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  • Surging Bitcoin, Ethereum ETF Investments Drive Crypto Funds to Best Week Since January

    Surging Bitcoin, Ethereum ETF Investments Drive Crypto Funds to Best Week Since January

    In brief

    • Crypto funds attracted $1.1 billion in weekly inflows last week, the highest in three months.
    • Bitcoin dominated flows with $871 million while Ethereum reversed recent outflows with $196.5 million.
    • Short-Bitcoin hedging products saw their largest inflows since November at $20.2 million.

    Crypto investment products surged back to life last week as improving macro conditions triggered a sharp reversal in institutional sentiment, according to data released Monday by asset manager CoinShares.

    The $1.1 billion in weekly inflows marked the strongest weekly performance since early January, with tentative ceasefire developments in Iran and softer-than-expected US CPI data restoring investor confidence, according to James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares.

    U.S. investors dominated the return to crypto, accounting for $1.06 billion or 95% of global flows. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs captured the bulk of this activity with $833.2 million in weekly inflows, according to Farside Investors data. Trading volumes rose 13% week-over-week to $21 billion, per CoinShares, though this remains well below the year-to-date average of $31 billion, suggesting room for further recovery.

    The inflow surge revealed sophisticated institutional positioning as investors simultaneously increased both bullish bets and downside hedges.

    While Bitcoin funds globally attracted $871 million and Ethereum saw $196.5 million last week after three weeks of outflows, short-Bitcoin products recorded $20.2 million in inflows—their highest weekly total since November 2024. This dual positioning suggests institutions are adding crypto exposure while maintaining protection against potential volatility.

    Last week’s performance brought Bitcoin’s year-to-date inflows to just under $2 billion, representing 83% of the $2.3 billion in total crypto ETP inflows recorded in 2026 so far. Ethereum remains one of the few assets in negative territory for the year with cumulative outflows of $130 million, despite its recent weekly recovery. The broader inflow surge has lifted total assets under management to levels not seen since early February.

    XRP funds led the way the previous week with nearly $120 million worth of inflows, even outpacing Bitcoin funds during that week—but XRP investments fell to $19.3 million last week, per the CoinShares report.

    Last week’s institutional crypto surge follows five consecutive weeks of outflows totaling $4 billion that had dampened market sentiment through March.

    Amid last week’s rebound came the launch of Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF, which pulled in nearly $62 million in investments last week after its Wednesday launch, per Farside Investors.

    The firm has already filed for Ethereum and Solana ETFs, as well, and Morgan Stanley’s Amy Oldenburg told Decrypt last week that the firm also plans to explore crypto offerings like a tokenized money market fund and tax-harvesting services for clients.

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  • Forget the Dead-Eyed Cartoon—Meta Is Building a Photorealistic AI Clone of Zuckerberg

    Forget the Dead-Eyed Cartoon—Meta Is Building a Photorealistic AI Clone of Zuckerberg

    In brief

    • Meta is building a photorealistic AI clone of Zuckerberg, according to the FT.
    • The goal is scalable, always-available “leadership” for employees.
    • The move points to a sharp pivot from metaverse room meetings to AI-driven internal control.

    In August 2022, Mark Zuckerberg posted what was supposed to be a triumphant selfie. His Horizon Worlds avatar—a blocky, legless, dead-eyed cartoon that Kotaku memorably described as “a legless knock-off of a Nintendo Mii with the eyes of a corpse”—standing before a tiny Eiffel Tower. The internet buried him in memes. Even Meta’s own employees reportedly refused to use Horizon Worlds.

    That was then.

    Now, according to a Financial Times report, Meta is building a photorealistic, AI-powered 3D version of its CEO designed to hold real conversations with employees on his behalf. Zuckerberg is personally training and testing the system, four people familiar with the matter told FT.

    The character is being fed his mannerisms, vocal patterns, public statements, and recent thoughts on company strategy. The stated goal: make employees “feel more connected to the founder” through an AI that talks like him, thinks like him, and never has to cancel a one-on-one meeting.

    It’s a long way from the metaverse era’s plastic nightmares.

