Art Dubai 2026 uses its 20th anniversary to make digital art a structural pillar, not an NFT-era novelty, with immersive, multisensory work driving both discourse and market.

Curated by Ulrich Schrauth and Nadine Khalil under the title “Myth of the Digital,” Art Dubai Digital 2026 explicitly positions immersive and computational practices as a present tense, not a futurist sideshow. The section is described as “a one‑of‑a‑kind” platform that “champions new models for market development in digital art,” foregrounding installation‑led and multisensory practices rather than just screen‑based work, with galleries, independent studios, and collectives using code, data, sound, and scent as core materials.

‘Myth of the Digital’ and the post‑NFT market

The curatorial text for Art Dubai Digital 2026 is unusually direct about wanting to kill the idea of the digital as a marginal, speculative add‑on. The section’s overview stresses that works “draw on both speculative futures and ancient knowledge systems,” and that artists are “transmuting sound, scent, data, and code into image,” effectively reframing digital practice as a kind of media archaeology rather than just generative eye candy. Installations, kinetic works, AI‑informed painting, immersive environments, and “computational sculpture” are singled out as core formats, signalling a deliberate shift away from pure NFT display walls toward spatialized, embodied encounters.

This is reinforced by how the fair has built programming around the digital strand over the last two years. The 2025 edition already hosted a Digital Summit under Gonzalo Herrero Delicado’s theme “After the Technological Sublime,” exploring how artists use AI, VR/AR, and other systems to address environmental, social, and political questions rather than just tech fetishism. That framework flows into 2026’s “Myth of the Digital,” where the focus, according to the fair’s materials and affiliated commentary, is on “how artists transform code, data and technology into sculptural, tactile and multisensory experiences” and on digital culture as a lens on planetary crisis and memory.

AI, myth and memory: Ila Colombo, Isaac Sullivan, Morehshin Allahyari

A different slice of the Art Dubai Digital 2026 program comes through a set of artist mini‑interviews published under the heading “artists on ‘Myth of the digital’,” which focus less on individual titles and more on project logics. Ila Colombo, for example, is presented with the work “The Form of Resonance Looking Outwards” (2024), described as approaching AI “as a site of biological and computational becoming.” The language around her practice is about using machine‑learning systems to model resonances between bodies and environments, folding algorithmic pattern‑finding back into sensory experience. In the Digital section, that kind of work slots neatly into the curators’ insistence on “multisensory encounters” and “embodied seeing,” where code and data are transmuted into images and spatial experiences that the viewer has to feel their way through.

Isaac Sullivan’s contribution, “First Words” (2022), is framed through a screenshot titled “Chyron’s first words,” with the artist described as “materializing algorithmic memory, treating machine perception as archaeological residue.” The implication is a work that turns the outputs of machine vision or language systems into artefacts—chyrons, captions, image residues—that you read the way an archaeologist reads a shard, as evidence of a vanished or opaque process. That sits directly inside the section’s interest in “how we increasingly encounter ourselves through mirrored digital interfaces” and how perception becomes a recursive loop between human eyes and machine filters.

Art Dubai turns inward as regional conflict forces the fair to confront it’s own geography

All of this sits inside a tightened fair: after the original April fair was postponed due to the ongoing conflict in the region, the “special edition” at Madinat Jumeirah from May 15–17 is smaller—around 50 galleries versus more than 120 the previous year—but proportionally heavier on regional and digital programming. In that compressed context, the fact that Art Dubai is still foregrounding a thematically coherent digital section, with its own summit‑style discourse and multi‑sensory installations, is the tell: in 2026, digital art at Art Dubai is no longer the speculative ornament riding the NFT wave, it’s one of the core pillars propping up the fair’s claim to be a serious node in the global conversation about art, technology, and power.

The market structure mirrors this conceptual repositioning. Art Dubai Digital is now in its fifth year and described as “supporting practices that often exist outside traditional frameworks, offering a space to rethink how digital practices intersect with the art market and broader cultural production.” That means galleries and project spaces are not simply hanging token‑linked JPEGs; they’re building room‑scale environments, AR‑layered sculptural work, and time‑based installations where blockchain may exist as infrastructure rather than subject, aligning more with how major museums are now absorbing digital practices.

Dartmouth College’s endowment has disclosed about $14 million in crypto-linked ETF exposure, with new positions tied to Solana and Ethereum staking products added alongside its existing Bitcoin ETF holding. 

The filing shows about $3.3 million in the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, about $3.5 million in the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF and about $7.7 million in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF.

