🤑 Ripple and SettleMint partner to provide digital asset custody and tokenization for financial institutions in Asia Pacific

Ripple and SettleMint, a global leader in Digital Asset Lifecycle Management, have announced a strategic partnership offering regulated financial institutions a unified solution to custody, issue, and manage tokenized assets across their full lifecycle.

❗️The partnership integrates Ripple Custody and SettleMint’s DALP (Digital Asset Lifecycle Platform). Ripple and SettleMint have already commenced their partnership offering in Asia and plan to extend this to other markets as institutional demand develops.

The integration of digital assets and tokenized financial products has become essential for the future of banking and the traditional financial sector. In Boston Consulting Group's report, "The Future of Digital Assets," published in May 2026, the firm identifies the shift toward digital assets as a fundamental restructuring of financial infrastructure, projecting that tokenized RWAs could reach $88 trillion by 2035. 💸

"Global capital markets are moving fully on-chain, and that shift only works when digital asset custody and lifecycle management operate as one system rather than two," — said Adam Popat, CEO of SettleMint.

"Combining Ripple Custody and DALP gives institutions that single foundation, and this partnership lets us bring it to regulated markets globally." 🤝

#Stellar

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🇺🇸📱 X Money is now available to all Premium and Premium+ subscribers with U.S. accounts

The payment service began its gradual rollout back in July, but access has still not been available to all users.

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🏦 Citi, Goldman, other global banks and asset managers team up on stablecoin venture

A group of 21 financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and UBS, plans to form a company that will issue stablecoins for payments and digital asset transactions. The company, which is yet to be named, is expected to be established in the second half of the year, subject to closing conditions.

❗️The venture plans to start with a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin and bring the product to market in the first half of 2027. It aims to add stablecoins tied to other Group of Seven currencies later, with a euro-denominated token being a priority.

The project grew from an initiative announced in October 2025, when 10 banks said they were exploring a digital payment asset backed one-for-one by reserves and available on public blockchains.

Participants now span North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. They include Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank, Santander, Fidelity Investments, MUFG Bank and Standard Bank, alongside other banks and investment firms.

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🧑‍⚖️ California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law

California’s legislature has passed Assembly Bill 1856, exempting open-source operating systems from the State’s Digital Age Assurance Act months before the law is due to take effect on January 1, 2027. The Senate amended the Bill on August 21 before passing it on the 26th in a 39-0 vote, with the Assembly then accepting these changes in a concurrence vote the following day.

The amendment ends almost a year of uncertainty surrounding whether Linux distributions and SteamOS would be forced to collect user age data during account setup alongside Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. AB 1856 has now been sent to Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the original act into law last October.

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💊 ChatGPT Health adds Epic integration for clinicians to import patient data

OpenAI is integrating ChatGPT Health with Epic’s electronic health record (EHR) system, which holds data for over 325 million patients, to let clinicians import patient data and use AI to ask questions. The company said that in certain systems, it will also integrate ChatGPT directly within EHR workflows.

With ChatGPT, clinicians can now access information like appointment notes, laboratory results, medications, and specialist documentation and summarize them easily. They can also look at patient history, identify changes, and prepare for future appointments.

OpenAI said that in some deployments, clinicians can directly access ChatGPT for getting pre-visit review and building clinical timelines without leaving a patient chart. The company specified that the integration allows only read-only access to health records, and AI doesn’t write anything back.

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🇺🇸 Florida Bans Flock Cameras, License Plate Readers From State Roads

The Florida Department of Transportation revoked all permits for local law-enforcement agencies to operate license-plate reader systems, ordering any that have been installed removed from state roadways within 30 days.

The department said in a memo that use of the devices had seen an exponential increase, and that “concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns, and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”

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🤖 Anthropic Launches Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1.

They’re the world’s most advanced models for coding and knowledge work — and their research capabilities offer an early glimpse of how AI models will contribute to scientific progress.

Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1 are the same model, but with different levels of safeguards. Fable 5.1 is generally available, while Mythos 5.1 is available only through our trusted access programs; its safeguards are specifically designed to support work in cybersecurity and the life sciences.

Fable 5.1 can now be used to discover software vulnerabilities — though not to develop exploits for them. In biology, Anthropic has established an access program, developed in partnership with the US government, to enable access to Claude Mythos 5.1’s advanced biology capabilities.

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump:

WE ARE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AND BEST ECONOMY, and we are keeping it that way.

Other Countries should follow our lead, and cut Taxes, Regulations and, where possible, DRILL BABY DRILL. GROWTH, GROWTH, GROWTH.

We are leading the way, and the World is watching!

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⚡️💫 NASA Selects Blue Origin as Mars Telecommunications Network Provider

NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract worth up to $700 million to develop the Mars Telecommunications Network, including a high-performance communications orbiter to support future Mars missions by Dec. 31, 2028.

Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch, and operate the network as a part of the agency’s broader space communications and navigation infrastructure. The architecture will consist of a high-performance telecommunications spacecraft orbiting Mars, transmitting science data, imagery, navigation information, and critical mission communications for spacecraft operating on and around the planet.

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🌐 G20 Signals Support for Digital Assets and Responsible Innovation

There’s a notable nod to digital assets in the G20 Chair’s Statement released by Scott Bessent, with finance ministers and central bank governors from the 20 largest economies recognizing the potential of digital assets to support economic growth and committing to create “clear pathways” for responsible innovation. 🚀

The statement also calls for improvements to cross-border payments, including keeping the systems banks and central banks use to move large or time-sensitive payments open longer, encouraging wider use of ISO 20022 (a common global messaging standard used by banks), and making it easier to transmit financial services data across borders.

