News & Updates
The latest news and updates from companies in the WLTH portfolio.
Polymarket Reveals New Trading, Contract, Token Upgrades
The company promises the update will be its "biggest infrastructure change since launch." Polymarket on Monday morning unveiled sweeping changes to trading and contracts coming to its platform over the next few weeks. Polymarket is known for offering binary contracts in markets for the sports, financial, entertainment, weather, and political industries. The announcement states the upcoming innovations are in response to customer feedback. The updated platform, its self-proclaimed "biggest infrastructure change since launch," will feature a rebuilt trading engine, new and improved smart contracts, and a new digital asset for traders called Polymarket USD. "Faster execution, lower gas, (and) a cleaner foundation going forward," the announcement promises. Creating a new collateral token (Polymarket USD) means Polymarket now has its own financial infrastructure instead of being dependent on a third party. It also gives the company the flexibility and autonomy to react to changes and regulatory developments should any arise. Additionally, getting off USDC.e, a bridged asset, reduces the chance of computer hacks and preemptively removes a potential danger for customers. As scrutiny continues to mount on prediction market sites, Polymarket has taken several steps to purify its platform. Changes began in early March when the platform removed a controversial market related to nuclear attacks in Iran. The market had existed for years and was still live for three days after the U.S. and Israel launched their first attack against Iran, but it was removed after a viral social media post was circulated on X. Later in March, the company released its new approaches to combatting illegal insider trading. New policies banned the buying and selling of contracts for customers with certain inside information and illegal tips, as well as for individuals who have the power to influence the outcome of a particular event. Polymarket's top prediction rival, Kalshi, also in March unveiled new security and integrity policies to fight insider trading. These updates came after prediction users won money in several suspicious manners. For example, one Polymarket user claimed more than $400,000 for predicting the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Six polymarket accounts in March also won close to $1 million by predicting the U.S. would attack Iran before Feb. 28. Nevertheless, prediction platforms have faced the most pushback for their sports event contracts. State gaming officials have argued offering binary "Yes" and "No" contracts allows prediction platforms to operate as unlicensed sports betting providers. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan recently shared that his company is building new AI sports integrity monitoring technology thanks to partnerships with Palantir and TWG AI. This will help regulate its sports event markets and identify any potential nefarious activity. "(This is) the way it should have been built," Coplan said.
Ditching SPY, QQQ? Unconventional ETFs Lead 2026 Gains - Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (ARCA:BWET), iShar
It has certainly been a tough year for the usual ETF market darlings. Below are some of the top-performing ETFs of 2026: Energy ETFs: Beyond Crude, Into Tactical Plays These funds show how investors are moving beyond traditional oil exposure toward more precise and income-generating strategies. Commodity & Multi-Asset ETFs: Playing Inflation And Scarcity With supply constraints and inflation pressures persisting, commodities have shifted from a hedge to a primary return driver. The Quiet Winner Of Global Disruption Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF (NYSE:BWET) - Tracks tanker freight rates, which have surged amid rerouted trade flows and geopolitical disruptions. The fund has surged almost 620% so far this year, proving to be the unmatched winner. As global supply chains become more fragmented, shipping costs have risen sharply, turning freight exposure into an unexpected outperformer. The Bottom Line While traditional index ETFs like SPY and QQQ struggle, 2026 is shaping up to be a year when precision beats broad exposure. Energy-linked strategies, commodities, and even shipping-focused ETFs are capitalizing on real-world disruptions. In a market driven by war, AI demand, tech overvaluation concerns, and supply shocks, the winners are no longer the biggest funds, but the most targeted ones. Image: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.
