⚡ Mastercard launches new Crypto Partner Program

Mastercard Crypto Partner Program - a new global initiative that brings together more than 85 crypto‑native companies, payments providers, and financial institutions to create a forum for meaningful dialogue and collaboration as this space continues to mature.

🔥 Binance, BitGo, Circle, Gemini, Marqeta, MoonPay, Paxos, Ripple and WorldPay are among the companies to join. 🤝

As digital asset technologies mature, Mastercard will continue focusing on what it do best: enabling trust, setting standards and connecting systems at scale. By bridging on-chain innovation with the framework that powers everyday payments, Mastercard is helping ensure that what’s next works with what already does.

#Stellar

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💻 Human brain cells set to power two new data centers, thanks to 'body-in-the-box' CL1

Cortical Labs, the Australian tech startup behind the CL1 biological computer, has just announced a new partnership with data center company DayOne to establish the 2 data centers, powered by the ‘body-in-the-box’ CL1s, in Australia and Singapore. The company has already appeared with an update just a week ago that showcased its ability to play DOOM.

The CL1 units consist of a silicon chip with 200,000 lab-grown human neurons ‘grown’ on top, converted initially from human blood cells. These neurons respond to electrical stimuli to and from the chip, forming networks like the neural arrays in our own brains. The system is shown to be able to learn and adapt, with the CL1 equipped with life-support features that keep the conditions suitable for the neurons to remain alive for up to 6 months.

A facility in Melbourne, Australia, will consist of 120 CL1 units, but it expects its joint project in Singapore with DayOne to have about 1,000 units. The neural approach used by the CL1 requires far less energy than a typical computer, requiring only a fraction of that used by conventional AI chips.

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🔥 SG-FORGE’s EUR CoinVertible is now live on the Stellar network

As part of its multichain strategy, Societe Generale-FORGE (SG-FORGE) announces the successful deployment of its MiCA-compliant, EUR-backed stablecoin (EUR CoinVertible), on the Stellar network. This launch opens new opportunities for retail users and businesses to access a secure, transparent, and scalable digital euro stablecoin, powered by Stellar‘s innovative blockchain infrastructure.

With this integration, SG-FORGE aims to accelerate EUR CoinVertible adoption by enabling new use cases, which facilitate seamless crypto-to-crypto transactions between end users, and broader integration into financial applications and services. Following its deployments on Ethereum, Solana and the XRP Ledger, this launch strengthens SG-FORGE’s commitment to delivering compliant crypto-assets built on transparency, security and operational efficiency.

#Stellar

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⚡🔥 Ripple kicks off share buyback at $50 billion valuation

Ripple has kicked off a share buyback that would value the company at $50 billion, cementing it as one of the most valuable digital-asset firms at a moment of uncertainty for the cryptocurrency sector.

The company plans to buy back up to $750 million in shares from investors and employees. Ripple plans to run the tender offer through April.

The move highlights Ripple’s financial stability. Strong capital reserves allow the company to keep investing in products, partnerships, and infrastructure built around the XRP ecosystem.

#Stellar

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🛰 FCC says Amazon must focus on its own buildout, not SpaceX

The head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chastised Amazon.com Inc. for filing a petition critical of rival satellite operator SpaceX while Amazon itself is behind on meeting deployment obligations. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr suggested that Amazon overstepped in a request for regulators to deny SpaceX’s plan for a 1 million-satellite constellation.

"I think ⁠Amazon should focus on getting Amazon's house in order with their own launches and their own satellite constellation, rather than worrying about other people that are ‌actually ⁠out there launching satellites at the pace and cadence that SpaceX is," - FCC Chair ⁠Brendan Carr told.

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🇺🇸🛢 Trump signals US will tap oil reserve to ease price shock

President Donald Trump indicated he would tap the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help ease oil prices.

“The decision would substantially reduce the oil prices, as we end this threat to America and this threat to the world. We’ll do that — and then we’ll fill it up,” - Trump said. “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again. Right now we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.”

Earlier today, 32 member nations of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to President Trump’s request to lower energy prices with a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of oil and refined products from their respective reserves.