    The project is being led by Meta’s newly formed Superintelligence Labs. Scaling the tech has proven difficult—it requires enormous computing power to keep interactions realistic and lag-free. Meta last year acquired two voice companies, PlayAI and WaveForms, as part of that push. The company’s projected capital expenditure for 2026 sits between $115 billion and $135 billion, nearly double last year’s figure.

    Last week, Meta released Muse Spark, the first model from its Superintelligence Labs—a compact, purpose-built system with capabilities in health reasoning and visual understanding. Shares jumped 7% on the announcement.

    Inside the company, employees are being pushed to embrace AI tools and build their own agents using open-source software called OpenClaw. Product managers have been handed a “skills baseline exercise” that includes system design tests and, yes, “vibe coding.”

    The contrast with the metaverse era is stark. As Decrypt reported in 2022, Horizon Worlds was in a self-declared “quality lockdown” while its own team was barely logging in. Reality Labs burned through billions every quarter—$10.2 billion in 2021 alone—before Zuckerberg quietly pivoted. The cartoon avatar became the defining image of that failure.

    Now the bet is on something that looks and sounds like the real thing—to either make employees feel more connected to leadership, or just more supervised by it.

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  • David Letterman Sounds Off on CBS Replacing ‘The Late Show’ After 33 Years With Byron Allen Comedy Hour: ‘They Don’t Wanna Spend Any Money’

    David Letterman Sounds Off on CBS Replacing ‘The Late Show’ After 33 Years With Byron Allen Comedy Hour: ‘They Don’t Wanna Spend Any Money’

    David Letterman has weighed in on CBS’ decision to replace “The Late Show” franchise after 33 years with Byron Allen’s comedy talk show “Comics Unleashed.” The network confirmed the change earlier this month. Stephen Colbert‘s “The Late Show” airs its final episode on May 21. Allen will take over the 11:35pm ET time slot on May 22 with back-to-back episodes of “Comics Unleashed.”

    “They don’t want to spend any money, so they’re going to make money,” Letterman said about the decision on a recent episode of his podcast. “They charge Byron Allen some reasonable price. He sells all the advertising for his ‘Comics Unleashed,’ and it’ll be, I think, 90 minutes or two hours of comics talking about funny stuff.“

    “The show is a pretty good idea,” Letterman added. “It’s all panel. Nobody’s doing any standup, except they’re seated doing standup.”

    “Comics Unleashed” currently airs after Colbert’s “The Late Show” on CBS. When it moves up an hour to replace the late night institution, Allen will continue to lease the 12:37am hour with the comedy game show “Funny You Should Ask.” The time buy deal is through the 2026-2027 TV season.

    Letterman started CBS’ “The Late Show” franchise in 1993 and hosted for 22 years before passing the baton to Stephen Colbert, who debuted in Sept. 2015. When the network announced last summer its shocking decision to cancel “The Late Show,” Letterman’s team responded by posting a 20-minute supercut on his YouTube page featured all the times he slammed CBS or made jokes at the network’s expense during his tenure on air. The caption to the supercut read: “You can’t spell CBS without BS.”

    Colbert announced last July that CBS was canceling not just his iteration of “The Late Show” but also the entire franchise come May 2026. While the decision was reportedly a “financial” one, it immediately sparked questions from industry figures about the politics involved given Colbert regularly attacks Donald Trump on air and CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, was trying to get a merger approved with Skydance at the time.

    “This is pure cowardice,” Letterman later said in a YouTube video about the cancellation. “They did not do the correct thing. They did not handle Stephen Colbert — the face of that network — in the way he deserves to have been handled.”

  • Turner Classic Movies Acquires Documentary Feature ‘Beyond The Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood’ – Film News in Brief

    Turner Classic Movies Acquires Documentary Feature ‘Beyond The Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood’ – Film News in Brief

    Turner Classic Movies has acquired the exclusive rights to “Beyond The Border: Latino Representation in Hollywood,” a documentary feature directed, written and produced by the sister filmmaker duo Clara and Julia Kuperberg. The film will be released in September on TCM during Hispanic Heritage Month. 

