Circle Internet Group has reported first-quarter 2026 results showing robust top-line growth, even as rising costs weighed on net income, with USDC circulation and transaction volumes both expanding sharply year-on-year. Total revenue and reserve income reached $694 million in the quarter, a 20% increase compared with the same period in 2025. Adjusted EBITDA grew 24% to $151 million, driven primarily by higher USDC in circulation.  Net income from continuing operations, however, fell 15% to $55 million, as gains were offset by elevated stock-based compensation costs following the company’s initial public offering and continued investment in infrastructure. USDC in circulation stood at $77 billion at quarter end, up 28%, while onchain transaction volume surged 263% to $21.5 trillion — a figure that underscores the growing role of stablecoins in digital financial activity. USDC accounted for 63% of all stablecoin transaction volumes in the quarter, according to Visa Onchain Analytics. Beyond the financial results, Circle highlighted a $222 million presale raise for its ARC Token at a $3 billion fully diluted network valuation, backed by investors including a16z crypto, BlackRock, Apollo Funds, and Standard Chartered Ventures. Chief executive Jeremy Allaire said the quarter reflected strong execution against a larger opportunity: the convergence of AI platforms and economic operating systems into a new internet stack, with Circle positioning itself as foundational infrastructure for AI-native financial activity.The post Circle Posts Strong Q1 Revenue Growth as USDC Circulation Hits $77 Billion first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched a suite of tools designed to let artificial intelligence agents operate as autonomous economic actors, marking what the company describes as a significant step towards an agent-driven global economy. The Circle Agent Stack comprises four initial products: a command line interface (CLI) for developers and agents to build on Circle’s platform; Agent Wallets, which allow AI systems to hold, send, and manage funds within predefined guardrails; an Agent Marketplace, a directory through which agents can discover and pay for services programmatically; and Nanopayments, a new protocol enabling gas-free USDC transfers as small as $0.000001 at machine speed. The products are built on Circle’s existing stablecoin infrastructure and are designed to address what the company sees as a fundamental mismatch: financial systems built for human users, with manual onboarding and approval flows ill-suited to software acting autonomously. Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s co-founder and chief executive, said the next phase of the global economy would be increasingly AI and agent-driven, describing the Agent Stack as the first suite Circle has launched in which AI agents themselves — rather than developers or enterprises — are the primary customers. Chief Product and Technology Officer Nikhil Chandhok said USDC’s programmable, internet-native nature makes it uniquely suited to the agentic economy, enabling agents to transact as seamlessly as software communicates. All products are immediately available via agents.circle.com.The post Circle Unveils Agent Stack to Give AI Systems Their Own Financial Infrastructure first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Broadridge Financial Solutions announced the live deployment of agentic AI capabilities across capital markets and wealth management operations, which it says offer clients a reduction in operational costs of up to 30% from day one. The New York-based firm’s AI agents, software that autonomously analyses, prioritises, and resolves operational exceptions without continuous human oversight, are now running in full production environments.  Firms can access the technology through a fully managed service in which Broadridge handles end-to-end operations, or a standalone platform that integrates into a client’s own infrastructure via open-standard APIs. Broadridge says its offering is underpinned by what it describes as the financial industry’s first completed data ontology, a single, normalised data layer drawing on more than 60 years of operational experience, $15 trillion in daily trading activity, and billions of transactions processed annually across multiple asset classes.  