Fed Mouthpiece: Friday’s Inflation Report Is Key to Whether the Federal Reserve Will Raise Interest Rates

On-chain risk coverage platform OpenCover has announced it is expanding its institutional-grade risk protection to the Solana network. Eligible positions can now access coverage, with the initial rollout covering Kamino, Raydium, Orca, and Jupiter. Specific coverage scope, limits, and terms vary by protocol and position. OpenCover primarily provides on-chain risk protection for DeFi users, connecting them to underwriters including Nexus Mutual. Following this expansion, Solana ecosystem users can now purchase coverage for risks such as smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle failures or manipulation, liquidation failures, and governance attacks. According to a prior announcement from Nexus Mutual, it has now launched four coverage products on Solana for Kamino, Raydium, Orca, and Jupiter, covering nearly 90% of the Solana lending market’s total funds. Of these, Kamino and Jupiter hold over $1 billion and $925 million in lending deposits respectively. OpenCover noted that this launch marks the start of its further expansion of risk transfer infrastructure on Solana, and it will subsequently partner with protocols, asset management firms, and liquidity providers to expand the range of positions eligible for coverage.

Beating AI News Flash: Financial AI platform Rogo has secured an additional ~$30 million in strategic investment, with Citigroup, Barclays, BNP Paribas, MUFG, and Société Générale all participating. Adding to its existing strategic investors JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Truist, at least eight banks now hold strategic stakes in Rogo. Originally focused on building models, creating presentations, and conducting research for investment banks, Rogo has expanded its services to offer AI assistants for bank wealth management advisors. The tool can audit client portfolios, analyze client relationships, and help advisors develop more personalized recommendations. Major banks including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are already using Rogo. Rogo closed a $160 million Series D funding round in April this year, which valued the firm at $2 billion. No new valuation was disclosed in this latest strategic investment.

Beating AI News Flash: Tailwind Labs has announced it is joining Shopify. Tailwind CSS will remain open-source, with its MIT license unchanged; its paid component library and AI frontend tools will stop onboarding new users. Tailwind currently boasts over 110 million weekly installations, but AI coding tools are driving more developers to generate code directly instead of accessing the official documentation. In January this year, founder Adam Wathan revealed that Tailwind’s documentation traffic fell by roughly 40%, revenue plummeted by nearly 80%, and the company laid off three-quarters of its engineering team. Now with Shopify taking over, this open-source project, which has surged in popularity in the AI era, has finally secured a long-term backer.

According to official announcements, U.S. Bank has issued its own U.S. dollar stablecoin USBDC on the Stellar blockchain, and used this stablecoin to complete a real cross-border payment between entities in North America and Europe. The pilot transaction was conducted on the Stellar network while remaining connected to the bank’s existing financial, risk, compliance, and operational systems. The test also verified core functions of USBDC, including minting, payment redemption, freezing, and clawback. U.S. Bank noted that this pilot also validated its in-house developed digital asset platform, which is used to issue, manage, and transfer tokenized assets and bridges traditional banking infrastructure with blockchain networks.

Payment giant MoneyGram is launching a stablecoin-backed card that allows customers to make purchases at merchants accepting Visa. The card will first roll out in Colombia, with plans to expand to other markets in the coming months. Users can register via the MoneyGram app, add the digital card to their mobile wallet, and use it for online or in-store transactions. They can also send money to themselves and withdraw cash in local currency at MoneyGram locations. Initially, the card will support Circle’s USDC, followed by MoneyGram’s own stablecoin MGUSD. MoneyGram says a physical version of the card, which will also support ATM withdrawals, is scheduled to launch later this year. The card is developed in collaboration with stablecoin payment firm Rain, wallet provider Crossmint, and the Stellar blockchain.

Beating AI Express: Software holding firm Bending Spoons, which specializes in acquiring and long-term operating software, has agreed to acquire AI collaborative whiteboard platform Miro, with the transaction expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. Miro was once valued at a staggering $17.5 billion in 2022, but the equity value tied to this deal is now only around $1.79 billion, a nearly 90% plunge. Miro’s sky-high valuation back then aligned with the pandemic-fueled boom in remote work demand. Since then, the remote collaboration software sector has cooled significantly, and enterprises have grown increasingly cautious about spending on such tools. Miro currently has nearly 4 million paid users, with annual recurring revenue (ARR) of roughly $600 million, nearly 90% of which comes from enterprise clients. Bending Spoons completed its acquisition of Airtable just last week. After previously purchasing products including Evernote, WeTransfer, and Vimeo, the firm raised prices and cut staff at some of these assets. Some members of Miro’s community worry that similar adjustments will soon be applied to Miro.