When Claude Goes Dark: Inside the Anthropic Outage That Left Millions of AI Users Scrambling
On the morning of April 6, 2026, millions of developers, enterprise customers, and casual users woke up to the same frustrating reality: Claude, Anthropic's flagship AI assistant, wasn't responding. The outage -- one of the most significant in the company's history -- knocked out Claude's web interface, its API, and its mobile applications for hours, sending ripples through an industry that has grown deeply dependent on large language model infrastructure. It started quietly. Users began reporting sluggish responses around 6:00 AM ET, with Claude either timing out or returning incomplete answers. Within an hour, the service was effectively dead. TechRadar was among the first outlets to begin live-tracking the incident, documenting the cascade of complaints flooding social media and the slow drip of official communications from Anthropic. The timing couldn't have been worse. April 6 fell on a Monday. Enterprise teams across finance, healthcare, legal, and software development had begun their workweeks relying on Claude for everything from code generation to document analysis. Anthropic's Claude had, over the preceding eighteen months, become embedded in production workflows at thousands of companies -- not as an experiment but as core infrastructure. When it disappeared, the downstream effects were immediate and, in some cases, costly. Anthropic acknowledged the issue on its status page within the first ninety minutes, posting a terse update that read: "We are experiencing elevated error rates across Claude.ai and the API. Our team is actively investigating." That was followed by near-silence for another two hours, a gap that frustrated enterprise customers paying significant sums for priority access and guaranteed uptime. On X, the reaction was swift and unsparing. Developers posted screenshots of failed API calls, broken CI/CD pipelines, and Slack channels full of panicked colleagues. One widely shared post from a startup CTO read: "We built our entire customer support pipeline on Claude. Today we have no customer support." Another user quipped that the outage was "the best argument for multi-model redundancy anyone's ever made." They weren't wrong. The incident exposed a vulnerability that industry veterans have been warning about for over a year: the concentration risk inherent in depending on a single AI provider. As companies have moved from experimenting with large language models to deploying them in mission-critical applications, the consequences of downtime have escalated dramatically. A chatbot going offline is an inconvenience. An AI-powered triage system in a hospital going dark is something else entirely. Anthropic eventually restored partial service by early afternoon ET, with full functionality returning by approximately 4:30 PM. In total, the outage lasted roughly ten hours -- an eternity in cloud computing terms. The company's post-mortem, published later that evening, attributed the disruption to what it described as a "cascading failure in our inference infrastructure" triggered by a routine configuration update. The update, intended to optimize load balancing across GPU clusters, instead caused a feedback loop that overwhelmed request queues and brought the system to its knees. It's a familiar story in distributed systems engineering. A small change. An unexpected interaction. A system that fails not gracefully but catastrophically. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure have all suffered similar incidents over the years, and each time the post-mortems read like variations on the same theme: complexity breeds fragility. But there's a difference here. Traditional cloud outages affect infrastructure -- storage, compute, networking. AI model outages affect cognition. Companies aren't just losing access to servers; they're losing access to reasoning capabilities they've woven into their products and processes. The distinction matters because the recovery playbook is different. You can failover a database. You can't easily failover a model that your application has been fine-tuned to work with, whose output formatting your downstream systems expect, and whose behavior your users have learned to trust. This is the tension at the heart of the current AI infrastructure moment. The models are extraordinarily capable. The infrastructure supporting them is still catching up. And the business practices around redundancy, failover, and multi-provider strategies remain immature at most organizations. TechRadar's live coverage noted that competing services saw noticeable traffic spikes during the outage window. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and several smaller providers all reported increased usage, suggesting that at least some users had the presence of mind -- or the pre-existing accounts -- to switch. But for API-dependent enterprise customers, switching isn't a matter of opening a different browser tab. It requires code changes, prompt re-engineering, and testing. Not something you do in an hour. The outage also reignited a simmering debate about service level agreements in the AI industry. Anthropic, like most AI providers, offers SLAs to its enterprise tier customers, but the specifics of those agreements -- particularly around compensation for downtime -- have been a source of frustration. Cloud providers like AWS typically offer service credits when uptime guarantees are breached. AI providers have been slower to formalize equivalent commitments, and the credits they do offer often feel nominal relative to the business impact of losing access to a model that's handling thousands of requests per minute. Several enterprise customers took to LinkedIn and X in the hours after the outage to call for more rigorous SLA standards across the AI industry. One VP of Engineering at a mid-size fintech firm wrote: "We pay six figures annually for Claude API access. We need the same reliability guarantees we get from our database provider. Period." Anthropic, for its part, handled the communications side of the crisis with the kind of measured corporate tone that satisfies almost no one during an active outage. The updates were infrequent. The language was vague. And the post-mortem, while technically detailed, arrived without a concrete commitment to specific infrastructure changes that would prevent a recurrence. The company said it would be "investing significantly in additional redundancy and monitoring" -- a statement so generic it could have been written by any company after any outage in the last twenty years. So where does this leave the industry? In a precarious but predictable position. The AI infrastructure market is growing at an extraordinary pace, but reliability engineering hasn't kept up with capability development. Companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google have poured billions into making their models smarter, faster, and more capable. They've invested comparatively less in the boring but essential work of making those models available 99.99% of the time. The incentives are understandable -- capability sells, reliability doesn't -- but the April 6 outage is a reminder that the gap between the two is a business risk that's growing larger, not smaller. For enterprise buyers, the lesson is blunt: build for failure. Architect systems that can degrade gracefully when a model provider goes down. Maintain relationships -- and tested integrations -- with at least two providers. Treat AI infrastructure the way you'd treat any other critical dependency: with redundancy, monitoring, and a healthy dose of skepticism about uptime promises. For Anthropic specifically, the stakes are high. The company has positioned itself as the safety-focused, enterprise-friendly alternative to OpenAI. Reliability is a core part of that value proposition. A ten-hour outage doesn't destroy that positioning, but it chips away at it. And in a market where switching costs are lower than many assume -- and getting lower as model capabilities converge -- trust is a competitive asset that's easier to lose than to rebuild. The next major AI outage isn't a question of if. It's when. And whether the industry will have learned anything from this one remains, as of now, an open question.