The firm argues this foundation gives its AI a depth of training that no individual institution could replicate internally. Capabilities already live in production include automated trade fails management, account opening workflows, real-time valuation exception handling, and customer inquiry automation. All workflows operate within a human-supervised architecture designed to meet regulatory requirements. Tom Carey, President of Broadridge’s Global Technology & Operations business, said firms that embed AI directly into their operations will lead the next era of financial services, adding that fragmented point solutions cannot match the control and efficiency Broadridge’s integrated platform delivers.The post Broadridge Launches Agentic AI Platform first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Euro-yen has recovered slightly from 30 April’s large drop in recent days amid ongoing moderate optimism of a resolution in the Gulf and comments from senior Japanese officials about being ready to intervene if necessary. The price remains very close to the record high of ¥188. News of indirect negotiations between the USA and Iran continues to be inconsistent with the two sides sending mixed messages and threats and commenting on a range of points for peace. Sentiment doesn’t appear to favour a large reescalation for now with indices generally doing well and oil not showing consistent gains in recent sessions. Progress, or lack thereof, in the negotiations is a significant potential opportunity and risk for most major instruments. Monetary policy broadly favours the euro for the time being with the European Central Bank (ECB) being 1.4% higher than the Bank of Japan (BoJ). Both central banks are widely expected to hike in June, which would take their main rates to 2.4% and 1% respectively. Euro-yen has been in a sideways trend on the daily chart for all of 2026 so far. With 30 April’s large loss not pushing below the 100 SMA and several tails overlapping this area, this SMA is a likely support for now. Selling volume has increased since the end of April which might suggest losses in itself; the slow stochastic is closer to neutral though than overbought or oversold. In the current situation of intervention from the BoJ likely to have occurred, it’s important to monitor USDJPY and EURUSD’s movements too because if the dollar generally declines and the euro strengthens, euro-yen has the opportunity to break out upward. However, if the yen remains generally weak against all other major currencies, the likelihood of a clear break above ¥188 would be much lower. A relatively conservative target around the all-time high might help to derisk buying somewhat in this situation. For the latest analysis, ideas for trading and more, follow Michael on X: @MStarkExness. The opinions in this article are personal to the writer; they do not represent those of Exness. This is not a recommendation to trade.The post Euro-yen holds around ¥185 amid ongoing intervention first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Crypto.com has become the first virtual asset service provider in the United Arab Emirates to receive a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE. The license grants the company exclusive access to process cryptocurrency payments for government services in the country. Awarded to Crypto.com’s UAE entity, Foris DAX Middle East FZE, the license enables a partnership with the Dubai Department of Finance, allowing UAE residents to pay government fees using virtual assets.  All financial settlements will be conducted in UAE dirhams or Central Bank-approved dirham-backed stablecoins through the SVF framework, in support of Dubai’s broader Cashless Strategy. As the sole virtual asset service provider holding an SVF licence in the UAE, Crypto.com holds an exclusive position in the market: any resident wishing to use virtual asset payment services for government fees must be onboarded through Crypto.com’s platform, which is also licensed by the UAE’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.  Subject to further approvals from the Central Bank, the licence will additionally enable Crypto.com to launch crypto payment integrations with Emirates Airlines and Dubai Duty Free. Eric Anziani, President and Chief Operating Officer of Crypto.com, described the licensing milestone as proof of the company’s commitment to compliance and to advancing a regulated digital assets ecosystem in the UAE. Mohammed Al Hakim, Crypto.com’s President and General Manager for the UAE and Bahrain, said the firm could now offer payment services that no other digital asset platform in the country was able to provide, enabling residents to pay Dubai government fees with cryptocurrency for the first time.The post Crypto.com Becomes First Crypto Firm to Receive UAE Stored Value Facilities Licence first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Charting and trading platform TradingView has added Kotak Neo, the broking arm of Kotak Mahindra Bank, as a broker partner, allowing Indian investors to place orders directly from TradingView charts across multiple domestic exchanges. Through the integration, Kotak Neo clients can connect their accounts to TradingView and trade equities, futures and options across the National Stock Exchange, Bombay Stock Exchange, Multi Commodity Exchange and Currency Derivatives Exchange whilst conducting technical analysis on the same platform.  