The move gives the Ivy League school exposure to three major digital assets through regulated public products, rather than direct token custody. Dartmouth’s reported endowment stands near $9 billion, which means the crypto ETF position remains small in size but notable in allocation type. The latest disclosure also shows a change from January, when its Bitcoin ETF stake carried a higher value.

University endowments keep testing crypto access

Dartmouth is not the only university name appearing in crypto ETF filings. Earlier reports said Harvard built a large BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust position in 2025 and later raised its exposure, making IBIT one of its larger listed holdings. Brown, Emory and other U.S. universities have also reported Bitcoin ETF or trust positions.

That pattern shows how some endowments are using ETFs to enter crypto markets through familiar structures. These products give institutions exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana while keeping the investment inside standard brokerage and reporting systems. For schools, ETF wrappers can reduce custody work and make holdings easier to track.

Solana ETF demand adds a new layer

Moreover, the Solana position is the key change in Dartmouth’s latest disclosure. The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF launched in October 2025 as a U.S.-listed spot Solana product with direct exposure and on-chain staking. Market updates said the fund had already drawn strong demand, while wider Solana ETF flows remained positive after launch.

Separate market data also showed about 30 institutions holding roughly $540 million in Solana ETF exposure. That gives Dartmouth’s position a wider context, as institutional demand for Solana products has moved beyond retail trading and into public portfolio filings. The staking element also makes Solana funds different from plain spot products because rewards can be reinvested into the fund.

The Wild Within pushes ruin‑romantic digital art into a fully immersive Dubai environment, reanimating global architectural remains with lush, time‑based ecosystems inside Kanvas.

The May 18 event at Kanvas is billed as an “immersive exhibition opening” under the umbrella “IN TIME — Where Memory and Place Continue to Change,” bringing together multiple projects, including “Chafic Mekawi: Beirut Balconies” and “Ryan Koopmans & Alice Wexell: The Wild Within.” The gallery’s announcement makes clear this is not just a static hang but a blended environment “combining physical and digital artworks, and an immersive program” with curated sound, large‑scale projections and spatial staging designed for viewers to move through layered screens and architectures.

Koopmans and Wexell stage immersive May 18 environment in Dubai

Within that frame, Koopmans and Wexell are effectively exporting and re‑staging The Wild Within—originally on view at Leila Heller Gallery in Alserkal from November 10, 2025, to mid‑January 2026—as a time‑based, site‑responsive chapter in a new venue. At Leila Heller, the project was presented through “large‑scale prints and immersive screen works” in which historic and abandoned buildings were documented on site and then digitally reanimated with vegetation, changing light and subtle motion, turning derelict interiors into overgrown, semi‑surreal biomes. In Kanvas’s more explicitly immersive context, those time‑based pieces are foregrounded: high‑resolution motion works such as “Heartbeats” (2025), described as “time‑based media, adaptable to any dimensions,” can be scaled across walls or multi‑screen arrays, so that the slow breathing of light and foliage across a ruin’s façade becomes an environmental condition rather than a single framed image.

Digital art as art‑historical ruin, updated

Conceptually, The Wild Within is a digital art project built on a very old art‑historical problem: how to picture ruins and the return of nature. Koopmans shoots real sites—abandoned Soviet sanatoria in Georgia in earlier iterations, and, in this Dubai chapter, structures across Beirut, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi—with a documentary photographer’s attention to geometry, ornament and spatial rhythm. Wexell then “digitally introduces meticulously crafted vegetation, light, and motion,” compositing 3D plants, animated dust, mist, and shifting atmospheres into the architectural shell so that the resulting images hover between documentation and fiction. The duo have described the process, in related statements, as “bringing new life to abandoned architectural spaces,” where “each work begins as an image of a physical site in transition” before being re‑composed as a speculative ecosystem.

Seen from digital art history’s perspective, the May 18 event is a convergence point between several strands: Romantic ruin painting (Piranesi, Hubert Robert), the Bechers’ typological industrial photography, post‑Soviet ruin tourism, and contemporary CGI‑driven environmental art. Koopmans’ lens‑based origin keeps the work anchored in indexical reality—these are actual buildings—while Wexell’s animation, coding and 3D skills push the images into the territory of time‑based media and immersive installation, closer to the language of Pipilotti Rist or teamLab than to straight photography.

In Dubai specifically, the work acquires another historical charge: set against a city that has spent three decades demolishing and rebuilding itself as speculative architecture, The Wild Within uses digital tools to imagine a future in which those speculative shells are reclaimed by plants, humidity, and dust.