The ethical implications of Anthropic's feud with the Pentagon | Te...
What began as a contract disagreement has evolved into a broader legal and ethical flashpoint, highlighting how questions of responsibility, control and acceptable use are becoming as central as performance and cost in AI deployment, especially in high-stakes environments. Anthropic has long positioned itself as a proponent of ethical AI, emphasizing safety and human-centered applications through its proprietary Constitutional AI, a technical framework that guides model behavior using predefined principles. Its stance came into direct conflict with the Pentagon's efforts to integrate AI into defense systems, particularly in areas involving autonomy and reduced human oversight. The dispute traces back to a contract established in July 2025, when Anthropic entered into a $200 million agreement with the DoW and became the first AI company to deploy its models on classified military systems. Tensions emerged in early 2026 when the DoW requested broader access to Claude, Anthropic's flagship large language model (LLM). The company declined, citing concerns over how the department could use its technology, while the Pentagon maintained that broader access was necessary for national security and operational effectiveness. The conflict escalated following reports that the Pentagon used Claude in a January 2026 operation related to the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. When the technology was reportedly accessed through an integrated platform, Anthropic sought clarification on how its systems were being deployed, raising internal concerns within the DoW about potential limits on future use. Those concerns reportedly accelerated the Pentagon's push for more expansive "any lawful use" contract terms. However, Anthropic stood firm. As negotiations broke down, the Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk -- a classification typically reserved for foreign adversaries -- triggering restrictions across federal contractors and reportedly limiting use of the company's technology within government systems. Anthropic responded with legal action, alleging retaliation and constitutional violation. In March 2026, Federal Judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction blocking the government's actions, describing the Pentagon's move as "classic illegal First Amendment retaliation." The ruling paused the supply chain designation and its related restrictions, while leaving open the broader question of how far agencies can go in enforcing vendor alignment with operational needs. "The supply chain risk designation has historically been reserved for foreign adversaries," said Noah Kenney, founder and principal consultant at Digital 520, an IT services company specializing in strategy, technology and growth for tech companies. "Applying it to a domestic company for holding an ethical position is legally unprecedented, and the judge's ruling will serve as a landmark guardrail on how far procurement authority can stretch," he added. Andrew Borene, a former U.S. intelligence officer and executive director at Ocient National Security Solutions, said the dispute reflects how little clarity exists when vendor restrictions and government requirements diverge. "In practice, agencies are often left with limited options: renegotiate terms, accept the vendor's constraints or move to an alternative provider," he said. Although the case remains ongoing, the dispute has already prompted broader questions about how governments interact with private AI firms and how to define ethical boundaries when AI systems are deployed in national security contexts.
