MiniMax to Receive Incremental Southbound Capital, Set to Be Included in Hong Kong Stock Connect Tomorrow

Mastercard and stablecoin network Borderless will launch a pilot project to explore whether Mastercard’s Crypto Credential standard framework can provide compliance signals for cross-border stablecoin payments, helping participants integrate the framework into their own approval, compliance and risk processes. Kevin Lehtiniitty, co-founder and CEO of Borderless, said that Mastercard is applying the correspondent banking trust model to digital asset payments in this initiative, with Crypto Credential serving as a governance and verification layer, and Mastercard itself will not participate in fund processing or settlement.

According to GMGN data, the Robinhood Chain meme coin CASHCAT has rebounded to a market cap exceeding $100 million, surging over 27.8% in the past 24 hours with a 24-hour trading volume of $20.1 million. BlockBeats reminds users that meme coins are highly volatile, and investors should exercise caution regarding associated risks.

US July ADP employment data released today shows 44,000 jobs added, against an expectation of 70,000 and a prior reading of 98,000. US private sector hiring slowed sharply in July, with most new positions coming from the healthcare sector. The ADP report states that seasonally adjusted non-farm payroll growth (excluding government sectors) came in at 44,000 for the month, lower than the downwardly revised 95,000 in June and also below the market forecast of 75,000. Overall, all job growth came from the service sector, which added 47,000 positions, while goods-producing firms cut 3,000 jobs. Among these roles, the education and health services sector created 36,000 jobs, continuing its long-standing trend of leading employment growth. Financial activities added 10,000 positions, professional and business services contributed 9,000, and other service categories saw a 6,000 increase. ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said: "Job seekers are extremely sensitive to real-time economic conditions, and the rapid rise in their wages indicates supply constraints in some parts of the labor market. At the same time, as employers respond to changing macroeconomic conditions, typical hiring patterns are also shifting."

Visa announced a partnership with on-chain infrastructure provider Zerohash to integrate stablecoin functionality into its Visa Direct platform. Eligible customers will be able to use stablecoins to pre-fund merchant accounts, as well as conduct fund transfers and payments via stablecoins. Visa Direct currently connects over 195 countries and regions worldwide, with more than 18 billion endpoints, covering bank cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets. The integration aims to boost capital deployment efficiency, settlement flexibility, and fund arrival speed in cross-border payments. Zerohash will provide underlying technology and compliance support. The company previously became the first enterprise to obtain a license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and hold e-money institution status.

The Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security initiative has announced a grant to the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) to support the continued development of its open-source tool WEBCAT. WEBCAT enables browsers to verify that code provided by registered websites matches the version released by developers. For Ethereum users, when accessing dApp websites, browsers load and execute the site’s code. If that code is tampered with, wallets could have their receiving addresses swapped or be tricked into signing unintended transactions—and a simple connection alone cannot confirm whether the page has been altered. The Trillion Dollar Security (TDS) initiative has identified front-end attacks as an infrastructure risk and has prioritized verifiable front-ends as its next focus area. Part of FPF’s motivation for building WEBCAT is that its SecureDrop anonymous whistleblowing system will require verifiable browser code in the future; the code integrity risk is identical to the browser front-end risks faced by Ethereum users. The grant will fund the development of a WEBCAT verification library that can be integrated into wallets, letting users gain protection without installing a separate extension. It will also support research into Chrome and Chromium browser compatibility, integration assistance for teams, an independent security audit, and the creation of an ERC standard—so wallet developers have a standardized framework to follow.

Google is in advanced talks with San Francisco-based AI programming agent startup Mechanize for a deal valued at over $1.5 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, the deal will involve Google bringing in some of Mechanize’s talent and licensing its technology on a non-exclusive basis. The talent Google plans to recruit will focus on model evaluation and development. The AI programming segment has become one of the most important and profitable areas in current AI applications, and such deals will directly accelerate Google’s own AI coding capabilities. Over the past two years, Google has structured multiple acquisitions as hybrid deals combining talent recruitment and technology licensing rather than full takeovers, partly to avoid antitrust scrutiny that could stem from direct full acquisitions. The negotiation model with Mechanize—hiring some employees and licensing technology instead of a full acquisition—marks a continuation of the creative approach large Silicon Valley tech firms are adopting to secure core technology and talent in the AI race.