DeFi funding rebounds as AI accelerates, but regulation, security risks, and control debates continue to shape both sectors’ next phase.
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A US$175 million raise by Morpho Labs signals renewed venture conviction in DeFi, particularly around on-chain credit and stablecoin infrastructure. At the same time, consolidation and institutional positioning are accelerating, with Blockworks acquiring Messari and Metaplanet moving to secure a securities licence to expand Bitcoin-linked financial products.
In AI, the trajectory is similarly uneven. Performance is advancing rapidly, with NVIDIA’s Blackwell infrastructure setting new efficiency benchmarks for agentic systems, and Coinbase pushing into autonomous financial agents. Yet vulnerabilities remain pronounced, as new research shows AI agents are still highly susceptible to prompt injection attacks, raising concerns about real-world deployment risks.
Get up to speed with the latest in Web3 and AI with this week’s Pasar Pulse.
Crypto and Web3
Morpho’s $175M Raise Signals New VC Trend
Morpho Labs secured $175 million from Paradigm, a16z crypto, and Ribbit Capital. The record-breaking DeFi raise highlights growing investor backing for on-chain credit infrastructure and stablecoin ecosystems.
US Halts Anthropic’s Flagship AI Models
Anthropic abruptly suspended access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 following a US directive. The order blocks foreign nationals from using the models due to undisclosed national security risks.
SBF Loses Appeal on 25-Year Sentence
A federal appeals court unanimously upheld former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud conviction. The court stated the government’s case was “robust” and noted he used customer funds as a personal piggy bank.
SpaceX IPO Crypto Allocation Cancelled
Several crypto exchanges have cancelled their tokenised SpaceX IPO campaigns. Due to delivery failures from xStocks, platforms like Binance and Bybit are issuing full refunds to affected users who sought exposure to the Nasdaq debut.
Poland Vetoes MiCA Crypto Law Again
Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a domestic crypto regulatory bill for the third time, delaying alignment with the EU’s MiCA framework. This risks leaving Polish crypto firms without EU access.
Metaplanet Acquires Siiibo Securities
Metaplanet has entered an agreement to acquire Siiibo Securities for 2.1 billion yen ($13.1 million). The deal grants Japan’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder a crucial Type I securities license to launch BTC-linked investment products.
Gary Gensler Backs States on Predictions
Former SEC and CFTC chair Gary Gensler has filed an amicus brief supporting states like Ohio against Kalshi. He argues that the Dodd-Frank Act was never intended to give the CFTC exclusive federal jurisdiction over the predictions industry.
Blockworks Acquires Rival Messari
Crypto data and media company Blockworks has acquired analytics firm Messari for over $10 million. The deal follows leadership shifts and layoffs at Messari, which was valued at $300 million during its Series B funding round back in 2022.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI Maps Impact of Kids’ Screen Time
Nerve Lab at UAL is using AI and wearable brain imaging to study how fast-paced digital media affects children’s attention. Researchers hope to build predictive tools to help creators and regulators build better classification systems.
AI Agents Fail Prompt Injection Tests
A new benchmark study, StakeBench, reveals that autonomous AI agents powered by systems like GPT-5 and Gemini remain highly vulnerable to prompt injection attacks, with direct attacks succeeding over 79% of the time.
NVIDIA Blackwell Tops Agentic AI Benchmark
The NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 platform achieved top marks in Artificial Analysis’s new AgentPerf benchmark. It runs up to 20x more agents per megawatt than the previous NVIDIA Hopper infrastructure.
Americans Fear Job Losses, Hope for Cures
A massive Anthropic survey reveals a complex outlook on AI: 64% of Americans fear job displacement, yet nearly half hope it cures major diseases.
AI Evidence Probe Sparks UK Investigation
A Derbyshire police officer is under criminal investigation for allegedly using AI systems to fake “evidential material” in several cases. The officer has been removed from frontline duties, marking the first UK case of its kind.
Coinbase for Agents Launched
Coinbase has launched “Coinbase for Agents,” allowing autonomous AI entities to execute trades, process payments, and manage portfolio balances. The system integrates via command-line terminals or the web-centric Model Context Protocol.
Google Introduces Open Knowledge Format
Google Cloud has announced the Open Knowledge Format (OKF) v0.1, an open, vendor-neutral specification designed to standardise how AI agents store and share context.
Pokémon Go Data Trains Military AI
Historical location scans from Pokémon Go players have been used to train spatial AI models. A partnership between Niantic Spatial and Vantor aims to leverage this tech to help military drones navigate accurately.
That’s all for this week’s Pasar Pulse. Want more insights? Stay tuned to our site or subscribe via email!
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