As CEO of America's largest public hospital system says AI can replace Radiologists, doctors slam Nvidia and Anthropic CEO for spreading false information
The chief executive of America's largest public hospital system -- NYC Health + Hospitals -- recently said that he is prepared to start replacing radiologists with artificial intelligence (AI) in some circumstances. His statement comes with the disclaimer that once the regulatory landscape catches up. Mitchell H Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals made the comments during a panel discussion held by Crain's New York Business. One example he gave, as reported by Radiology, would affect women's healthcare in particular, by automating breast cancer screening with AI tools. By sidelining radiologists until an AI system flags a reading as abnormal, Katz declared, hospitals could achieve "major savings."He spoke about how AI is increasingly being used to interpret mammograms and X-rays. "We could replace a great deal of radiologists with AI at this moment, if we are ready to do the regulatory challenge," Katz said at the forum. Katz said that he sees great potential for AI to increase access to breast cancer screening. He asked his fellow hospital CEOs if there is any reason why they shouldn't be pushing for changes to New York state regulations, allowing AI to read images "without a radiologist". Crain's reported. The discussion comes after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently made similar statements about AI replacing radiologists. In a podcast interview, he claimed that AI has taken over the specialty's core function, allowing doctors to focus more on the human side of the job.'What Nvidia and Anthropic CEOs are doing is storytelling'Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang too made similar comments that have not gone well with the medical community. While talking about AI at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, Huang said: "One thing that I will say, give you some evidence, is that, and I was just telling Elon about this earlier, radiology, for example, has largely been converted to AI-driven radiology. And there's some really great companies doing that. And the surprising thing is the prediction that all radiologists would be the first jobs to go was exactly the opposite. The trend shows that there are more radiologists being hired now as a result of AI."Doctor Ben White, who is a neuroradiologist, has slammed both in long blogs. He called Huang's views "sheer unadulterated fiction." White wrote, "Leave aside the fuzziness of what "AI-driven radiology" might mean; AI simply doesn't drive a meaningful part of the radiology workflow. Some AI list triage and a few algorithms to detect intracranial blood or fractures have not changed the game in even the slightest of ways. The only thing that has been in meaningful if still limited use over the past few years that has arguably driven even small efficiency gains is generative AI for drafting impressions based on dictated findings."As for Amodei, White termed his views "ignorance". "It's always dangerous to assume malevolence over incompetence/ignorance. That said, Dario Amodei is worth $7 billion on paper, with Anthropic raising money on a valuation of something like $380 billion. Maybe I'm too cynical, but I'm starting to think he, Jensen Huang, and others know it's not true but feel it's the storytelling they need. This radiology "example" has become such a common talking point that I'm beginning to doubt that all the AI guys don't know better. I'm not even entirely sure which explanation (untruth vs ignorance) I prefer."
Chaos Labs exits Aave risk role after clash over V4 scope and economics
The longtime risk provider said Aave's expanding V4 scope, staffing changes, and budget limits no longer support the standard it believes DeFi's largest lender requires. Chaos Labs said it is leaving Aave after nearly three years as one of the protocol's core risk service providers, arguing that the engagement no longer reflects how risk should be managed at the scale of DeFi's largest lending platform. In a post published Monday, the firm said it had priced every loan initiated on Aave since November 2022 and managed risk across all Aave V2 and V3 markets with zero material bad debt, but is now proactively seeking to terminate the relationship. The firm framed the split as more than a budget dispute. Chaos Labs said the real issue is a fundamental misalignment over risk priorities as Aave moves toward V4, which it described as a new lending protocol with a different architecture, broader scope, and heavier legal and operational burden. It said the transition would require new infrastructure, new tooling, and simultaneous management of both V3 and V4 during what could be a long migration period. Chaos Labs also said the economics no longer worked. The company said it had run the Aave engagement at a loss for the past three years and that even a proposed increase to $5 million would still leave the mandate operating at negative margins. It added that Aave generated $142 million in revenue in 2025, while its own budget stood at roughly 2 percent of protocol revenue, well below the 6 percent to 10 percent that banks typically allocate to compliance and risk infrastructure. The departure is notable because Chaos Labs has become one of the better-known infrastructure firms in DeFi risk. The company says it provides risk intelligence, simulations, model-based parameter tuning, and real-time monitoring tools aimed at helping protocols protect solvency and improve capital efficiency. The firm has also positioned risk oracles as a core product, describing them as real-time systems built to automate parameter updates as market conditions change. Chaos Labs has marketed itself as a builder of institutional-grade risk infrastructure for crypto and says its mission is to bring more clarity and control to chaotic financial systems. In 2024, the company announced a $55 million Series A led by Haun Ventures, bringing total funding at the time to $70 million, a sign of how much investor interest had built around the idea that DeFi would need more sophisticated risk tooling as protocols scaled. For Aave, the timing adds to a broader governance and contributor strain around the V4 transition. Chaos Labs said core contributors who built and operated V3 have left and that it is the last remaining technical contributor from that earlier group. Aave governance discussions in recent weeks have also highlighted how much the DAO has depended on service providers like Chaos Labs, BGD, TokenLogic, and others to build the protocol's revenue base and operational resilience.