"As part of this effort, President Trump authorized the Department of Energy to release 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, beginning next week. This will take approximately 120 days to deliver based on planned discharge rates," - said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “Rest assured, America’s energy security is as strong as ever."

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🎮 Microsoft confirms next-gen Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, will be powered by custom AMD SoC and feature 'FSR Diamond'

At its GTC 2026 keynote, Microsoft took the wraps off Project Helix, announcing the first hardware details for the next-gen Xbox. The company reiterated how Helix will run both console and PC games, while confirming a partnership with AMD for its custom silicon, as expected.

The biggest new info from the presentation was a surprise reveal for AMD's next-gen FSR "Diamond" stack that will be deeply integrated within Project Helix. It seems like Project Helix is being built around neural rendering, and the next-gen FSR stack will play a big part in achieving this. Microsoft mentions next-gen ML-based upscaling and ray regeneration for both ray tracing and path tracing, which will be a first for consoles. The company even says Helix will support multi-frame-gen thanks to FSR Next.

The new "Xbox Mode" that debuted on Asus' Xbox Rog Ally devices will also be heading to Windows 11 this April.

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🚗 Nuro is testing its autonomous vehicle tech on Tokyo’s streets

Nuro, the Silicon Valley-based startup backed by Nvidia, Uber, and SoftBank, is testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Japan.

Toyota Prius vehicles equipped with Nuro’s self-driving software — and human safety operators behind the wheel as backup — began testing on public roads in Tokyo. Nuro said testing in Japan introduces a number of new challenges and different driving styles and rules. For instance, vehicles drive on the left side of the road, and Tokyo’s streets have dense traffic. Road signs and lane markings are also different in Japan.

The company did suggest that there will be future expansions. The testing marks the first overseas expansion for the startup, which upended its business model two years ago.

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🇺🇳 Top UN Body condemns Iran attacks against Gulf neighbors

The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution denouncing Iran’s attacks on its Gulf neighbors, calling on Iran to halt strikes that have disrupted global energy markets.

The top decision-making body at the UN voted Wednesday in favor of a resolution that condemned the strikes carried out by Iran using missiles and attack drones against Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Out of the 15 member states on the Security Council, 13 voted in favor, with China and Russia abstaining.

The resolution, proposed by Bahrain on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, decried Iran’s retaliation against a number of civilian targets, including energy facilities, as a violation of international law. It also called for freedom of navigation in international shipping lanes, including the Strait of Hormuz.

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⚡🔥 Bitget Wallet integrates Stellar network for stablecoin payments

Bitget Wallet has announced an integration with the Stellar blockchain network as part of upcoming Onchain Payments Matrix initiative to expand its stablecoin payment infrastructure, covering crypto card, QR payments, bank transfers, and on- and off-ramp functionality. The rollout will proceed in phases, with regional availability dependent on local payment integrations.

The integration is designed to leverage Stellar's fast settlement times and low transaction costs to support cross-border transfers, merchant payments, and consumer cash-out scenarios within a self-custodial wallet environment. Beyond payments, users will gain access to the Stellar mainnet, enabling them to hold, swap, and transfer supported assets.

Bitget Wallet has also indicated plans to introduce automated XLM distribution to reduce onboarding complexity by helping users meet network activation requirements and to expand real-world use cases for USDC and other stablecoins on the Stellar network.

#Stellar

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🇺🇸 US starts unfair trade practice investigations in Trump’s tariffs revival

The United States on Wednesday said it was launching unfair trade practice investigations into 16 ‌key trading partners, part of an urgent effort by President Donald Trump's administration to restore tariffs recently struck down by the U.S. Supreme ⁠Court.

The probes are being conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the U.S. Trade Representative to impose tariffs or other retaliatory measures against trading partners determined to employ ‌unfair ⁠trade practices. The administration alleges the 16 all employ policies that disadvantage U.S. goods producers, resulting in all but one ⁠of them running substantial goods trade surpluses with the U.S.

“Our view is that key trading partners have developed production capacity that is really untethered from the market incentives of domestic and global demand,” - US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.

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⚡️🇺🇸Trump: "The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money."