The broker offers a flat fee of ₹10 on intraday and futures and options orders, alongside proprietary research to support trading decisions. Kotak Mahindra Bank has operated since 1994 and Kotak Neo serves more than five million customers through over 145 branches and 1,000 franchises spanning more than 310 cities across India. The platform offers investment services across equities, derivatives, mutual funds, commodities and currencies. The partnership gives Indian investors an additional option for integrated chart-based trading on TradingView, which has expanded its roster of broker integrations significantly in recent years as demand for combined charting and execution tools has grown. The post TradingView Adds Kotak Neo as Broker Partner for Indian Markets first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Card issuing platform Marqeta has named Lukasz Strozek as its new Chief Technology Officer, effective 18 May, bringing two decades of engineering leadership experience across regulated financial services to the role. Strozek joins from LendingClub, where he served as Chief Technology Officer with responsibility for engineering, product and data functions. Prior to that, he held the same role at Hippo Insurance, overseeing software engineering, data engineering and product management across multiple business lines.  Earlier in his career he held engineering and product leadership positions at Bridgewater Associates, Bolt Financial and SoFi, having previously co-founded Clara Lending, a digital mortgage platform acquired by SoFi in 2018. Mike Milotich, Chief Executive of Marqeta, said Strozek brought “deep technical expertise and a proven track record of scaling products and building high-performing engineering organisations,” describing his appointment as instrumental to advancing the company’s global technology roadmap and accelerating innovation. Strozek said he was attracted by Marqeta’s strong technology foundation and its focus on enabling payments innovation, adding that he looked forward to delivering next-generation capabilities to help customers address complex challenges. In his new role, Strozek will lead Marqeta’s global technology and engineering functions as the company continues to develop its modern card issuing platform. Marqeta, listed on Nasdaq, provides the infrastructure underpinning card programmes for a range of financial services and technology companies worldwide.The post Marqeta Appoints LendingClub Technology Chief as New CTO first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

London Stock Exchange Group announced last week that its financial data and analytics will be made available within Amazon Quick, AWS’s AI-powered research and workflow automation workspace, through a Model Context Protocol server integration. The move forms part of LSEG Everywhere, the group’s broader strategy to deliver AI-ready data and analytics across the platforms and environments where financial institutions already operate.  LSEG explained that through the integration, customers will be able to access a wide range of LSEG content within Amazon Quick, including pricing data, company fundamentals, ownership information, estimates, macroeconomic indicators, ESG data and analytical models. Emily Prince, Group Head of Enterprise AI at LSEG, said the collaboration represented “another important step” in expanding access to LSEG data within AI-driven tools, enabling firms to scale adoption with confidence on interoperable infrastructure. Scott Mullins, Managing Director of Worldwide Financial Services at AWS, believes that connecting LSEG’s market intelligence to Amazon Quick will support more productive user experiences and simpler interoperability, whilst providing secure and scalable access to the data organisations need to build and deploy AI effectively.The post LSEG Brings Licensed Financial Data to Amazon Quick Via AI Connectivity Programme first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Financial technology group FIS has been selected by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s largest bank, to consolidate and automate reconciliation across the institution using its Data Integrity Manager platform. The platform will process in excess of 150 million transactions per day. The solution, delivered as a software-as-a-service product via Microsoft Azure, is expected to replace fragmented reconciliation processes with a single, unified platform. The company noted that it offers real-time visibility, automated discrepancy alerts and a consolidated view across business lines. FIS explained that the platform’s high-performance architecture can process large volumes of data in minutes rather than hours, improving operational efficiency. Andrés Choussy, President of Capital Markets at FIS, stated: “By bringing reconciliation onto a single, intelligent platform, we are enabling CommBank to unlock seamless integration and operational efficiency while ensuring the stability, security, and compliance essential to supporting Australia’s largest bank.” The engagement also incorporates FIS’s enterprise-grade risk and compliance capabilities, including SOC1 and SOC2 certifications, and is designed to support CommBank’s federated software architecture. David Pont, General Manager of Financial Control and Transformation at Commonwealth Bank, believes the implementation reflected the bank’s focus on investing in technology to strengthen operations and ultimately benefit customers. “With FIS Data Integrity Manager, as a strategic partner we gain a platform that can scale with our business and support our continued growth,” he added. FIS will manage ongoing upgrades to the solution, enabling faster delivery of new capabilities without placing the operational burden on CommBank’s internal teams. The post Commonwealth Bank of Australia Selects FIS Platform to Streamline Reconciliations first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