Robinhood Joins Treasury-Backed Trump Accounts Amid SpaceX IPO Rumors
SpaceX IPO uncertainty may limit Robinhood's role in retail share distribution. Robinhood has entered a new phase of its business by joining a U.S. government-backed financial project tied to the Trump Accounts program. Robinhood will serve as the brokerage and initial trustee, working alongside BNY Mellon under a structure led by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Robinhood Expands Into Government Program With Trump Accounts Robinhood will act as the brokerage provider and the initial trustee for Trump Accounts designated by the Treasury. BNY Mellon has been appointed as the financial agent responsible for managing the accounts and supporting the program's infrastructure. The initiative, according to an X post, includes developing a specific application. The platform is described as a secure, white-label system built exclusively for Treasury oversight. The app will allow families to access and manage accounts through a structured interface. The design process involves collaboration between Robinhood and the National Design Studio. Officials stated that the interface is intended to support ease of use for first-time users. However, Treasury will retain full operational control over the system. The program focuses on enabling eligible participants to access financial accounts efficiently. Authorities pointed out compliance requirements, including performance standards and safeguards for public funds. Robinhood has been active in its market movement. This follows Robinhood's approval of a $1.5B share buyback program. The repurchase plan is set to begin in Q1 2026 and will be carried out over three years. Robinhood Market Reaction Shows Volatility Robinhood shares moved higher following the announcement. The stock reached $70.22, recording a 1.92% gain and an increase of $1.32 on the day. The price remained above the previous close of $68.90. This movement showed continued buying activity despite short-term fluctuations. Trading cycles showed both profit-taking and renewed accumulation during the session. SpaceX IPO Uncertainty Adds Pressure Despite positive results linked to the government partnership, Robinhood now faces a further challenge tied to the SpaceX IPO. Reports indicate that SpaceX may drop Robinhood from its plans, raising doubts alongside its recent expansion. According to the report, Morgan Stanley's brokerage arm, E*TRADE, has emerged as the leading candidate to handle retail share distribution. This position is supported by Morgan Stanley's existing role as the IPO's lead underwriter. Robinhood had positioned itself to participate in the retail allocation process. However, SpaceX is reportedly considering allocating up to 30% of the IPO shares to retail investors, which is higher than typical practice. As a result, sources indicate that the retail offering's structure is still subject to change. While Robinhood and other firms may still take part in limited roles, a reduced position could affect their involvement in the broader distribution process.
Polymarket Launches Major Infrastructure Overhaul With Enhanced Order Book and Native USD Token - Blockonomi
Timing coincides with evolving regulatory framework for prediction markets Polymarket has launched a comprehensive infrastructure transformation designed to enhance trading performance, market depth, and platform capacity. The modernization brings a sophisticated order book architecture and proprietary collateral system. This strategic rebuild demonstrates the platform's evolution toward institutional-grade trading capabilities amid an improving regulatory landscape. Polymarket has implemented a completely redesigned infrastructure built around its enhanced central limit order book technology. The revamped architecture streamlines order configurations and accelerates matching processes throughout all trading pairs. This foundation enables quicker trade completion and reduced price spreads. The refreshed infrastructure incorporates support for sophisticated cryptographic signature protocols and blockchain-based attribution frameworks for third-party developers. These enhancements enable technical teams to monitor transaction pathways and deploy automated trading approaches with greater precision. Additionally, the platform has optimized its revenue collection and allocation procedures. Throughout the migration period, all active order books will undergo a complete refresh to synchronize with the modernized infrastructure. A brief scheduled downtime will facilitate this conversion and guarantee platform reliability. The infrastructure transformation balances enhanced capabilities with uninterrupted service delivery. The modernized infrastructure features a shift from USDC.e to Polymarket USD as the primary collateral mechanism. This proprietary token maintains complete one-to-one reserve backing through USDC deposits and enables uniform settlement processes across all trading markets. This adjustment strengthens liquidity uniformity and streamlines asset management protocols. Most platform participants will experience automatic conversion through the standard user interface. Power users requiring manual control can convert holdings through a designated smart contract function. The infrastructure therefore provides a systematic pathway for both automated and manual asset transitions. This collateral evolution mirrors an industry-wide movement toward platform-specific settlement instruments within exchange ecosystems. It facilitates optimal trade processing while minimizing liquidity segmentation across different pools. The infrastructure thus embraces contemporary exchange architecture standards. The platform transformation emerges during a period of increasing regulatory definition for prediction markets within United States jurisdiction. Multiple judicial rulings have clarified federal authority over event-based derivative instruments. The infrastructure development therefore progresses alongside a maturing regulatory landscape. Polymarket has architected its infrastructure to satisfy institutional requirements as compliance standards become more established. The reconstructed technical foundation accommodates expanded trading volumes and strengthened operational durability. This infrastructure positions the platform for wider adoption within compliant market structures. Technical teams utilizing platform integrations must upgrade their software development kits and regenerate order signatures to function with the new infrastructure. The platform will distribute comprehensive migration documentation and updated technical resources prior to full deployment. This infrastructure transition guarantees compatibility across all connected systems and trading implementations.
