Visa is adding five blockchains to its stablecoin settlement network as it expands its multichain vision of global payments. The news comes as the payments giant announced that its settlement run rate hit $7 billion in Q1 2026, up 50% over the previous quarter. The network allows issuers and acquirers to settle transactions with stablecoins instead of the slow and costly traditional banking rails. Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot now has nine blockchains, with Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo joining Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar. “Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” said Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products…
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Prediction Markets Becoming $1.1T Business: BoA
Blockchain-based betting markets are popular but controversial
Bank of America has predicted that the sports betting portion of the prediction market industry could grow into a $1.1 trillion business in the U.S. That would give it an annual income of about $10 billion, Bloomberg reported. Prediction markets allow users to place yes or no/A or B bets on nearly anything, from cryptocurrency prices to culture and election results, as well as the outcome of sporting events. They have gained a reputation for being more accurate than traditional polling results, as users must put their money where their mouths are. Fox News, CNN and CNBC have partnered with Kalshi, the leading U.S. prediction market, while Dow Jones, the…
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Two of Worldcoin's iris scanning orbs flank a promotional poster at the ETHGlobal conference in New YorkControversial Worldcoin Scans Retinas at ETH NYC, Skips Over its Messy History
Is Big Brother attempting to recruit all the young devs?
In our ongoing series exploring the increasing intersections of blockchain and AI, we’ve highlighted both novel approaches to combining the two exponential technologies in sectors like healthcare that impact everyone, as well as how blockchain can ensure both privacy and transparency. The latter is particularly important given the risks posed by AI — its potential to eliminate millions of jobs, including those previously deemed more immune to technology, the acceleration of deep fakes that threaten our increasingly slippery hold on what is true, the reduction in the ability of humans to control weapons of mass destruction and more. (And as evidence that these are collective concerns, when you type “biggest…
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Revolutionizing Healthcare with Blockchain and AI
How companies are ensuring privacy, transparency and efficiency in critical areas
Part two of this series exploring the growing intersections of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) illustrated how this combination is transforming the blockchain ecosystem. The convergence is growing across a number of industries, and healthcare is a prime example. It’s also a fast-growing one. According to Morgan Stanley, the industry’s average estimated budget allocation to AI is projected to grow from 5.7% in 2022 to 10.5% in 2024. Similarly, blockchain’s market size in healthcare was valued at $1.97 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at an eye-popping CAGR of 68% from 2023 to 2030. These growth predictions are unsurprising since, used properly, blockchain and AI can be excellent…