In that sense, the May 18 Kanvas event is not just a promotional spin‑off from the Leila Heller show but an extension of the project’s core thesis—using immersive digital art to stage the very old fantasy of nature’s return inside the newest kinds of architectural and technological space, during a time in which Dubai, and the region at large, is going through profound transformation.

Strive Inc., the Bitcoin-focused company founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, has unveiled a bold shift toward a “Daily Dividend Company” model while reporting a debt-free quarter. In a GlobeNewswire release outlining its first-quarter 2026 results, Strive said its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock, ticker SATA, will begin paying dividends every business day starting June 16, at an annualized rate of 13%. The payouts will be funded by income generated from the company’s Bitcoin treasury strategy, marking a notable departure from traditional buy-and-hold stances.

CEO Matt Cole framed the move as a milestone in a focused push to reward shareholders while leveraging Bitcoin holdings. He described a balance sheet that is no longer burdened by debt or margin requirements, positioned to weather the volatility inherent in a Bitcoin-centric strategy. The decision to deploy daily dividends follows a path similar to approaches popularized by Strategy, Michael Saylor’s venture that has used perpetual preferred stock to finance Bitcoin purchases while delivering investor payouts on a biweekly cadence. Bitcoin For Corporations contributor Adam Livingston highlighted the pace of innovation in digital credit that this approach represents, calling the daily payout model a striking development for crypto treasury management.

The company also reported an unrealized net loss of $265.9 million for Q1, attributed to a 23% decline in Bitcoin’s market value over the quarter. Strive noted that the unrealized loss largely reflects the mark-to-market hit on its Bitcoin holdings, not a realized cash outflow. The quarter’s performance underscores the ongoing challenge of aligning a volatile crypto treasury with financing and dividend objectives.

In another balance-sheet update, Strive announced it had ended the quarter with no outstanding debt after repurchasing the remaining long-term notes. The company also emphasized zero margin requirements and zero encumbered Bitcoin, portraying a debt-free, liquidation-ready posture designed to endure price swings in its flagship asset.

Strive’s stock responded to the news, rising 5.8% to $17.70 on the session and edging higher in after-hours trading. The shares are up about 2.4% for the year but remain down more than 80% over the last 12 months, reflecting the broader bear market pressures facing many crypto-focused firms. As the quarter closed, Strive reported a Bitcoin position of 15,009 coins, up from 13,628 at the end of Q1 after adding 1,381 through ongoing treasury activities. Based on current prices, those holdings were valued at roughly $1.22 billion. The company had previously disclosed it held 13,628 Bitcoin, including 5,048 acquired via its Semler Scientific deal earlier in the quarter.

Market participants will be watching how the daily dividend initiative interacts with the company’s Bitcoin yield strategies and the evolving regulatory and macro environment. The arrangement ties investor income directly to the performance and income of the Bitcoin treasury, rather than to discretionary cash flows alone. The strategy’s proponents argue it creates a more predictable income stream, even as the underlying Bitcoin price remains volatile.

In the broader crypto earnings landscape, other notable players moved in tandem with the market’s mixed tone. Nakamoto reported a substantial QoQ revenue gain in Q1—up 500% to $2.7 million, with $1.1 million coming from using its Bitcoin holdings as collateral to earn yield. Circle rose about 15% after posting a quarter with revenue up 20% QoQ to $694 million, exceeding expectations, while Coinbase posted a sizable first-quarter revenue decline, and Robinhood’s revenue also missed estimates, contributing to a mixed sector backdrop as investors digest crypto-adjacent earnings.

For context, Strive’s path sits among several crypto treasury players experimenting with increasingly sophisticated capital structures to fund Bitcoin accumulation while delivering investor value. The daily-dividend approach, if sustained, could raise the bar for how crypto-native firms think about capital markets access and liquidity during bear markets. It also invites questions about tax treatment, payout sustainability, and how such a model scales as Bitcoin pricing and volatility evolve.

Key takeaways

• Strive announces SATA daily dividends starting June 16, at a 13% annual rate, funded by its Bitcoin treasury income.
• The company exits Q1 2026 debt-free after buying back remaining long-term notes, with zero margin requirements and no encumbered Bitcoin.
• Q1 2026 posted an unrealized net loss of $265.9 million due to a 23% quarterly drop in Bitcoin’s market value.
• Strive holds 15,009 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $1.22 billion at current prices, up from 13,628 at quarter’s end.
• Stock reaction was positive, with a 5.8% intraday gain to $17.70 and a further uptick in after-hours trading; year-to-date gain around 2.4% but down about 81% year over year.