Chaos Labs Walks Away from Aave Risk Management Despite $5M Renewal Proposal - Blockonomi
Aave navigates critical transition period without established risk management partner Chaos Labs has concluded its risk management partnership with Aave, turning down a $5 million engagement extension. The departure stems from fundamental disagreements regarding risk strategy priorities and resource allocation. This development represents a significant turning point for Aave, which depended on Chaos Labs for three consecutive years of comprehensive risk supervision. Since November 2022, Chaos Labs oversaw risk parameters across every Aave V2 and V3 deployment without incurring significant bad debt. Throughout this engagement, Aave's total value locked surged from $5.2 billion to surpass $26 billion. The protocol facilitated over $2.5 trillion in total deposits alongside more than $2 billion in liquidation activity. According to Chaos Labs, fundamental differences emerged regarding how risk management should be prioritized within Aave's operations. The firm noted that expanding responsibilities combined with team member departures created unsustainable operational strain. The partnership structure no longer matched the firm's quality standards and delivery framework. Throughout the three-year engagement, Chaos Labs operated the Aave contract at a net financial deficit. Despite proposed budget enhancements, projections indicated ongoing negative margins given the broadened operational requirements. The firm refused to either compromise service quality or continue subsidizing the engagement internally. Aave's forthcoming V4 launch represents a fundamental architectural overhaul that dramatically alters risk management needs. The new version incorporates innovative credit frameworks, interconnected market structures, and revised liquidation protocols. Chaos Labs characterized this transition as requiring a complete reconstruction of risk management infrastructure. According to the firm, maintaining both V3 and V4 systems concurrently would effectively double operational requirements. Aave's V3 deployment remains the protocol's primary active version across numerous blockchain networks. This parallel operation demands ongoing surveillance and continuous parameter optimization across both platforms. Chaos Labs stressed that risk management infrastructure must be custom-built for each protocol iteration. Given V4's complete departure from earlier architecture, it necessitates entirely new simulation models, analytical tools, and operational procedures. Consequently, the firm determined that adequate resources were not allocated for this expanded mandate. Chaos Labs drew comparisons between Aave's risk budget and conventional financial sector practices. Traditional banking institutions commonly dedicate between 6% and 10% of total revenue toward risk management and regulatory compliance. By contrast, Aave allocated approximately 2% of its $142 million annual revenue to risk operations. The firm calculated that adequate risk coverage for Aave demands a minimum annual budget of $8 million. This estimate encompasses V3 maintenance, V4 implementation, and institutional growth initiatives tied to protocol development. Despite maintaining a treasury exceeding $140 million, Aave sustained a comparatively modest allocation. Chaos Labs underscored escalating legal liability and cybersecurity risks inherent to DeFi risk management roles. The transparent architecture of blockchain protocols creates perpetual exposure to sophisticated adversarial actors. As such, the firm determined that insufficient funding coupled with strategic misalignment rendered partnership continuation untenable.
Lopez discord deepens; majority probes Piki's energy deals
MANILA, Philippines -- Majority shareholders of Lopez Inc. pressed Federico "Piki" Lopez to explain transactions involving key energy assets, raising concerns on governance and transparency. In a statement, the group questioned why control of First Gen Corp.'s gas assets was ceded to Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. They said these were the firm's "crown jewels." Also, they flagged the reduction of a 40-percent minority stake in Prime Infra's hydropower business to 33 percent. They said this weakened veto power tied to the original stake. READ: Lopez, Razon trim hydropower deal The majority asked Piki why control was surrendered, what valuation was used and whether a premium was paid. They noted that the transactions were substantial and required shareholder approval. They criticized the deals for being disclosed under "other matters" and taken up in executive session. "Piki acts like a king without accountability. In reality, he is a salaried corporate officer equivalent to a professional manager with one qualifying share who is in power by the majority's tolerance," the majority said. In a 5-2 board vote last month, the majority ousted Piki as president and CEO of Lopez Inc. for cause and loss of trust over transactions worth billions of pesos. The majority, representing three Lopez family branches, owns 71 percent of the company. Piki represents the fourth branch through the late Oscar Lopez. READ: Clean energy powers fun: Fuzion Land and First Gen partner for a greener future at Belmont One and Anjo World Despite this, a court order allowed Piki to keep his post and barred his removal from other companies where Lopez Inc. holds shares. 