1) The new AI ad stack
Google: Performance Max & AI Max for SearchGoogle’s AI now optimizes bidding, budgets, audiences, creative and attribution across channels in one campaign. New 2025 features add more controls and reporting, but the system remains largely automation-first. Expect better scale; trade some transparency.
Meta: Advantage+ automationMeta’s Advantage+ suites automate placements and targeting, with fewer manual levers…
Overview: why prediction markets matter now
In 2025, three headlines changed the conversation in the US: Polymarket announced a $112M purchase of a CFTC-licensed exchange/clearinghouse (QCEX), positioning for a regulated US on-ramp; the CFTC affirmed Kalshi’s status by modifying its DCM order and courts weighed in on state-level challenges; and PredictIt won a federal case vacating the CFTC’s attempted shutdown, clearing…
Overview: what changed in 2025
Crypto-facing gambling is moving into tighter compliance worldwide. In the UK, the Gambling Commission brought new remote technical standards and is piloting deeper financial risk checks; in the EU, MiCA’s stablecoin rules are live; Curaçao’s full online regime (LOK) switched on; Ontario reiterates that cryptocurrency is not legal tender for regulated sites; and Australia’s ACMA continues…
1) Regulated on-chain sportsbooks and prediction markets
Betting is moving on-chain, and regulators are starting to license the pioneers. BetDEX became the first fully licensed blockchain sports-betting exchange under the Isle of Man GSC, signaling that compliant Web3 sportsbooks are viable.
Prediction markets are also stepping into compliance: Polymarket acquired CFTC-licensed exchange and clearinghouse QCEX for $112 million, positioning for regulated…
A wave of 2025 state bills would let agencies accept cryptocurrency for taxes and fees. Where programs already exist (Colorado, Utah), payments run through a processor like PayPal that converts your crypto to dollars instantly and adds a service fee—so the state never holds crypto. Early adoption has been tiny, but more jurisdictions are exploring similar setups.
What the new bills…
What counts as a “crypto exchange” in the U.S.?
If a business exchanges, transfers, or administers crypto for others, it is generally a money services business (MSB) and must register with FinCEN and implement AML programs, including the Recordkeeping/“Travel Rule” for certain transfers. Peer-to-peer “exchangers” are also covered when they transmit value for others.
Key AML pieces you’ll see in onboarding…
Fundraising isn’t one thing; it spans institutional capital formation, community grants, and charitable giving. In 2024–2025, three shifts made blockchain funding practical at scale: (1) real institutional products like tokenized money-market funds, (2) clearer rulebooks and sandboxes that let regulated players issue and settle digital securities, and (3) maturing crypto-philanthropy and public-goods mechanisms that prove out transparency and global reach.…
Despite real progress in trading, remittances experiments, and on-chain finance, cryptocurrency still struggles to penetrate several high-value, real-world payment niches. Data from central banks and industry bodies shows crypto’s share of day-to-day payments remains tiny in developed markets, stablecoins are used largely inside the crypto ecosystem, and compliance frictions persist across borders. This guide maps the major “not-yet-occupied” niches, explains…
Why Beijing calls blockchain “strategic” infrastructure
In an October 2019 speech, President Xi urged accelerated blockchain R&D and real-world deployment for the digital economy and governance. That endorsement moved blockchain from niche to national priority.
Key implication: in China, blockchain is framed as a state-aligned “top-level system” for data trust and coordination across government and industry, not as a pathway to…