    The documentary will trace a “century-long struggle for Latino representation, showing how artists reclaimed their image and reshaped cinema, and the way we imagine the world,” per the film’s logline, and will feature archives and film clips. Voices featured in the film include John Leguizamo, casting director Carla Hool, Esai Morales, Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, director Gregory Nava, director Patricia Riggen, José Zúñiga and more. 

    “As French filmmakers, we’ve spent over 20 years exploring American cinema and culture, so in a way, this film is part of a larger journey,” said the Kuperbergs. “What has always fascinated us is how Hollywood not only reflects society, but also shapes global perceptions of identity, power, and belonging. When it comes to Latino representation, we were struck by a paradox. Latinos are a fundamental part of American history and culture, and one of the largest communities in the United States, yet their presence in Hollywood has long been limited, stereotyped, or overlooked. That gap between reality and representation felt both striking and urgent.”

    The Kuperbergs have made films together for more than two decades, writing, directing, producing and editing more than 60 documentaries through their company Wichita Films. Their work has screened at Cannes, by AMPAS and has been distributed globally across platforms including HBO Max, Amazon, Hulu and TCM.

    Martine Melloul serves as co-producer for the film and Daniel Talbott serves as executive producer. The film was produced by TCM Cinema and Wichita Films, in association with Kali Pictures.

  • Amazon Offering GLP-1 Pill, Foundayo, via Kiosks, Same-Day Delivery

    Amazon Offering GLP-1 Pill, Foundayo, via Kiosks, Same-Day Delivery

    Inside view of an Amazon fulfillment centerShare on Pinterest
    Amazon will offer the new GLP-1 pill, Foundayo, via kiosks and same-day delivery. Image credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
    • Eli Lilly has announced the availability of the new GLP-1 pill, Foundayo, through Amazon One Medical kiosks.
    • The new Amazon offering features same-day prescriptions after speaking with a healthcare professional.
    • Foundayo is available through Amazon for $149 per month for the lowest dose.
    • Amazon One Medical kiosks have been stocking Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pills since January.

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved Foundayo, Eli Lilly’s new GLP-1 pill for weight loss.

    Foundayo is available through the LillyDirect program and through Amazon Pharmacy, which fulfills prescriptions made through LillyDirect.

    Now, Amazon One Medical kiosks will offer Foundayo, which allows individuals to access their prescriptions on the same day after speaking with a healthcare professional.

    Amazon Pharmacy has offered home delivery of GLP-1 medications since 2021, but hasn’t been able to stock them in kiosks because they require refrigeration.

    GLP-1 pills, however, do not require cold storage, allowing for “broader access and for them to be ​stored safely in a kiosk for dispensing,” Tanvi Patel, a vice president at Amazon Pharmacy, ​said in a press release.

    Amazon Pharmacy kiosks have also been stocking the Wegovy pills since January.

    Amazon announced its kiosks connected to One Medical locations in 2025.

    There are currently five kiosks available in California. Amazon noted that the kiosks were developed to help reduce barriers to medication access and limit delivery fees.

    One Medical is Amazon’s primary and urgent care business. People can purchase a one-year subscription to One Medical for $199 or $99 with Amazon Prime.

    Those without a One Medical membership can still book an appointment and use the kiosks.

    Currently, Amazon kiosks are only available in certain areas of California. However, Hannah McClellan Richards, a vice president at Amazon Pharmacy, said in a press release that “the company plans to expand the kiosk model outside of California in 2026 and is in talks with external health systems to introduce the machines through partnerships.”

    Individuals can also access Amazon’s same-day delivery for Foundayo through Lilly’s prescribing partners, such as WW International (formerly Weight Watchers).

    Some people may also have access to same-day delivery directly through Amazon.

    Amazon hopes to expand same-day delivery to 4,500 locations by the end of this year.

    WW International and GoodRx have also said they will separately begin offering Foundayo at self-pay prices, starting at $149 per month for the lowest dose.

    The Foundayo pill is the second GLP-1 medication to be approved in pill form.

