means for users Until the overhaul launches later this year, users will continue swiping as usual. The company has not yet revealed what will replace the gesture, but early signals suggest a more profile-focused, context-rich interaction model. The shift reflects a broader industry reckoning: dating app fatigue is real, and companies are searching for ways to make digital matchmaking feel less transactional and more meaningful. Conclusion Bumble’s decision to remove swiping is a high-stakes bet that could redefine the dating app category — or fail to win back disillusioned users. With AI at the center of its new strategy, the company is betting that technology can solve the very problems it helped create. Whether users agree will become clear when the redesigned app launches later this year. FAQs Q1: When will Bumble remove the swipe feature? The new interface is expected to launch in the last quarter of this year. Until then, the swipe will remain available. Q2: Why is Bumble getting rid of swiping? The company has seen a significant decline in paying users — down 21% year-over-year — and believes the swipe mechanic no longer serves its goal of fostering meaningful connections. Q3: What will replace swiping on Bumble? Bumble has not yet detailed the replacement, but the redesign is expected to incorporate AI-driven features, including a dating assistant called Bee. This post Bumble to kill the swipe in major app overhaul as CEO bets on AI dating first appeared on BitcoinWorld .