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LatAm telco VIVA taps Avalanche-based Iris for stablecoin settlement and dollar reserves

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LatAm telco VIVA taps Avalanche-based Iris for stablecoin settlement and dollar reserves

Between 2012 and 2025, global mobile data traffic grew more than 50% annually while operator service revenue increased less than 1% per year, according to McKinsey figures cited by Iris.

Telecom operators bring something financial apps often spend heavily trying to build: customers, verified identities and distribution.

That can be particularly powerful in emerging markets.

“In the U.S. the operator is like one rail among many,” Ava Labs Chief Business Officer John Nahas told CoinDesk. In markets such as Bolivia, by contrast, “the mobile carrier is often the rail that people do everything on.”

That is why Iris expects its initial expansion to focus on Latin America and potentially parts of Africa and Asia rather than the U.S., Nahas said.

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VIVA offers an early test of whether that model can translate into better economics for carriers. Nahas said a super-app product used by VIVA helped reduce churn among prepaid mobile customers by 33% while increasing their lifetime value by 35%.

“When you start to see numbers like this, it just starts making a lot of sense,” he said, adding that Iris now needs more real-world case studies.

Stablecoins behind telecoms

Iris runs on a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1, giving the network control over its settlement, operating and compliance requirements. USDi serves as the settlement asset, while also giving VIVA the option to hold eligible operating reserves in dollars.

In VIVA’s case, using U.S. dollar stablecoin for settlements also means having the option to hold eligible operating reserves in U.S. dollars, which is particularly relevant in markets with volatile local currencies.

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How TIME and Statista Determined Arabia's Top Companies of 2026

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How TIME and Statista Determined Arabia's Top Companies of 2026
—Photo-illustration by TIME; Elijah-Lovkoff—Getty Images

The research project “Arabia’s Top Companies 2026” is a comprehensive analysis conducted to identify the top performing companies in the GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates). The study is based on three primary dimensions: Employee Satisfaction, Revenue Growth and Sustainability Transparency (ESG).

Methodology

The first dimension, Employee Satisfaction, was investigated based on survey data from a large sample of over 20,000 employees in the region. The evaluation encompassed direct recommendations of verified employees as well as indirect evaluations from industry peers.

The second dimension, Revenue Growth, was assessed using data from Statista’s revenue database, which contains company growth data for the last three years. The companies had to meet certain criteria to be considered for the evaluation, including generating a revenue of at least $50 million USD in 2025. Additionally, the companies had to demonstrate positive revenue growth in the last three years. Both relative and absolute growth were considered in the evaluation.

The third dimension, Sustainability Transparency, was evaluated based on ESG data among standardized KPIs from Statista’s ESG Database and targeted data research. To formulate a comprehensive ESG index, multiple Key Performance Indicators were collected. For the environmental evaluation, this included the 2024 carbon emissions intensity and reduction rate compared to 2022, as well as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) score. The social dimension assessed the share of women on the board of directors and the existence of a human rights policy.

The governance dimension evaluated whether a company had a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report adhering to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and a compliance or anti-corruption guideline.

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Once the data was collected and evaluated, it was consolidated and weighted within a scoring model. The scores of all three dimensions were added on an equal percentage basis to form the final ranking score of a maximum of 100 points. The 200 companies with the highest scores were awarded as Arabia’s Top Companies 2026 by TIME and Statista.

See the full list.

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Blockchain finance platform Theo launches tokenized silver backed by $40 million in active leases

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Binance offers gold and silver options after commodity futures pull in billions in daily volume

The product launches with more than $40 million of leases committed, the firm said. Initially available in beta, thSLVR will be offered to institutions and whitelisted investors, with broader access planned later.

Tokenized silver remains a considerably smaller market than tokenized gold, which has grown to several billion dollars across multiple products. Existing silver tokens that offer returns typically distribute a portion of platform trading fees rather than income earned by lending the underlying metal.

Tokenized commodities

The tokenized real-world asset market has expanded rapidly beyond U.S. Treasuries and private credit into equities, funds and commodities. Tokenized commodities now represent about $4.9 billion in distributed value across 130 products, led by gold-backed tokens from Tether and Paxos, while the number of commodity-token holders rose 13% over the past month to almost 339,000, according to RWA.xyz

Silver leasing rates can rise sharply during periods of limited physical availability. Around 83% of the silver held in London vaults is locked in physically backed investment products, leaving about 136 million ounces available for trading and leasing, according to data cited by Theo.

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London’s one-month silver lease rate briefly climbed to about 39% in October 2025, compared with a historical norm below 1%. Rates have since normalized, though the market is projected to record a sixth consecutive annual supply deficit in 2026, with the shortfall estimated at 46.3 million ounces.