On Friday, financial technology group FIS has reported a robust start to 2026, with first-quarter revenue rising 30% year-on-year to $3.3 billion and free cash flow more than doubling to $474 million, as the company reiterated its full-year outlook. Adjusted earnings per share increased 12% to $1.36, whilst adjusted EBITDA grew 36% to approximately $1.3 billion, with margins expanding 176 basis points to 39.6%.  On a GAAP basis, diluted EPS reached $4.58, reflecting an estimated post-tax gain of $2.2 billion from the sale of Worldpay. Banking Solutions was the standout segment, with revenue rising 45% to $2.4 billion and adjusted EBITDA margins expanding by 299 basis points to 43.7%, buoyed by the acquisition of the high-margin Total Issuing Solutions business.  Capital Markets Solutions posted more modest growth, with revenue up 5% to $823 million and EBITDA margins improving 162 basis points to 51.6%. Chief Executive Stephanie Ferris said the results reflected disciplined execution, driving margin expansion and robust cash generation, adding that banks were investing and that innovation redefining financial services “runs through FIS.” The company has temporarily paused share buybacks and bolt-on acquisitions to focus on reducing leverage to its target ratio of 2.8 times.  For the full year, FIS projects adjusted revenue growth of 30-31%, adjusted EBITDA growth of 34-35%, and free cash flow of between $2.05 billion and $2.15 billion.The post FIS Q1 Results Strong as Revenue Rises 30% and Free Cash Flow Doubles first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

LeapRate has relaunched its long-running broker directory and refreshed its 2026 industry awards programme, rebuilding both products around how AI-driven search engines now surface broker information to retail traders. The relaunch, announced this week, represents the most significant overhaul of the LeapRate directory in several years. A flat alphabetical broker listing has been replaced with verified, structured profiles built to be readable by both human visitors and the AI systems including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews, that increasingly mediate “which broker should I use” queries before a trader ever reaches a comparison site. The 2026 awards programme runs alongside the directory and spans 30 categories across retail trading, B2B technology, and regional excellence. Categories include best broker, platform innovation, customer support, copy trading, prop trading, and CFD trading, alongside dedicated awards for brokers operating across the UK, EU, MENA, APAC, and LATAM regions. A response to changing search behaviour The framing “for the AI search era” is deliberate. LeapRate Managing Director David Hobart said the rebuild was driven by a shift in trader behaviour the broader industry has been slow to acknowledge. “Earlier this year we started seeing broker-related queries flow through ChatGPT and Perplexity rather than Google in volumes that were impossible to ignore,” Hobart said. “When you actually run those queries, you find that many large regulated brokers including some well-known names simply don’t appear in the AI’s answer set. The data the engines are pulling from either doesn’t include them, or doesn’t include them with the structure required to surface them. That’s a real visibility problem, and one that paid search budgets cannot solve.” The new directory aims to address the structural side of that problem, presenting broker information regulation, asset classes, account types, jurisdictions, fee structures, and verified user data in a citation-friendly format suitable for AI ingestion. Awards and directory inclusion The 2026 awards programme is integrated with the directory rather than running as a standalone marketing exercise. Eligibility for award categories is linked to a verified broker’s directory presence, ensuring the legitimacy of all entries, while shortlisting is handled through a combination of LeapRate editorial review, and verified industry peer feedback. The structure is designed to address a long-running criticism of industry awards: that nominations and outcomes are determined by sponsorship rather than merit. Hobart said LeapRate had drawn a clear line between the commercial directory tiers which determine eligibility and visibility and the editorial judging process, giving a revenue model to support the awards while ensuring full transparency on the nominations and judging process What is new in the directory Alongside the AI-readability work, the relaunched directory introduces several substantive changes: Verified profile data refreshed quarterly rather than annually Direct integration with broker comparison