The group is also awaiting findings from the Financial Stability Board on the cross-border implications of global stablecoins.

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🤑🤑 Firelight raises $8 million, expands beyond XRP as it aims to make DeFi less scary for fintechs

Firelight Protocol raised $8 million to build an onchain protection layer for DeFi with plans to expand the assets backing its cover system beyond XRP to BTC and Stellar's XLM. Firelight, which was incubated by Sentora, plans to launch the protocol and its first cover integrations in September.

❗️The project is tackling a problem that has become more pressing as fintechs and other mainstream financial firms experiment with onchain yield: DeFi can offer attractive returns, but a single smart-contract exploit can wipe out customer funds, while traditional insurance can take months to pay. Firelight is trying to bridge that gap with dedicated cover capital and a claims process designed to settle eligible losses in about 10 days.

“This isn’t built for degens,” — he said. “This is built to bring the next wave of capital in. We want to be that protection layer to allow that adoption.”

DeMartino said he expects more money currently sitting in bank accounts to migrate into fintech earn products powered by stablecoins, onchain vaults and wallets. 🚀

#Stellar

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🤖 Elon Musk says AI will beat humans at anything digital by the end of 2027

At the G20 tech forum, Elon Musk estimated digital AI alone could lift the global economy by 20 to 30%, or about 20 to 30 trillion dollars a year. He said within about a year AI should do almost anything digital. Musk also said AI writing software will be "Stockfish-level" in 12 to 18 months, past what humans can match.

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🤖 OpenAI's Astra Model Hits Critical Cybersecurity Threshold

OpenAI announced Astra has reached the 'Critical' level in its Preparedness Framework, the first model to do so, based on benchmarks where it scored 100% on ExploitBench and uncovered unknown vulnerabilities.

"As we prepare to release Astra, we’re focused on making increasingly capable AI safe and broadly accessible. Astra represents a significant advance in cybersecurity capability, reaching the Critical threshold under our Preparedness Framework," — OpenAI said.

The company plans a soon release with strong safeguards like high refusal rates and limited initial access for advanced cyber features to trusted testers via Daybreak Blue.

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🧑‍⚖️ SEC Proposes to Modernize Rules for Registered Transfer Agents

Transfer agents are a key component of the national clearance and settlement system. Transfer agents now perform a more diverse array of functions and services that may not be adequately addressed by the Commission’s transfer agent rules, which have not been substantively updated since the first rules were adopted in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

❗️The rule proposal would modernize the federal transfer agent rules, while continuing to facilitate the safe and efficient functioning of the U.S. securities markets and the national clearance and settlement system.

“This proposal would streamline and modernize the Commission’s rules to reflect transfer agents’ current processes and operations, including the use of electronic communications and blockchain technology in connection with securities offerings and the transfer of shares,” — said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins.

🔜 The proposed rule updates reflect the technological environment in which transfer agents operate, including the widespread use of electronic recordkeeping and communications, and the services they provide to issuers, investors, and other market intermediaries.

🔜 The proposal would amend existing rules and forms, would rescind a rule, and would introduce new rules that apply to registered transfer agents and their activities.

The proposing release is published on SEC.gov and will be published in the Federal Register. The public comment period will remain open for 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register.

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🧠 Scientists find a human-only gene that may help explain our brainpower

Microglia are the brain's most abundant immune cells. They help protect the brain from harmful invaders, clear away damaged neurons, and support normal brain development. Researchers at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute have now found for the first time that human microglia, much like human neurons, mature far more slowly than comparable cells in other animals.

"This slow development may help human microglia influence the human brain in ways that enable our powerful cognitive abilities," — said Carlos Diaz-Salazar, PhD, the lead author of a new Neuron study on the subject.

📝 During development, microglia influence which synapses neurons retain and which ones are eliminated. They can also make synapses more or less responsive, helping fine-tune communication within brain circuits.

The new findings suggest that SRGAP2, one of several dozen genes that were duplicated specifically in humans, may help coordinate this slow developmental pace across multiple kinds of brain cells, including neurons and microglia. The researchers now want to determine exactly how the gene promotes neoteny in these cells and in other parts of the brain.

"We want to understand all the elements that help make up the human brain to understand what makes us unique from an evolutionary standpoint," — Dr. Polleux said.

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🔥 SEC Announces Agenda and Panelists for Roundtable on Preparations for 24-Hour Trading

The SEC announced the agenda and panelists for its Sept. 17, 2026, roundtable on preparations for 24-hour trading.

🔜 Panel One will examine preparations for the launch of 24‑hour trading, focusing on exchange and broker‑dealer readiness, overnight surveillance, closing‑price processes, clearance and settlement changes, and investor‑protection practices. The panel will also highlight what has been completed, what remains, and expected liquidity conditions as markets move toward near‑continuous trading.

🔜 Panel Two will explore operational resiliency in a 24‑hour market, including systems readiness, Regulation SCI considerations, failover and capacity planning, market‑data continuity, shortened maintenance windows, cybersecurity, and staffing models for overnight operations. The panel will focus on how firms are preparing to maintain orderly markets during continuous trading.

🔜 Panel Three will discuss expected impacts on liquidity and capital formation as trading expands, including how market participation may evolve, potential effects on issuers, and considerations for “Day 2” regulatory and market‑structure initiatives. The panel will also look ahead to future expansions toward 24x7 trading and the infrastructure changes required to support them.

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