Blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs completed a $70 million Series C funding round, valuing it at $1 billion, becoming the latest crypto company to reach unicorn status. The investment round was led by seed investor Blockchain Capital, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Bessemer Venture Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Thoma Bravo, Citi Ventures and Galaxy Ventures, … Read more
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to China last week was the first by a British prime minister for eight years. His attendance at a gathering of EU leaders this week is the first since Brexit. When … Read more
Walk the rows of the farmers market in a small, nondescript Texas town about an hour away from Austin, and you might stumble across something unexpected: In between booths selling fresh, local pickles and pies, there’s a table piled high with generic-looking streaming boxes, promising free access to NFL games, UFC fights, and any cable … Read more
The School of American Ballet’s annual SAB Ball, Step Into Our Shoes, unfolded on Monday evening at the David H. Koch Theater with a rhythm all its own. Guests gathered first for cocktails in the Koch Theater lobby before heading into the house for a three-act performance, followed by dinner and dancing—an evening designed to … Read more
Anthropic has announced that it won’t be bringing ads to its AI chatbot Claude, in sharp contrast to confirmed plans from OpenAI to allow advertising in ChatGPT. To hammer the point home further, the company is releasing a Super Bowl commercial that makes fun of unnamed rivals adding adverts to their AI. “We want Claude … Read more
The United Kingdom’s House of Lords heard critical views on stablecoins Wednesday, with witnesses claiming that tokens were mainly “on- and off-ramps into crypto,” rather than the future of money. The House of Lords held a public session as part of its new inquiry into how stablecoins should be regulated in the country, gathering evidence … Read more
EXCLUSIVE: Hulu is expanding into podcast licensing after striking a first-of-its-kind, exclusive deal for Wer’e Here to Help, the comedy advice pod hosted by Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds. The show, from comedy podcast network Headgum, will begin streaming twice a week on Hulu, beginning February 10th, with releases on Sundays and Tuesdays. Set to … Read more
While advertising and targeting have become increasingly personalized, the website — the final destination for that traffic — has remained largely static. Fibr AI aims to bridge that gap by using AI agents to turn generic webpages into one-to-one experiences tailored to each visitor, a thesis that has prompted Accel to double down on the … Read more
Spotify on Wednesday announced changes to its built-in song lyrics feature, which includes making lyrics translations globally available, offering the ability to view lyrics when offline, and relocating the feature in the app. The changes follow other tweaks the streamer has made to lyrics over the years, hoping to leverage the feature as a tool … Read more
Occupational hazard, personal obsession: I watch every move my hairstylist makes when she’s at the shampoo sink. It serves me well. Even after years of writing about hair, I still pick up new techniques. That’s exactly what happened recently at Salon YÖY, during their signature Let It Bloom protocol, which uses products from the Japanese-inspired … Read more