tools elsewhere on LeapRate.com No Affiliate links, just real B2B referral traffic for companies. Dedicated categories allowing AI to really drill down into the detail for its queries. Structured FAQ data on each broker entry, formatted for direct AI citation Existing LeapRate directory listings have been migrated automatically, but companies should check that the current listed information is up to date and accurate. Brokers wishing to upgrade their listing tier or enter the 2026 awards programme can do so through the LeapRate awards page or contact the team directly at listings@leaprate.com Programme timeline and broader platform rebuild LeapRate has covered the institutional and retail forex industry since 2009 and has run industry awards intermittently across that period. The 2026 awards programme opens nominations now and will run through to mid-year, with shortlists published in Q3 and winners announced before year-end. The relaunch forms part of a broader rebuild of the LeapRate platform that has included a redesigned editorial section, an integrated economic calendar, and a strengthened German-language presence through sister sites BrokerDeal.de and ForexBroker.de. Disclosure: This article reports on a LeapRate product launch. LeapRate is owned by FinAffiliates Limited.The post LeapRate relaunches broker directory and 2026 awards programme with AI search focus first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

US broker-dealer IFP Securities has been censured and fined $100,000 by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority after the regulator found the Florida-based firm failed to adequately supervise thousands of mutual fund and unit investment trust transactions over a three-year period. According to a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent published by FINRA, the firm’s automated surveillance system stopped generating alerts following a vendor change in November 2022. This reportedly left IFP without any mechanism to flag potentially unsuitable mutual fund switching or short-term trading in unit investment trusts.  The system is said to have remained non-functional until 2025, during which time the firm had no alternative supervisory process in place. FINRA found that IFP violated Regulation Best Interest, which requires broker-dealers to act in the best interest of retail customers when making investment recommendations, as well as FINRA Rules 3110 and 2010, which govern supervision and standards of commercial conduct, respectively. The regulator’s concern reportedly centred on the risks posed by short-term trading of Class A mutual fund shares and early redemption of unit investment trusts, both of which carry upfront charges that customers may not recoup if positions are sold too quickly.  Mutual fund switching, which is selling one fund and reinvesting the proceeds in another, can similarly result in unnecessary costs for clients. IFP Securities, which has approximately 290 registered representatives across around 140 branches, neither admitted nor denied the findings as part of the settlement. The post FINRA Fines IFP Securities $100,000 Over Supervision Failure first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, TD Securities, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have joined LTX as fully integrated liquidity providers on the AI-powered corporate bond trading platform, in a move that significantly expands the depth of liquidity available to buy-side investors in fixed income markets. The five institutions join more than 40 existing liquidity providers and over 100 buy-side investors already active on the platform, which is backed by financial technology group Broadridge. J.P. Morgan and TD Securities will each appoint a representative to LTX’s Board of Directors as part of the arrangement. Jim Kwiatkowski, Chief Executive of LTX, said the combination of the platform’s AI-powered trading tools with the market expertise and liquidity of the five incoming dealers positioned LTX to help transform corporate bond trading, reducing costs and improving execution quality for the market. Chris Perry, President of Broadridge, welcomed the additions as a further demonstration of the company’s commitment to helping clients innovate through cost-effective technology, whilst Patrick Whelan, Global Head of FICC Digital Markets at J.P. Morgan, said the partnership would broaden investor access and enhance competition in the US credit multi-dealer platform landscape. LTX uses patented artificial intelligence and execution protocols to facilitate direct, fully disclosed trading between dealers and buy-side clients. Its BondGPT Intelligence tool brings generative AI capabilities into trading workflows, helping users identify opportunities and execute more efficiently. The platform was designed to address structural barriers that have slowed the electronification of corporate bond markets relative to other asset classes.The post 5 Major Banks Join LTX Corporate Bond Platform; Goldman and JP Morgan Lead Liquidity Push first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Bloomberg has introduced a new dataset giving quantitative researchers and systematic investors access to time-stamped historical economic data, enabling them to reconstruct past market conditions and backtest trading strategies with greater precision. The Economic Releases and Surveys Point-in-Time dataset, available through Bloomberg Data License, covers more than 3,000 market-moving economic indicators and government auction events across over 100 economies, with historical observations extending back to 1997.  