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🇮🇳 India plans new $11 billion fund to support local chipmaking

India plans to unveil a more than 1 trillion rupee ($10.8 billion) fund aimed at bolstering domestic chipmaking, advancing its ambitious bid to become a global manufacturing hub by 2032. The fund will provide subsidies for chip design projects, manufacturing equipment and supply chain development, and may be launched in two to three months.

India is hoping to woo major chipmakers to the world’s most populous country with its engineering, design talent as well as subsidies in much the same way it’s helped Apple Inc. expand in the region. The US giant now assembles 25% of iPhones in the South Asian nation.

#BRICS

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🤖 Google is using old news reports and AI to predict flash floods

Flash floods are among the deadliest weather events in the world, killing more than 5,000 people each year. They’re also among the most difficult to predict. But Google thinks it has cracked that problem in an unlikely way — by reading the news. It’s the first time that the company has used language models for this kind of work.

Google researchers used Gemini to sort through 5 million news articles from around the world, isolating reports of 2.6 million different floods, and turning those reports into a geo-tagged time series dubbed “Groundsource.” With Groundsource as a real-world baseline, the researchers trained a model built on a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network to ingest weather global forecasts and generate the probability of flash floods in a given area.

Google’s flash flood forecasting model is now highlighting risks for urban areas in 150 countries on the company’s Flood Hub platform, and sharing its data with emergency response agencies around the world. The Southern African Development Community has already trialed the forecasting model and said it helped the organization to respond to floods more quickly.

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🇰🇷🇬🇭 South Korea and Ghana to expand cooperation on climate, tech and maritime security

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Ghanaian President John ‌Mahama signed 3 ​agreements, including a climate-change cooperation accord, ⁠a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on ​technology and digital innovation, and a ​separate maritime safety and security MOU between the Korea Coast Guard and the Ghana Navy.

Ghana holds significant reserves of bauxite, manganese, gold, ​lithium and ​nickel, ⁠and hopes to partner with South Korea to jointly ​explore the resources and strengthen ​value-chain ⁠cooperation. 🤝

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💡 Tesla obtains license to supply electricity in Britain

Elon Musk's Tesla can soon start supplying British homes with electricity after it was granted ​a licence on Thursday, bringing a new competitor into ‌the market at a time of heightened worries over rising bills. The country's energy regulator Ofgem said Tesla Energy Ventures, a unit of Tesla had ​now been approved as an electricity supplier.

The new licence positions ⁠Tesla for expansion ​in Britain, where it will look to use its solar ​energy and battery storage business to directly compete with existing household suppliers such as Octopus Energy, British Gas. Tesla Motors Limited, another ​subsidiary, already has an electricity generation licence in Britain.

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🤝 SEC and CFTC commit to work together on crypto policy and introduction of new products

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) signed a memorandum of understanding to coordinate crypto policy and broader financial market regulation.

🔥 The two agencies said the agreement will guide collaboration aimed at supporting lawful innovation while maintaining market integrity and investor protection.

🔥 Officials plan to work jointly on developing a federal, "fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for crypto assets and other emerging financial technologies."

🔥 The SEC and CFTC also committed to coordinating efforts to remove regulatory obstacles to the lawful introduction of crypto asset products.

🔥 SEC Chair Paul Atkins said longstanding turf battles and overlapping rules between regulators have historically slowed innovation and pushed firms offshore.

🔥 CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agreement will help modernize U.S. regulatory frameworks and harmonize oversight across financial markets.

“By working together, we’ll eliminate duplicative, burdensome rules and close gaps in regulation for the benefit of all Americans and usher in a Golden Age of American finance,” - said CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig.

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🇨🇺🇺🇸 Cuban President acknowledges talks with the Trump administration

Facing a massive energy crisis and increasing protests on the streets, President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba on Friday announced that his government had been engaging in talks with the Trump administration, marking the first time the Caribbean country confirms such speculation.

“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions, through dialogue, to the bilateral differences between our two nations. The talks are also needed in part to determine the willingness of both sides to take concrete actions for the benefit of the people of both countries,”- said Mr. Díaz-Canel.

Cuba’s western region was hit by a massive blackout last week, leaving millions without power. The country which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand.

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