    For people with commercial insurance, it may cost as little as $25 per month. Individuals with Medicare Part D may be able to get Foundayo for $50 a month, beginning in July.

    “It is great to have new tools added to our toolbox to deal with obesity,” Zhaoping Li, MD, the chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition at UCLA Health and director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition in Los Angeles, told Healthline in an earlier interview.

    The starting dose for Foundayo is 0.8 milligrams (mg), increasing to 2.5 mg after 30 days, and then to 5.5 mg after a further 30 days. The dosage may be increased to 9 mg, 14.5 mg, or 17.2 mg after at least 30 days at each level, based on a person’s response and tolerance to each dose.

    “Preferences vary by patient,” Mir Ali, MD, a bariatric surgeon and the medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, told Healthine in an earlier interview.

    “Some prefer weekly injections while others prefer a [daily] pill. A primary advantage of the pill is that it does not require refrigeration, making it more convenient for travel,” he said.

    If you think you may be eligible for Foundayo or another GLP-1 medication, ask your doctor for more guidance.

  • Games Workshop brings seven classic Warhammer games to Steam for the first time

    Fans of miniature plastic soldiers, rejoice. Games Workshop has brought a host of older Warhammer and Warhammer 40K video games to Steam for the first time, alongside a dozen games that haven’t been available on Valve’s storefront for a few years. The new to Steam releases consist of three games from the Warhammer fantasy range — Shadow of the Horned Rat, Mark of Chaos – Gold Edition and Dark Omen — and four from its sci-fi 40K universe — Chaos Gate, Fire Warrior, Final Liberation and Rites of War.

    If you’re a Warhammer fan of a certain age, some of these may be formative experiences for you. I know they are for me. I can’t count how many hours I spent playing Chaos Gate when I first discovered 40K at the age of 10. Yes, it was an XCOM clone, but by that point I didn’t know about the MicroProse original, and Space Marines were cool.

    Years later and as a Tau collector at the time, I also loved Fire Warrior, even if it wasn’t the most polished or deep first-person shooter. I haven’t played the other five games included in today’s announcement, but I’ve heard Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Warhammer 40K: Rites of War are pretty good if you’re into the setting or, in the latter case, a fan of the Eldar.

    To celebrate the re-release of these old gems, Games Workshop is running a Classics sale on Steam, with discounts on all 19 re-releases. Plus, you can get discounts on some more recent releases, including the excellent Dawn of War – Definitive Edition and Dawn of War 2 – Anniversary Edition. If you’re new to the Warhammer 40K universe, and would rather avoid a plastic addiction, one of those would be my first port of call, along with the excellent Space Marine 2.

  • Xbox CEO called Game Pass ‘too expensive for players’ in a leaked memo

    Xbox’s new chief exec, Asha Sharma, has only been in charge for a few months but things already seem like they might be changing for the better. Or at the very least, they might be getting cheaper. The Verge reported that the new Xbox CEO wrote a memo to employees addressing the current pricing of the Game Pass subscription service.

    “Game Pass is central to gaming value on Xbox. It’s also clear that the current model isn’t the final one,” Sharma allegedly said. “Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation. Long term, we will evolve Game Pass into a more flexible system which will take time to test and learn around.”

    After Microsoft upped the price for Game Pass twice within 15 months, many of us certainly felt that the service had gotten too costly to keep. Xbox is still offering a wide range of titles on Game Pass; the April update is adding indies like Hades 2 and new Double Fine project Kiln alongside AAA hits like the remake of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The Verge‘s sources suggested that the addition of the CoD franchise might have been a factor in some of the Game Pass price increases, since Microsoft would lose out on revenue by making the latest entries in the series available under the subscription.

    It’s too early to say whether this memo from Sharma means Xbox is on the brink of a resurgence. And there are changes the company could make, like adding ever more complicated tiers, that would further hamper interest and uptake of Game Pass. But acknowledging the problem, even internally, is refreshing to see after so many baffling moves from Xbox in recent years.

  • This little-known token just posted a 6,000% rally — and traders are trying to figure out why

    This little-known token just posted a 6,000% rally — and traders are trying to figure out why

    $RAVE, the native token of RaveDAO, has surged more than 6,000% over the past month, capping off one of the most explosive rallies in the crypto market this year and reigniting debate about speculative excesses in digital assets.

