Former Google Jules engineering lead launches Fo: When AI can't handle tasks, the team uses real people directly.

Driven by relatively high yields attracting investors, Japan’s 40-year government bond auction drew its strongest demand since 2020. The bid-to-cover ratio for the auction stood at 3.1, up from 2.82 in the prior sale and above the 2.67 average over the past 12 months. Japanese government bond futures continued to rise after the auction, with the 40-year JGB yield last quoted at 4.23%. The bond sale comes as investors grow increasingly concerned that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) may be falling behind the curve on monetary tightening. BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, after delivering a widely expected interest rate hike earlier this month, failed to provide clear guidance on the pace of future hikes, stoking market expectations that the central bank may ultimately need to implement more aggressive rate increases.

Crypto hedge fund BlockTower Capital founder and CIO Ari Paul said that Coinbase "lost" roughly $25 million from his firm several years ago, an incident later revealed to be a cover-up for multiple large-scale hacks, with the funds still unrepaid to date. Paul also claimed that at least a dozen affected institutions have been identified, with the total amount concealed exceeding $1 billion, though he cannot disclose more details due to multiple ongoing legal proceedings. In response, Coinbase’s official customer support account has contacted Paul to arrange a private conversation, and the platform has not yet issued any further public response.

Beating AI Express News: Noah Shinn, founder of personal AI agent Instinct, detailed the company’s monetization plans in his first public in-depth interview. Shinn aims for Instinct to eventually remain free long-term, with no subscription fees charged to users. After the agent completes transactions on users’ behalf—such as booking hotels or shopping—Instinct collects a small commission from the merchants receiving the orders. However, this is currently just his goal; Instinct has not yet committed to permanent free access. Shinn also explicitly ruled out advertising. Personal AI agents will grow more familiar with users and increasingly adept at influencing their decisions. If the platform relied on ad revenue, agents might start pushing users to purchase items they had no intention of buying. He prefers Instinct to generate revenue solely from transactions users were already set to complete. The exact commission rate has not been finalized. Shinn cited the platform fees charged by Shopify, Amazon, and Apple as references. Currently, roughly half of Instinct’s transaction volume comes from travel, with some boutique hotels willing to pay commissions of over 30% for orders it drives—though Instinct may not charge that high a rate. Coincidentally, Mark Zuckerberg previously envisioned the same model for Muse: most users would access the service for free, with the agent charging merchants for transactions it facilitated.

According to GMGN data monitoring, the market capitalization of Solana-based meme coin RuneScape Gold (GP) briefly exceeded $9 million, surging more than 82.5% in 24 hours with a trading volume of $3.6 million. GP is themed after in-game gold from the classic game *RuneScape* and paired with tokenized gold GLDx. Each GP transaction incurs a 3% tax; accumulated fees are periodically converted by StonkFun and distributed proportionally to eligible holders in GLDx form, forming a mechanism of "earning gold price exposure rewards by holding tokens". It is a high-volatility meme asset integrating nostalgic gaming narratives, transaction tax dividends, and tokenized gold concepts. BlockBeats reminds users that most meme coins lack practical use cases, have significant price volatility, and require caution when investing.

Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett’s latest warning flags that sharp volatility in the U.S. Treasury market is emerging as a new pressure source for risk assets. The MOVE index he tracks jumped roughly 35% over two trading days, reflecting heightened volatility in the financing system that uses U.S. Treasuries as core collateral. Hartnett warns that if the Global Financials ETF (ticker: IXG) falls below $125 while the MOVE index remains above 125, the market could enter a broader "risk-off deleveraging" phase. This would subject AI trades to more stringent interest rate tests. For some time, the resilience of tech giants’ earnings and AI-related capital expenditures have supported U.S. stocks, but rising long-term interest rates will simultaneously push up financing costs and valuation discount rates. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield briefly topped 5.2% last week, hitting its highest level since 2007; a prior Bank of America survey of fund managers also showed that "disorderly upward movement in bond yields" has overtaken the AI bubble as the market’s most feared tail risk. Hartnett’s core view is that rising yields alone do not necessarily end risk appetite; the truly dangerous combination is high yields paired with weak financial stocks. This would mean interest rates have shifted from a signal of economic expansion to a source of tightening liquidity and credit conditions; leveraged funds will be forced to reduce positions, and pressure could then spread from bonds to tech stocks, bank stocks, and other high-valuation assets. For AI bulls, the next key factors to watch are whether bond volatility eases, bank stocks stabilize, and long-term yields show signs of peaking. Bank of America continues to view yields as the primary potential threat to current economic and stock market expansion; once interest rate pressures ease, large-cap tech stocks could regain investor favor.

In its latest report, CoinShares stated that the U.S. CLARITY Act’s failure to advance in the Senate has cooled short-term expectations for crypto market structure legislation, though integration between traditional finance and on-chain infrastructure persists. The report argues that regulatory setbacks have not halted corporate investment in payments, stablecoin distribution, and tokenized securities, with the market continuing its institutionalization process via practical business collaborations. CoinShares highlighted recent TradeFi-related developments in crypto, including the NYSE and Blockchain.com exploring 24-hour trading channels for tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, ICE establishing a two-way data partnership with Blockchain.com, and Circle expanding its five-year collaboration with Binance while securing $100 million in strategic investment to boost USDC distribution. The firm believes these moves, combined with the SEC’s recent innovation exemptions, will further drive the on-chain migration of trading, payment, and clearing infrastructure. Market performance indicates crypto assets have temporarily weathered dual pressures from regulation and interest rates. Per CoinShares’ data, its blockchain stock index rose 1.9% last week, while Bitcoin gained 3.8%. However, the U.S. dollar hit an eight-week high, 10-year U.S. Treasury yields topped 5.2%, and oil prices remain supported by Middle East tensions, leaving the macro environment unfavorable for liquidity-sensitive assets.