BlockFi CEO Zac Prince says the crypto lending service has secured a $250M “revolving credit facility” from FTX (Andrew Rummer/The Block)

Andrew Rummer / The Block: BlockFi CEO Zac Prince says the crypto lending service has secured a $250M “revolving credit facility” from FTX  —  – BlockFi secures $250 million revolving credit facility from crypto exchange FTX.  — The crypto lender says the deal ‘bolsters our balance sheet and platform strength.’

Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden announces a $130M Series B led by Electric and Greylock at a $1.6B valuation, following a $27M Series A in March 2022 (Yogita Khatri/The Block)

Yogita Khatri / The Block: Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden announces a $130M Series B led by Electric and Greylock at a $1.6B valuation, following a $27M Series A in March 2022  —  – Magic Eden has scored a $1.6 billion valuation in its latest funding round.  — The Solana-based NFT marketplace plans to launch […]

Singapore-based neobank Stashfin, available in India, raised a $270M Series C, with $70M equity and $200M debt, at a $700M-$800M valuation to expand in Asia (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Singapore-based neobank Stashfin, available in India, raised a $270M Series C, with $70M equity and $200M debt, at a $700M-$800M valuation to expand in Asia  —  Singapore-based Stashfin has raised $270 million in a new funding round as the neobanking platform, which currently only serves customers in India …

Robotic lightning bugs take flight

Fireflies that light up dusky backyards on warm summer evenings use their luminescence for communication — to attract a mate, ward off predators, or lure prey. These glimmering bugs also sparked the inspiration of scientists at MIT. Taking a cue from nature, they built electroluminescent soft artificial muscles for flying, insect-scale robots. The tiny artificial […]

London-based Instanda, which offers insurance providers a no-code core infrastructure to deploy products easily, has raised a $45M Series B led by Toscafund (Dan Taylor/Tech.eu)

Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: London-based Instanda, which offers insurance providers a no-code core infrastructure to deploy products easily, has raised a $45M Series B led by Toscafund  —  Led by Toscafund, no-code insurance products management and distribution software maker Instada now shifts into high gear …

New York-headquartered Wahed, a fintech which allows Muslims to invest in line with their faith, has raised a $50M Series B led by Wa’ed Ventures (FinSMEs)

FinSMEs: New York-headquartered Wahed, a fintech which allows Muslims to invest in line with their faith, has raised a $50M Series B led by Wa’ed Ventures  —  Wahed Inc., a New York-headquartered global Islamic fintech company, raised USD50m in Series B funding.  —  The round was led by Wa’ed Ventures …

iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura add an Automatic Verification option, which lets users bypass CAPTCHAs on websites and in apps that support the feature (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors)

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura add an Automatic Verification option, which lets users bypass CAPTCHAs on websites and in apps that support the feature  —  Tapping on images of traffic lights or deciphering squiggly text to prove you are human will soon be a much less common nuisance for […]

New model helps identify mutations that drive cancer

Cancer cells can have thousands of mutations in their DNA. However, only a handful of those actually drive the progression of cancer; the rest are just along for the ride. Distinguishing these harmful driver mutations from the neutral passengers could help researchers identify better drug targets. To boost those efforts, an MIT-led team has built […]

JD.com reports revenue from its June 18 shopping festival rose 10.3% to $56.6B, the slowest growth since 2017, as China’s lockdowns dampen consumer demand (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: JD.com reports revenue from its June 18 shopping festival rose 10.3% to $56.6B, the slowest growth since 2017, as China’s lockdowns dampen consumer demand  —  Consumers hit the brakes in latest indication of damaged sentiment from macroeconomic headwinds and lengthy lockdowns

After pausing withdrawals last week, Celsius asks for more time to stabilize its liquidity and operations and halts Twitter Spaces and AMAs (Celsius Blog)

Celsius Blog: After pausing withdrawals last week, Celsius asks for more time to stabilize its liquidity and operations and halts Twitter Spaces and AMAs  —  It has been one week since we paused withdrawals, Swap, and transfers.  We want our community to know that our objective continues to be stabilizing our liquidity and operations.

Chicago-based Elevate K-12, which helps school districts alleviate teacher shortages by virtually connecting teachers to classrooms, has raised a $40M Series C (Abel Rodriguez/Built In Chicago)

Abel Rodriguez / Built In Chicago: Chicago-based Elevate K-12, which helps school districts alleviate teacher shortages by virtually connecting teachers to classrooms, has raised a $40M Series C  —  As the country has dealt with teacher shortages brought by unsafe work conditions due to the pandemic and burnout, among other reasons …

Telegram surpasses 700M MAUs and unveils Telegram Premium, which will let users follow up to 1,000 channels, send files up to 4GB, and more for ~$5/month (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Telegram surpasses 700M MAUs and unveils Telegram Premium, which will let users follow up to 1,000 channels, send files up to 4GB, and more for ~$5/month  —  Telegram has amassed 700 million monthly active users and is rolling out a premium tier with additional features as the instant messaging platform makes […]