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Six signs a crypto winter is ending

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Crypto Long & Short: Where DeFi yield really comes from (and why it broke this spring)

5) Thermocap multiple: The thermocap multiple is a measure like price to book that compares bitcoin’s market capitalization to the cumulative dollar value ever paid to miners, with each coin valued at its market price when it was mined. Prior crypto winters ended at single-digit multiples, but this cycle it only declined to 13 times, according to Glassnode data as of June 30, 2026. These levels are not a guarantee of future price action.

6) Price action: A 50% rally from the low has historically coincided with prior market troughs, although no such relationship guarantees future outcomes.

Once the next cycle does begin, we expect two key debates to persist throughout:

Will bitcoin reach a new high before the next halving? During both the 2012 to 2016 cycle and the 2016 to 2020 cycle, bitcoin did not surpass its prior cycle high until after the halving. However, in the 2024 cycle, bitcoin surpassed the 2021 high one month before the April 2024 halving, according to Bloomberg data.

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Has AI replaced crypto as the market’s leading speculative/disruptive-technology narrative? In 2020 and 2021, crypto was one of the clearest expressions of a high-liquidity, disruptive-technology market. Since 2024, however, AI has become the dominant growth story.

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Coinbase Faces Greater CLARITY Act Exposure, Saxo Says

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Coinbase Faces Greater CLARITY Act Exposure, Saxo Says

While Bitcoin and crypto-linked stocks fell sharply after the US Senate failed to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity, or CLARITY, Act, Saxo Bank believes exchanges like Coinbase have more at stake than most because clearer rules could directly affect their trading businesses.

In a Wednesday note, Saxo strategist Ruben Dalfovo said Coinbase (COIN) is the most directly exposed to developments around CLARITY because market-structure rules could determine registration requirements, which assets can trade and who can participate in US crypto markets.

“Coinbase is most exposed to clearer market rules because trading and crypto participation directly affect its business,” Dalfovo wrote.

Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) and Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Strategy (MSTR) have different exposures, according to Dalfovo. Circle’s business is more closely tied to adoption of its USDC stablecoin and interest earned on its reserves, while Strategy’s performance is driven primarily by its BTC holdings and financing structure.

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As Cointelegraph reported late Tuesday, shares of all three companies fell between 5% and 10% after the Senate procedural vote, despite differences in how the legislation could affect their businesses.

The selloff continued early Wednesday, with Coinbase, Circle and Strategy all down between 2% and 6%, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Related: Democrats push back on GOP’s ‘final’ CLARITY offer with counterproposal: Politico

CLARITY faces narrowing path forward

The CLARITY Act failed a key procedural vote on Tuesday, with senators voting 49-50 against invoking cloture on a motion to proceed to the bill, well short of the 60 votes needed. The vote would have limited further debate and allowed the Senate to move toward considering the legislation on the floor.

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Ethics provisions remained a major sticking point despite last-minute concessions aimed at addressing concerns over public officials’ crypto interests. 

The setback significantly narrows the bill’s path forward this year. The Senate has a limited legislative calendar around the Nov. 3 midterm elections and is targeting Dec. 18 for adjournment, leaving lawmakers a relatively small window to revive the legislation before the current Congress ends.

Related: Crypto Biz: AI took a back seat when Bitcoin started climbing

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

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Hamas told its potential donors to avoid Binance for funding and use rivals including Bybit and OKX

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Hamas told its potential donors to avoid Binance for funding and use rivals including Bybit and OKX

The newspaper subsequently reported that the Treasury is “investigating $165 million in cryptocurrency-linked transactions that may have helped finance Hamas” prior to the October 2023 attacks.

While the documents suggested that Binance may have improved its KYC and AML protocols, it’s unclear whether the Hamas overture is a response to this.

“When terrorist groups tell people to avoid Binance, it shows our controls are working,” said Binance’s chief compliance officer, Noah Perlman. “Binance is not a safe place for illicit actors. We invest heavily in sanctions screening, transaction monitoring and investigations, and we work closely with law enforcement to identify, disrupt and report terrorist financing and other financial crime.”

According to OKX, the wallet address referenced in the Feb. 10, 2025, communication had no association with OKX and had already been identified by its internal controls as linked to illicit activity. As a result, any attempts by OKX customers to transfer funds to the address would have been flagged and prevented, the exchange said via email.

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Kast said it maintains a dedicated financial crime compliance function, with more than 50 employees across its broader compliance organization.

