Morning Minute: Robinhood launches “Robinhood Chain” for the first time

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Today’s most important news:

• Major Cryptocurrencies Go Very Green as SOL Jumps 10%; Bitcoin +5% to $61.3 thousand
• Venice AI announces $65M raise at $1B valuation, creating cryptocurrency’s latest unicorn
• Robinhood is launching the Robinhood Series with a focus on tokenized stocks, and light perps
• Lighter’s LIT jumps 15% to new local highs on Robinhood launch
• Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded to OUSD, saying the consortium’s stablecoins have a poor track record.

🏦 Robinhood launches “native AI-powered” Ethereum Layer 2 with tokenized shares

Robinhood Fired Robinhood’s public mainnet resolution-Ethereum layer-2. The company is promoting its new chain as “AI-native,” meaning it supports trading by AI agents directly on-chain.

The network opened with integrations from BitGo and Chainlink and market-making partnerships with Uniswap and Pleiades, and is designed to bridge the gap between Robinhood’s traditional brokerage and its own cryptocurrency stack.

The main focus is stock tokens, which are serialized issues of shares in companies like Nvidia and Apple. On Robinhood Chain, users can drop those token shares into lending pools and use them as collateral in DeFi. This converts the stock position into compoundable capital, which is impossible within a regular brokerage. Robinhood also opened up direct trading in its wallet through decentralized erp dex Lighter, and turned on Robinhood Earn for eligible users in the US, allowing them to lend the USDG stablecoin at around 7% APY.

HOOD shares closed up more than 8% to $108.65, up nearly 20% for the month, though still far from their highs. Lighter’s LIT token jumped 15% to $2.14 and hit new local highs on the back of their integration.

💸 AI in Venice reaches $1 billion as Voorhees bets on private AI

Erik Voorhees’ privacy-focused AI platform Venice AI It raised $65 million at a $1 billion valuationwhich is its first external funding round and is enough to make it a unicorn just two years after its launch. Crypto VC Dragonfly led the round, with Coinbase Ventures and North Island Ventures joining.

Voorhees said the increase validates Venice’s mission to build a private, uncensored alternative to mainstream AI like ChatGPT. For those unfamiliar, Venice gives users access to over 200 open and closed AI models via text, images, video and icons, with nothing stored on its own servers. Claims are encrypted on the client side and routed through an external proxy.

It has surpassed 3 million users, handles 1.7 million API calls per day, and already generates nearly $70 million in annual revenue, which is rare for an AI startup at this point. New Capital is moving toward purchasing GPUs and building its own data centers to reduce its reliance on leased computing and increase margins.

The VVV token jumped 10% on the day to $13.50 and $1 billion FDV, which is in line with the company’s valuation. As for how to think about the VVV token versus the company’s shares – that’s a conversation for another time…

🌎 Total crypto and markets

• Cryptocurrency niches are very green, with SOL leading; Bitcoin +5% at $61.3K; ETH +5% at $1,650; SOL +10% at $82; HYPE +4% at $64.90
• Multiplication (+20%)ZEC (+14%) and VVV (+11%)
• oil -1.5% at $67.50; Gold -0.3% at $4,070
• Stock futures A little mixed. Dow Jones +0.2%, Nasdaq -0.4%
• Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire He responded to the launch of Open USDarguing that the liquidity and network moats built up over a decade in USDC are too deep to be copied and that the stablecoins owned by the consortium have a “dismal” track record.
• A new Ethereum non-profit organization focused on enterprises Launched with support from Joe Lubin, BitMine, and SharpLinkIt is the second Ethereum initiative from the same trio in recent weeks
• Cantor Fitzgerald Analysts Seeing a potential bottom forming for the cryptocurrency market in the coming monthsPointing to the cycle, he urged investors to focus on networks with accumulated lifetime value
• Standard Chartered Announced a partnership With Circle to allow its institutional clients access to USDC

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders He was very green; Doge +4%, Chip +2%, Baby +7%, Bingo +5%, Trump Even, Punk +6%
• Ansem (+24%), World (+200%) Perp (+64%) led the moves on Solana
• Prime movers Includes Service (+44%) and POD (+20%)

📈 Countless numbers in the market today

💰 Token tracking, airdrop and protocol

🚚 What happens in NFTs?

• NFT leaders Mixed Bank was -1% at 31 ETH, BAYC +1% at 8.82 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.45 ETH; Hypurr’s -3% at 217 HYPE
• Unlimited (+25%) and GHLFers (+7%) Leading top movers