Interviews with members of Peter Thiel’s inner circle describe how he came to the decision to leave Meta’s board, a departure that was years in the making (Elizabeth Dwoskin/Washington Post)

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post: Interviews with members of Peter Thiel’s inner circle describe how he came to the decision to leave Meta’s board, a departure that was years in the making  —  Inside the billionaire investor’s journey from Facebook board member to an architect of the new American right

The total value of all cryptocurrencies has gone down by roughly $2T, or two-thirds, since bitcoin hit its all-time high in November 2021 (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: The total value of all cryptocurrencies has gone down by roughly $2T, or two-thirds, since bitcoin hit its all-time high in November 2021  —  The cryptocurrency industry was built on swagger, enthusiasm and optimism.  All three are in short supply these days, as losses and layoffs mount.  —  1x

India lifts ban on Mastercard from issuing new debit, credit, or prepaid cards after it demonstrated “satisfactory compliance” with the local data storage rules (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India lifts ban on Mastercard from issuing new debit, credit, or prepaid cards after it demonstrated “satisfactory compliance” with the local data storage rules  —  India has lifted business restrictions on Mastercard, nearly a year after imposing the ban, once again allowing …

A look at the safety and economics of autonomous trucks as Aurora and TuSimple say they plan to have commercial-trucking services in the US by the end of 2023 (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: A look at the safety and economics of autonomous trucks as Aurora and TuSimple say they plan to have commercial-trucking services in the US by the end of 2023  —  Autonomous trucks that mostly stick to highways could make sense, both technologically and economically, in ways robotaxis have not.

Apple employees at a store in Towson, Maryland vote 65-33 to unionize, making it the company’s first US store where employees voted in favor of unionization (New York Times)

New York Times: Apple employees at a store in Towson, Maryland vote 65-33 to unionize, making it the company’s first US store where employees voted in favor of unionization  —  Roughly two-thirds of employees at the store in Towson, Md., voted to join the union.  — Give this article- – – Read in app

WhatsApp widely rolls out new privacy control settings to give users more control over who can see their Profile Photo, About, Last Seen, and Status (Kishan Vyas/XDA Developers)

Kishan Vyas / XDA Developers: WhatsApp widely rolls out new privacy control settings to give users more control over who can see their Profile Photo, About, Last Seen, and Status  —  WhatsApp is rolling out new privacy control settings to provide users greater control over who can see their profile photo, “About,” “Last seen,” and […]

Postscript, which helps Shopify merchants reach customers via SMS, has raised a $65M Series C led by 01 Advisors and says it now works with 8K+ Shopify brands (Sophia Kunthara/Crunchbase News)

Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News: Postscript, which helps Shopify merchants reach customers via SMS, has raised a $65M Series C led by 01 Advisors and says it now works with 8K+ Shopify brands  —  SMS marketing startup PostScript has raised $65 million in a Series C round of funding, the company said Wednesday.

Despite a cratering crypto market, many traders in Latin America still see crypto as a way to circumvent unstable or stagnant economies where they live (Rest of World)

Rest of World: Despite a cratering crypto market, many traders in Latin America still see crypto as a way to circumvent unstable or stagnant economies where they live  —  Caught between rocketing inflation and a cratering crypto market, many stick with Bitcoin.  —  • MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

A jury finds ex-Amazon engineer Paige Thompson guilty of wire fraud and hacking charges for downloading the personal info of 100M+ Capital One customers in 2019 (Kate Conger/New York Times)

Kate Conger / New York Times: A jury finds ex-Amazon engineer Paige Thompson guilty of wire fraud and hacking charges for downloading the personal info of 100M+ Capital One customers in 2019  —  Paige Thompson’s lawyers said she had been looking for cracks so they could be fixed.  A jury found her guilty of wire […]

Bitcoin falls by 6%+ to below $20,000 for the first time since December 2020, the twelfth straight day of decline, as ether briefly dropped below $1,000 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Bitcoin falls by 6%+ to below $20,000 for the first time since December 2020, the twelfth straight day of decline, as ether briefly dropped below $1,000  —  Bitcoin dropped below $20,000 for the first time since December 2020 as evidence of deepening stress within the crypto industry keeps piling …

Chipmakers including TSMC embark on a $120B investment spree across Taiwan, with 20 new fabs ready or in the works, dwarfing planned investments in US and Japan (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia: Chipmakers including TSMC embark on a $120B investment spree across Taiwan, with 20 new fabs ready or in the works, dwarfing planned investments in US and Japan  —  20 new fabs ready or in pipeline, dwarfing planned investments in U.S. and Japan  —  TAIPEI — Taiwan’s chipmakers have launched …