'Opaque one-man rule' The majority said it would pursue an audit of company books, criticizing conditions that prevent findings from being used against Piki as contrary to transparency standards. "Because of Piki's opaque one-man rule, we are blind to where the group is headed. The blunders he made, like giving up full control and the reduction in our stake to 33 percent, are his but it is us and the public shareholders who will suffer. Piki must go and we will fight tooth and nail to get him out," they said. First Gen said its transactions undergo rigorous evaluation and require full approval from its board of directors. The energy company added that deals with Prime Infra were unanimously approved by Piki and director Manuel Lopez. First Gen also emphasized its compliance with disclosure rules, ensuring equal access to material information and avoiding selective or premature releases. The firm added that its partnership with Prime Infra will support growth while advancing its transition toward becoming a fully renewable energy company. INQ
Top Aave risk manager Chaos Labs exits amid governance dispute
We'd love your feedback. Take a 30-second survey to help improve The Block. Chaos Labs is stepping down as Aave's official risk manager after over three years, marking the latest major Aave contributor to walk away from the largest onchain lending platform following a major governance upheaval. "This decision was not made in haste," Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg wrote on X on Monday. "However, we are leaving because the engagement no longer reflects how we believe risk should be managed," Goldberg said. Chaos is a significant Aave vendor, having priced every loan initiated on Aave since 2022 and managed risk across all Aave V2 and V3 markets and networks, Goldberg said. Goldberg pointed to three key reasons for walking away from Aave, including a lack of profitability, the recent departure of core contributors BGD Labs and Aave Chan Initiative, and, perhaps most significantly, a fundamental misalignment with Aave Labs on how risk should be managed as Aave's scope is set to widen significantly with the launch of Aave V4. Aave V4 still fresh The move comes just a week after Aave officially rolled out V4, which represents a significant overhaul of the platform. By introducing a new hub-and-spoke liquidity system, Aave is poised to expand into a range of new markets and use cases, Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov previously told The Block. While Kulechov has presented V4 as a significant opportunity to bring Aave into the real world, Goldberg noted that -- at least in the short term -- the upgrade presents significant risks. This is compounded by the fact that V3 will continue to require support "until V4 fully absorbs V3's markets and liquidity," a process that Kulechove has previously called to expedite. "History suggests these transitions take months and even years," Goldberg said. "The workload during the transition doesn't halve. It doubles." This is significant given that Chaos represents the "last remaining technical contributor," now that BGD and ACI are walking away from the project, meaning its workload was set to increase. "Taking on something new responsibly requires new infrastructure, new tooling, new simulations, and the full operational burden of going from zero to one again on a codebase that has not yet been battle-tested," Goldberg said. "That is a materially larger scope than V3, and that expansion is core to our calculus." Finances don't Aave up According to Goldberg, Chaos Labs had been operating at a loss for the past three years. Aave Labs reportedly offered an increased budget of $5 million to retain Chaos Labs and close its budget gap. Chaos' budget was $3 million in 2025, and its estimated minimum needs to oversee V3 and V4 were $8 million, representing 5.6% of Aave's protocol revenue. This does not include other operational and legal risks, which are more difficult to price, Goldberg said. "But even if the economics were resolved, the misalignment on how risk should be prioritized and managed at Aave would remain. And that is not something a budget increase alone can fix," Goldberg said. As part of his recent "Aave Will Win" proposal, Kulechov suggested converting Aave Labs into a DAO subsidiary. The proposal was meant to address a heated governance debate sparked by Aave Labs' unilateral decision to redirect a DAO revenue stream to a corporate wallet, though many contributors were unsatisfied. ACI and BGD Labs both announced they would not renew their contracted work for Aave, with ACI Marc Zeller specifically noting Aave Labs' control over the governance token supply. In his post, Goldberg also noted that "Aave Labs recently passed a proposal for $50 million in self-funding." Under the Aave Will Win plan, Aave Labs would direct all protocol revenue to the Aave DAO and shift its Aave-related IP to a DAO-controlled entity. Aave is the largest onchain lending platform, and one of the few crypto protocols that is consistently profitable. In addition to releasing the highly flexible V4, Aave Labs is also developing the Aave App, which will offer a high-yield savings feature (with interest rates of up to 9%), meant to capture new retail users. Expand Chart "To be clear: the DAO has every right to decide what it values and what it wants to pay for. I take no issue with that. My job is simply to decide whether the terms work for us. In this case, they don't," Goldberg said. "Despite not agreeing on the path forward, I believe Aave Labs is doing what it thinks is in Aave's best interest."