    The token jumped 198% in the last 24 hours alone and more than 5,600% over the past week, briefly pushing it into the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Prices climbed from roughly $0.25 to above $14 in just seven days, drawing widespread attention across trading platforms and social media.

    RaveDAO positions itself as a Web3 music protocol aimed at bridging electronic dance music (EDM) culture with blockchain-based experiences. Its pitch includes on-chain ticketing, crypto-enabled payments at live events, and staking mechanisms tied to real-world rave revenues. The project has claimed partnerships with major industry names including Binance and OKX and reported several million dollars in revenue, helping fuel a narrative of real utility behind the token.

    However, market observers say the scale and speed of the rally suggest something more complex, and potentially concerning, beneath the surface.

    Blockchain data indicates that only about 24% of $RAVE’s total supply is currently in circulation, with the overwhelming majority held in a small number of wallets, according to a post on X. Three large wallets, widely believed to be controlled by the project team, reportedly hold roughly 90% of the total supply. When expanded to the top 10 wallets, concentration exceeds 98%, leaving only a thin float available for trading.

    That structure can amplify price movements dramatically. The analyst pointed to a sequence of events shortly before the rally, when wallets linked to the project quietly transferred millions of tokens to exchanges while prices were still below $0.50.

    Within hours, trading activity surged, open interest in derivatives markets spiked above $200 million, and daily volume approached the token’s entire market capitalization.

    At the same time, a heavily short-positioned market—reportedly with a majority of traders betting against the token—set the stage for a large-scale short squeeze. As prices rose, forced liquidations accelerated the rally, with millions of dollars in short positions wiped out in a single day.

    Such dynamics, combined with thin liquidity, can create rapid, self-reinforcing price spikes that are not necessarily driven by organic demand.

    The episode comes amid broader concerns about ongoing vulnerabilities and questionable practices in the crypto sector, including recent exploits and controversies involving other projects. For some analysts, $RAVE’s surge is less a sign of a healthy market recovery and more evidence that speculative froth and opportunistic behavior remain entrenched.

  • A Sense of Anticipation Prevails Among Whales in Bitcoin (BTC) Options Data

    A Sense of Anticipation Prevails Among Whales in Bitcoin (BTC) Options Data

    As bearish expectations gain strength in the cryptocurrency market, options data reveals that investors are positioning themselves against a potential decline in Bitcoin.

    Maxime Seiler, CEO of cryptocurrency trading company STS Digital, stated in his assessment that Bitcoin investors are actively preparing for a bearish scenario. According to Seiler, demand for put options has increased significantly compared to call options. The fact that investors are paying premiums to hedge against downside risks while selling off upside expectations indicates growing anxiety in the markets.

    Related News A Cryptocurrency Exchange Issued a Security Alert: Hackers Are Blackmailing Them with User Information

    This weak outlook emerged at a time when Bitcoin was trading just above the $70,000 level. Over the weekend, the market was shaken by US President Donald Trump’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, and Bitcoin lost approximately 4% of its value.

    The impact of geopolitical developments continued into the new week. On Monday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the Navy would begin inspecting all ships entering and leaving Iranian ports starting at 10:00 AM Eastern Time. This development pushed oil prices back above $100, while rising energy costs brought global inflationary pressures to the forefront.

    According to experts, rising oil prices are a significant risk factor that will influence central banks’ monetary policy decisions. Global central bank officials are expected to closely monitor these developments, particularly at their meetings in late April. These policies, which determine the money supply and liquidity conditions, continue to directly impact the price movements of risky assets like Bitcoin.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Live possum snuggles stuffed toys at Australian airport store

    Live possum snuggles stuffed toys at Australian airport store

    Odd News // 3 weeks ago

    More than 1,050 people form human shamrock in Dublin, Ohio

    March 18 (UPI) — The city of Dublin, Ohio, unofficially broke a Guinness World Record by arranging more than 1,050 people into the shape of a massive shamrock.