Tales from the Crypto <maniacal laugh>

Top News

• Coinbase acquiring Deribit: All eyes are on crypto today, with Congress debating stablecoin legislation and President Trump and his family announcing fresh crypto deals in Dubai. But on the startup side of things… the largest crypto exchange in the US, Coinbase, agreed to acquire the options trading platform Derebit for $2.9 billion. (Coincidentally or not, Derebit is also headquartered in Dubai.) Surely, the Trump administration’s friendly attitude toward crypto is fueling some of these mega-deals.

• Judge dismisses celebrity FTX claims: Sticking with crypto, a federal judge in Florida has let FTX’s celebrity endorsers — a list that includes Tom Brady, his ex Gisele Bündchen, Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary, Larry David, Steph Curry, and many others — off the hook, legally speaking. Judge K. Michael Moore ruled that there’s insufficient proof that any of these influencers knew about the corruption and skullduggery going on behind the scenes at FTX, or that they had any intent to defraud investors.

• Silence Speaks creates AI signers: A LOT of people around the world are hearing-impaired and communicate using sign language, which has put sign language interpreters in heavy demand. British startup Silence Speaks has a technological solution: AI-generated avatars that can do the work of a human translator. This is an even more huge undertaking than you may realize, as there are more than 200 different variations of sign language in use around the world. Silence Speaks is starting with British Sign Language (BSL) and spidering out from there.

TWiST500

Fintech favorites Stripe — one of the genuine behemoths of the TWiST 500 — is in the midst of their annual Stripe Sessions community event, and there’s a bevy of exciting news to share.

Their new AI-powered payments platform — the Payments Foundation Model — has been trained on billions of different Stripe transactions, giving it real expertise at spotting discrepancies like credit card fraud. It’s not the company’s first attempt to use AI to spot fraudulent transactions, but it’s among their most effective to date, and could reduce “card testing” — that’s when credit card thieves try a bunch of card numbers to determine which have been disabled — by 64% immediately.

The AI advances are soaking up most of the headlines, of course, but Stripe’s been filling these Sessions with announcements. They’re also touting:

• Klarna integration is coming to Stripe’s consumer payment service, Link.

• Support for new payment methods, bringing the grand total to more than 125.

• A new merchant-of-record offering that will streamline the process of entering new international markets.

• Tax assistant service Stripe Tax is now available in 102 countries, up from just 57 at this time last year.

We love Stripe! We’d buy their stock if they ever went public. Which they very well may not… But hey, that means we get to keep them on the TWiST 500 forever. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2122: It’s yet another overstuffed TWiST full of the tech news and founder insights you CRAVE. Jason, Alex, and Lon are talking about Zoox’s robotaxi recall (and why it’s not as bad as it sounds!), Coatue’s innovative new take on venture funds, NSO’s mega-fine for making spyware, and terrifying AI prophecies from the future. Plus Evan from FusionAds stops by to talk about automating marketing for your small business AND the Final Four of our Founder Friday tournament is now a FINAL FIVE!

E2121: On a Monday TWiST, Jason, Lon and Alex welcome Magical Toys chief Fateen Anam Raffid to talk about building next-generation AI toys and his company’s mega-growth ahead of the holiday season. PLUS the latest on Cursor’s explosive growth and massive $9B valuation, Uber’s latest autonomous vehicle partnerships, and Jason shares some anecdotes from F1 in Miami.

E2120: It’s a brand new This Week in Startups, featuring Beehiiv founder Tyler Denk’s thoughts on building in public, rapid product iteration, and the perils of innovating TOO FAST. Plus Jason, Lon, and Alex break down all the week’s biggest news, including a judge striking down Apple’s 27% link-out fee, and the controversy striking Reddit’s r/ChangeMyView community.

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