By presenting data as it appeared to market participants at the time of release, the dataset allows analysts to avoid the distortions introduced by subsequent data revisions — a longstanding challenge in macroeconomic research. Angana Jacob, Global Head of Investment Research Data at Bloomberg, said the dataset enabled clients to model expectation formation in a point-in-time framework, capturing forecast updates, consensus evolution and full revision histories to build macro signals and cross-asset models that remain consistent from backtesting through to live trading. The dataset comprises three components: a forward-looking calendar of scheduled economic events, an actuals and surveys module capturing published values and consensus forecasts with timestamps, and a changes module recording intraday updates to economist surveys ahead of releases. Bloomberg said the new offering was sourced from the same underlying infrastructure as the Economic Calendars solution on the Bloomberg Terminal, ensuring consistency between desktop research and enterprise-scale production environments.  The launch extends Bloomberg’s existing Investment Research Data suite, which spans company financials, estimates, pricing, transaction analytics and sector-specific metrics.The post Bloomberg Launches Point-in-Time Economic Dataset for Quant Strategy Development first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Unified financial infrastructure platform, Payward, which also operates the Kraken crypto exchange, has agreed to acquire Reap Technologies, the company announced Thursday.  Reap is a stablecoin-native card issuance and payments infrastructure company. Payward will pay up to $600 million in a mix of cash and stock, in a transaction that values Payward’s equity at $20 billion. The deal extends Payward Services, the company’s business-to-business infrastructure platform, into the global cards and payments space, allowing partners to embed card issuance, cross-border payments and stablecoin treasury services alongside Payward’s existing crypto trading, custody and derivatives capabilities through a single integration point. Reap, which nearly tripled revenue and volumes in 2025, has built a payments stack that connects card networks, traditional banking rails and stablecoin-native settlement within a single API-driven platform.  Its existing licences will accelerate Payward’s expansion across Asia Pacific and the Americas, whilst Payward’s EU and US licences open new corridors for Reap in those markets.  Together, the companies said they were positioned to extend stablecoin-powered payments infrastructure into high-growth markets across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Arjun Sethi, Co-Chief Executive of Payward, said Reap represented “the payments layer for what comes next,” combining card networks, banking rails and blockchains on a single API settling in stablecoins.  Reap will continue to operate as a standalone platform under its existing leadership. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026.The post Payward Agrees $600 Million Acquisition of Stablecoin Payments Firm Reap first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Prediction market platform Kalshi has closed a $1 billion Series F funding round at a $22 billion valuation, roughly doubling its worth from the $11 billion valuation it achieved just five months ago in its Series E raise. The round was led by Coatue, with participation from a who’s who of institutional names, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Paradigm, Morgan Stanley, and ARK Invest, a lineup that underscores the growing appetite on Wall Street for exposure to the prediction markets space. The announcement comes on the back of accelerating institutional demand. Kalshi said institutional trading volume on its platform has surged 800% over the past six months, while annualised trading volume has more than tripled, rising from $52 billion to $178 billion over the same period. The New York-based company said it now accounts for over 90% of U.S. prediction market activity and holds the majority of global volume, positioning it as the dominant player in a category that is rapidly moving beyond its retail origins. Proceeds from the raise will be used to deepen Kalshi’s institutional footprint, targeting hedge funds, asset managers, proprietary trading firms, and insurance companies. The company plans to expand its product suite, building on its recently launched block trading capabilities and developing upcoming risk products alongside deeper broker integrations. Philippe Laffont, Founder of Coatue, said he expects institutions to follow the retail adoption curve. “Kalshi is building the leading platform for trading in real-world events. Consumers have already embraced it, and we believe institutions will follow.” Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, drew comparisons to the AI boom. “There are few categories in recent history that have scaled this quickly outside of AI,” he said. “Event contracts could become a trillion-dollar market, and we’re still in the early stages of that transition.”The post Kalshi Raises $1 Billion at $22 Billion Valuation as Institutional Trading Surges first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Stripe has partnered with Amazon Web Services to provide wallet infrastructure and payment rails for AgentCore payments, the company announced on Thursday.  The move will see a new set of features within Amazon Bedrock AgentCore that enable artificial intelligence agents to autonomously access and pay for digital resources. It allows AI agents to instantly pay for web content, APIs, MCP servers and other agents. Privy, a wallet infrastructure company owned by Stripe, is providing the underlying technology alongside Coinbase for the first set of capabilities available to AgentCore developers. Henri Stern, Chief Executive of Privy, said Stripe was “building the economic infrastructure for AI,” arguing that agents could only become meaningful economic actors if they had a reliable means to hold and spend money.  The partnership makes stablecoin wallets for agents readily accessible to developers building on AWS’s AgentCore platform. There has been growing momentum around agentic commerce, in which AI systems act autonomously on behalf of users or businesses, executing transactions without direct human involvement at each step. The post Stripe and AWS Team Up to Give AI Agents Stablecoin Payment Capabilities first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Positive sentiment on US-Iranian peace talks has been negative for the dollar and crude oil. Optimism among participants about progress in indirect negotiations between the USA and Iran has meant challenges for the dollar in recent days, with various risk on instruments like Asian and European shares making gains while American light oil also declined briefly below $90. Attention not shifts to the American job report on Friday 8 May. This article summarizes recent major news and the context of the upcoming NFP then looks briefly at the charts of EURUSD and BTCUSD. Donald Trump said early GMT on 7 May that a deal with Iran is ‘very possible’, which drove positive sentiment across markets. However, senior members of the Iranian government were quoted playing down the likelihood of an imminent deal. The dollar has functioned as a geopolitical haven throughout the conflict so far, generally gaining around escalation and losing strength when it appears that a resolution is more likely. Although news of the Gulf conflict continues to dominate financial media, May’s NFP is a particularly important release given the lack of any clear trend in the last several months of data:   Most of the last six months’ NFPs have been revised downward at least slightly, in some cases significantly. February’s final figure was more than 40,000 lower than initially reported. The very strong figure for March released last month, 178,000, was around triple the consensus, so there’s a clear possibility that this might also be revised down. It’s clear that the job market in the USA is overall significantly weaker compared to 2024 or early 2025, but the continuing direction is less obvious. Unemployment at 4.3% is only marginally higher than 2025’s average. That the job market isn’t strongly weaker or stronger than around this time last year gives the Fed more leeway with rates. Current probabilities from CME FedWatch suggest around a 70% likelihood that the funds rate will stay at the current 3.5-3.75% until early 2027 with participants expecting hikes around the middle of next year. However, upcoming inflation data are also very important for determining the Fed’s next moves since the spike in inflation from the Gulf conflict hasn’t so far been as high as some had feared. 12 May is the date of the next annual headline inflation from the USA with the rate currently expected to increase to around 3.6% from 3.3%. Euro-dollar testing $1.18 Euro-dollar gained as hopes for an imminent peace between Iran and the USA increased around 7 May. Monetary policy is also in focus with the Fed likely to hold at 3.5-3.75% to the end of the year and probably beyond. The ECB might hike twice with a probability of around 75% that the main refinancing rate will go up to 2.4% next month. $1.18, which was a familiar area in February before the Gulf conflict, still seems to be an important reference which the price is currently testing. Relatively low volume compared to March might make the probability of a breakout lower, but the slow stochastic is favourable being close to neutral. For the moment, a deep retracement lower seems to be unlikely given