“All customers are subject to identity verification and screening before accessing our services. The company combines its own technology with established compliance and risk-management providers, including Elliptic, Sumsub, and Sardine, to support sanctions screening, customer due diligence, and transaction monitoring,” a Kast spokesman said via email.

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World’s Top HealthTech Companies of 2026

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How TIME and Statista Determined the World's Top HealthTech Companies of 2026

The health tech industry is booming, with services like telemedicine getting more popular, and more companies offering tools to monitor personal health at home. To identify the companies across the globe using digital technologies to make healthcare more effective and accessible, TIME partnered with data firm Statista to research the World’s Top HealthTech Companies of 2026, evaluating metrics including financial performance, reputation, and online engagement.

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S&P 500 Trucking Stock JB Hunt Dives On CFO’s Earnings Warning Amid Surging Diesel Costs

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J.B. Hunt stock trucking companies

Shares of J.B. Hunt plummeted 12% on Wednesday morning after the trucking company warned of an impending earnings decline. The morning’s drop made it the worst-performing stock on the S&P 500. During a Morgan Stanley conference late Tuesday CFO Brad Delco front ran the bad news. Costs were rising faster than J.B. Hunt (JBHT) could raises its prices, setting up…

Copyright ©2026 Investor’s Business Daily, LLC. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Strategy still can’t get STRC back to parity

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Strategy still can’t get STRC back to parity

It’s been four months, over 120 days, since Strategy’s dividend vehicle, STRC, broke parity and the executive leadership made getting it back to its $100 peg its absolute, number one priority.

Since then, it’s never, not even for a second, managed to get back to parity.

This week, however, as Strategy continued a major shift in its business model — repurchasing shares of STRC instead of buying BTC — it seemed as though it would finally succeed, with STRC cruising to $99 on Monday.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

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The next day, STRC fell back to nearly $97. There’s no evidence of further internal purchases yet.

Strategy barely missed regaining parity, cruising to $99.

Read more: MSTR has lost 75% of its value since STRC began trading

More STRC sellers than buyers

Despite months of buying its own dividend vehicle, countless promises, and Strategy executives claiming that STRC is priority number one for the firm, the asset has remained stubbornly off-parity.

The CLARITY Act failing to pass only hurt the company’s cause more, with Strategy down 7% on the day.

In the meantime, Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor has continued to incessantly repost strange, bullish Bitcoin AI videos.

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Prediction markets say Democrats are slightly favored to win Senate

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Prediction markets say Democrats are slightly favored to win Senate

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 22, 2026.

Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The battle for the U.S. Senate is still tight, but prediction market traders think Democrats have one of their best chances yet of taking the upper chamber. 

Speculators on Kalshi now give Democrats a 54% chance to win the Senate, nearly matching a level reached in mid-April. On Polymarket, the odds are even higher, with a 59% chance that Democrats wrest control. 

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Republicans are defending majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate this November, but the upper chamber was always viewed as more difficult for Democrats to flip. Republicans already control 20 of the 33 Senate seats up for grabs this year, and Democrats would have to flip several states where President Donald Trump won by 10% or more in 2024 — including Alaska, Texas and Ohio — to take control. 

Odds that the Democrats win the Senate have improved significantly in 2026 on prediction markets. Before the U.S.-Iran war began on Feb. 28, Republicans had about 60% odds to hold onto the Senate on both Kalshi and Polymarket. Odds declined as rising gas prices rove down Trump’s approval rating

Odds that Democrats would win the Senate topped Republican odds of keeping control in April, but the GOP’s chances recovered in May and throughout the summer as the U.S. and Iran deescalated the war, easing pressure on gas prices. 

GOP fortunes have darkened in recent weeks. U.S. oil prices are now above $100 per barrel, gasoline is above $4 a gallon nationally and diesel prices are at an all-time high. Pediction market traders now think gas prices will hit new highs this year

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This week has brought several high-quality polls showing Democrats with a favorable environment heading into November. A New York Times/Siena University poll released Wednesday showed likely voters nationwide favoring Democratic candidates over Republicans in their congressional districts by close to 9 percentage points. 

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment.

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Wirex One Launches Publicly on Arc, Bringing Stablecoin Private Banking to the Mass Affluent Market

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Wirex One Launches Publicly on Arc, Bringing Stablecoin Private Banking to the Mass Affluent Market

London, September 16, 2026 – Wirex, the global stablecoin infrastructure provider, has today launched Wirex One, the first stablecoin neobank built for the growing segment of mass affluent consumers, to the public. The platform is a day-one launch partner on Arc’s mainnet, delivering a private banking experience with true asset ownership. 

Following a closed beta that amassed over 20,000 users in testing since June, Wirex One is now available globally.