A debt-free, dividend-focused path amid Bitcoin volatility

The new daily dividend framework marks a strategic expansion for Strive beyond a simple buy-and-hold stance. By aiming to distribute daily income to SATA holders, the company attempts to offer ongoing value to investors regardless of short-term price swings in Bitcoin. The approach mirrors the broader industry tendency to blend traditional equity mechanics with crypto treasury strategies, creating hybrid instruments designed to attract income-focused investors while maintaining exposure to Bitcoin’s upside potential.

Strive’s debt elimination reshapes its balance sheet and risk profile. With no margin loans or encumbrances on its Bitcoin, the company emphasizes resilience against liquidity squeezes and market downturns. As the market digests the implications of daily payouts, investors will assess whether the yield cadence can be maintained even as Bitcoin’s price oscillates—particularly in the wake of a quarter defined by material price declines.

What the numbers suggest for the quarter ahead

Looking forward, the Q1 results illustrate a contrast between income ambitions and asset volatility. While the daily dividend program may attract income-seeking investors, the realized reality of the quarter’s mark-to-market losses underscores the sensitivity of these strategies to Bitcoin price movements. The combination of debt-free leverage, a sizable Bitcoin treasury, and daily payout commitments makes Strive a case study in crypto-native financing that could influence how peers structure capital rounds, yield-bearing instruments, and shareholder communications during a prolonged phase of price volatility.

Market observers will also be watching how Strive’s approach compares to contemporaries pursuing similar models. For example, Nakamoto’s Q1 performance showed meaningful revenue growth from yield-based strategies, while Circle and Coinbase provided a broader market backdrop—highlighting divergent outcomes among crypto-influenced firms in the same period. As the sector weighs these developments, Strive’s daily dividend initiative stands out as a notable experiment at the intersection of crypto governance, investor income, and treasury management.

Next up, investors should monitor how the daily payout schedule intersects with quarterly performance, how the Bitcoin position evolves through subsequent treasury activity, and whether the model sustains itself as macro conditions shift. The coming quarters will reveal whether this dividend strategy can deliver durable value in a volatile market while keeping Strive debt-free and nimble.

Source disclosures and quotes accompany this coverage, including the GlobeNewswire release detailing Strive’s Q1 2026 results and the company’s statements on debt elimination and daily dividends. Further context comes from related crypto treasury developments and contemporaneous earnings reports from peer companies in the sector.

Crypto data company Dune said it is laying off 25% of its workforce, citing a need to restructure its business to focus on its core products.

“We’re restructuring Dune to sharpen our focus around the core data products thousands of customers across the crypto industry rely on,” Dune co-founder and CEO Fredrik Haga posted to X on Thursday. “That unfortunately means we’ve let 25% of the team go this week.”

Haga did not share the number of staff who were laid off. The company’s LinkedIn shows about 150 employees. Haga said the company remained “well capitalized” and that Dune was “all-in” on artificial intelligence and growing institutional interest in crypto.

Layoffs and closures are rising across the crypto and tech sectors this year, with many companies citing AI as both a help and a hindrance.

Just this month, Coinbase cut 700 employees, or about 14% of its workforce, on May 5, citing an increase in AI use, while the crypto news outlet DL News shuttered on Friday, citing part of the reason was decreased reach in internet search results due to AI aggregation.

Haga said that Dune’s Model Context Protocol, or MCP, which allows AI to interact with the platform, means “teams and agents can now build dashboards and workflows without needing to know anything” about data infrastructure or SQL, a programming language for databases.

Source: Fredrik Haga

He added the company would also be “investing heavily” in its data products and services for institutions, as the company sees “currencies, stocks, bonds, commodities and more” are moving onchain.

Related: How AI became crypto’s favorite reason to cut staff

Dune’s cutbacks add to the more than 5,000 jobs eliminated at major crypto companies this year.

Block Inc. undertook the biggest round of layoffs of a crypto company so far in 2026, halving its workforce and cutting 4,000 staff in February.

The crypto exchanges Gemini and Crypto.com also laid off 200 and around 180 employees, respectively, earlier this year, with each citing the rising use of AI for efficiency gains.

Layoffs are also widespread in the US tech sector, with 137 companies cutting nearly 109,000 jobs so far in 2026, according to data from Layoffs.fyi.

Magazine: Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs: Mid-2026