several moving averages bunching together around $1.17. Losses around a positive NFP might be limited although the job report is unlikely to be as strong as last month’s. Bitcoin’s gains continue but possible resistance ahead The dollar’s recent losses and a general recovery in sentiment have helped bitcoin to continue up in May so far with the price holding around $81,000 on 7 May. Spot ETFs on bitcoin have been strongly positive since late March with last month seeing around $2.4bn net inflows. The significantly lower probability of looser monetary policy later in 2026 is a negative factor for bitcoin but this seems to be discounted for now. $82,000 is a possible strong resistance being a round number and the area of the 38.2% monthly Fibonacci retracement. The 200 SMA is also only slightly above this zone. If there’s a break above $82,000, around $87,000 could be a further resistance as a familiar area from December 2025. Although the slow stochastic is not normally much use for cryptocurrencies, the current very low and declining ATR might suggest in isolation a change of the trend. That’s a bit difficult to reconcile with recent fundamentals, but if the price does retrace lower there might be a pause in the value area between the 20 and 50 SMAs around $75,000. A weaker NFP might push the price higher but since this seems fairly likely the reaction might not be very strong depending on the degree of surprise from the release. For the latest analysis, ideas for trading and more, follow Michael on X: @MStarkExness. The opinions in this article are personal to the writer; they do not represent those of Exness. This is not a recommendation to trade.The post Dollar mostly down ahead of the NFP first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Swiss financial infrastructure group SIX has elected three new members to its Board of Directors at its Annual General Meeting, replacing four longstanding directors who stepped down upon completion of their respective terms of office. Thomas Wellauer, Belén Romana García, Roger Reist and Sven Holstenson all departed as planned, with Chairman André Helfenstein paying tribute to their contributions to the company’s strategic development.  “With their extensive expertise and strong commitment, they have played a key role in shaping the strategic direction of our company,” Helfenstein said. The three incoming directors, each elected for a three-year term, bring backgrounds spanning banking, technology, trading and compliance.  Pascal Baumgartner, Chief Executive of Entris Holding AG and Entris Banking AG since 2022, is a qualified attorney-at-law with prior experience at Valiant Bank, the Swiss Bankers Association and UBS.  Pieter Brouwer, currently Chief Operating Officer of UBS Personal and Corporate Banking, has held senior roles at Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and KPMG.  Gaspare La Sala, an equity partner at Banque Pictet & Cie, serves as Chief Executive of Pictet Trading and Sales and holds a mathematics degree from the University of Zurich alongside an MBA and CFA qualification. His appointment remains subject to regulatory approval. Helfenstein said the new appointments would bring “additional breadth, expertise and perspective” to the board, strengthening its capacity to guide the group’s long-term development.The post SIX Appoints 3 New Board Directors at Annual General Meeting first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.

Swiss financial infrastructure group SIX has received approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to merge its digital central securities depository (CSD), SIX Digital Exchange, into its established CSD, SIX SIS AG, bringing digital and traditional asset services together within a single regulated legal entity. FINMA has also approved SIX to offer crypto custody services through the consolidated CSD, a development the group described as a milestone in the creation of regulated institutional market infrastructure for digital assets. The combined entity will operate under what SIX calls a “one plug to two worlds” model, offering financial institutions a single access point for both traditional securities and digital assets.  The company noted that the approach is designed to reduce operational complexity whilst providing the legal certainty and resilience associated with established financial market infrastructure. Rafael Moral Santiago, Head of Securities Services and a member of the SIX Executive Board, said the group’s objective was to provide financial institutions with a unified, secure and regulated gateway to digital assets.  He added that integrating crypto custody into the core CSD offering combined innovation with the regulatory robustness that institutional clients require. The consolidation forms part of SIX’s broader ambition to become a pan-European provider of integrated, digital post-trade solutions by 2030. The post SIX Wins Swiss Regulatory Approval to Merge Digital and Traditional Securities Infrastructure first appeared on LeapRate | Online Trading Industry News, Broker Intelligence & Fintech Analysis.