Wirex One launches as part of Wirex’s wider integration with Arc, making Arc available as a settlement layer for any partner issuing cards and accounts through the Wirex API. Arc is an open blockchain network built for the world’s financial markets, real-time money movement, and agentic economic activity. 

Wirex One was created for an underserved market. The global private banking market is projected to grow by over 10% annually to reach $1.24 trillion by 2035, yet a large segment of affluent individuals remain structurally underserved: too wealthy for retail banking, but below the minimum for traditional private banking. Stablecoins are closing that gap, enabling secure, borderless wealth management that the traditional financial system cannot provide.

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Wirex One brings private banking onchain, managing everyday spending, yield, overseas transfers, borrowing, and investing from a single place. Arc was strategically chosen as the foundation for Wirex One due to its stablecoin-native, payments-optimised design, with a built-in privacy layer and real-time settlement.

Paired with Privy’s non-custodial wallet technology, it gives users complete ownership over their assets and institutional-grade security, without the complexity that typically comes with crypto wallets.

At launch, key features include:

  • Stablecoin-funded card with up to 8% cashback in USD, instantly spendable in everyday life
  • Access to selected crypto and stablecoin yield features
  • Support for a wide range of crypto assets
  • Multi-currency accounts, with fee-free FX and ATM withdrawals globally
  • Ability to send and receive via SEPA, ACH, Faster Payments, card transfers, and crypto transfers
  • Innovative membership model, offering higher rewards, fee-free trading, dedicated account management, and 50% off premium subscriptions for leading AI and financial platforms for higher tiers

Pavel Matveev, Co-Founder & CEO of Wirex, said: “A new wave of fintech apps are being built on stablecoin rails, and they all need the same foundation: regulated issuing, accounts, settlement, and yield. Wirex One is our own consumer platform built on that infrastructure, redefining what a private bank can be: a bank you control, not one that controls you. Every partner integrating with Wirex’s infrastructure gets the same rails, the same scheme access, and now the same day-one access to Arc.”

Today’s announcement is a major milestone in Wirex’s vision to build a unified, onchain suite of financial services for consumers and businesses on their stablecoin infrastructure, which recently reached $2 billion annualised card spend volume. In the coming weeks, Wirex One will expand to include tokenised equities and perpetuals.

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More information about Wirex One, including card availability in supported jurisdictions, is available at Wirex’s website.

Developers can learn more about integrating with Wirex’s infrastructure on Arc here. The list of supported countries can be viewed here. Rewards are valued in USD

About Wirex

Wirex is the global stablecoin infrastructure behind a complete banking stack. Through a single API, any app, wallet or fintech can launch regulated accounts, cards, payments, payouts, yield, cashback and travel, settled in stablecoins, on any chain. Wirex is one of the few crypto-enabled platforms with principal membership of both Visa and Mastercard, settling in USDC and EURC without an intermediary bank. 

Wirex builds its own products on that same infrastructure, through the same API: Wirex One, a stablecoin neobank for consumers, with Wirex Private as its highest membership tier; Wirex Business for companies; and Wirex Agents, giving AI agents the ability to transact onchain. 

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Trusted by over 8 million users since 2014, Wirex has processed more than $20 billion in transactions across 130 countries, and created the first crypto-enabled card in 2015. Built on a decade-long track record of regulatory compliance, enterprise-grade security and onchain innovation, Wirex is creating a financial system where money moves globally and instantly, giving consumers and businesses true ownership, privacy by architecture, and access to the next generation of global payments and settlement.

Disclaimers: 

Arc is an open L1 blockchain launched by Arc Network Services LLC (“Arc LLC”) and operated by a permissioned validator set. Arc LLC provides software services only and does not offer regulated financial or advisory services. Arc has not been reviewed or approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services or any other regulatory authority. 

The Arc network is provided “as is” and “as available.” Use of Arc involves inherent risks associated with blockchain technology, including smart contract vulnerabilities, network disruptions, and the absence of recourse for transaction errors or losses. The ability to transact on Arc depends on the ability to obtain and use USDC to pay gas fees. Neither Arc LLC nor any permissioned validator is responsible for the content, accuracy, legality, or functionality of third-party applications, protocols, or services built on or integrated with Arc. You are solely responsible for features or services you provide to users, including obtaining any necessary licenses or approvals and otherwise complying with applicable laws. 

All Arc features may be modified, delayed, or cancelled at any time without notice. Nothing herein constitutes a commitment, warranty, guarantee or legal, regulatory, tax, or investment advice.

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The post Wirex One Launches Publicly on Arc, Bringing Stablecoin Private Banking to the Mass Affluent Market appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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