Polymarket Launches Polymarket USD, Taking Full Control of Its Settlement Layer
Polymarket has rolled out what it's calling a "full exchange upgrade," overhauling the technical stack that underpins the world's largest prediction market and introducing a proprietary settlement token in the process. The changes, which went live this week alongside a maintenance window that wiped all existing order books, mark one of the most significant infrastructure shifts in the platform's history. The centerpiece of the upgrade is Polymarket USD, a new collateral token backed 1:1 by Circle's USDC, as reported in the post from their official X account. It replaces USDC.e, a bridged version of USDC that had been routed through the Polygon PoS bridge. The distinction matters for a practical reason: any vulnerability in that bridge carried the potential to affect platform solvency directly. By issuing its own wrapped token and managing the collateral layer internally, Polymarket removes that external dependency entirely. For most retail users, the transition requires nothing more than approving a one-time prompt on the frontend. The new settlement token sits within the broader CTF Exchange V2 smart contract system, which also restructures how orders are processed on-chain. The updated "Order struct" reduces the data payload required for each settlement, which translates to lower gas costs and faster transaction throughput. The platform's hybrid architecture - off-chain order matching through a Central Limit Order Book paired with non-custodial on-chain settlement - remains intact, but builder codes have been revised to improve order attribution across that two-layer system. One of the more consequential additions for the platform's longer-term trajectory is native support for EIP-1271, a standard that allows multi-signature and smart contract wallets to authorize orders directly. Until now, institutional participants using setups like Safe multisigs faced friction because the platform required signatures from externally owned accounts. That barrier is now gone, which analysts expect to lower the entry threshold for professional trading desks that have been watching prediction markets from the sidelines. In March 2026, Polymarket recorded $10 billion in monthly trading volume - a platform record - fueled in part by a wave of high-stakes geopolitical contracts. Earlier reports placed monthly volume figures even higher, above $20 billion, in the opening weeks of the year. Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, invested $2 billion in the company, pushing its valuation past $20 billion. Polymarket is also rebuilding its U.S. footprint after registering with the CFTC through its acquisition of QCX, a move that enables it to operate regulated markets for American users again. The platform has not been without controversy during this period of rapid growth. Earlier this year, Polymarket drew criticism from both sides of the political aisle in the U.S. for hosting markets tied to the fate of a missing American airman held in Iran. The backlash was severe enough that the company pulled more than 219 war-related markets and published revised Market Integrity Rules on March 23, which explicitly prohibit trading by individuals who can influence the outcomes of listed events or who possess material non-public information. Whether those rules will prove enforceable in practice remains an open question, given the pseudonymous nature of on-chain trading. On the distribution side, Google Finance began embedding live Polymarket odds directly into its interface in late March, a decision that effectively positions the platform as a real-time sentiment layer for mainstream financial audiences rather than a niche crypto product. That integration, combined with Binance's reported beta-testing of integrated prediction market features, suggests the competitive environment is narrowing fast. Binance's potential entry into the space carries obvious weight given its user base, and Polymarket's exchange upgrade can partly be read as an attempt to harden its technical infrastructure ahead of that pressure. What is notably absent from this release is the POLY governance token, which the company has confirmed is in development for use in platform governance and user incentives. It was not included in this upgrade, and no launch date has been announced.
'Undercover' AI agent, Voice Mode and other features: Claude code source code leak reveals projects Anthropic is working on
Anthropic's latest Claude Code leak has reportedly revealed details about several features the company may be developing. This includes an "Undercover" AI agent mode, Voice Mode, and background systems designed to make the assistant more proactive and persistent. The Claude Code source code leak, spanning more than 512,000 lines across 2,000 files, has drawn attention from developers and researchers examining hidden, disabled, or incomplete features, a report claims.According to a report by Ars Technica, these references offer an early look at how Anthropic could expand Claude's capabilities, particularly in memory, automation, and collaboration. While not all features appear to be fully implemented, the code suggests ongoing work on tools that could reshape how users interact with AI systems in development environments.The leaked code mentions a system called Kairos, a persistent "daemon" that continues running even after the Claude Code terminal is closed. It uses prompts that appear occasionally to check whether new actions are needed, as well as a "PROACTIVE" flag for "surfacing something the user hasn't asked for and needs to see now." Kairos is also linked to a file-based memory system designed to maintain continuity across sessions, helping the AI build "a complete picture of who the user is, how they'd like to collaborate with you, what behaviors to avoid or repeat, and the context behind the work the user gives you."The leaked code includes links to an AutoDream system to help track this memory over time. When a user is idle or ends a session, Claude Code is told, "You are performing a dream -- a reflective pass over your memory files." This process involves scanning transcripts for "new information worth persisting," removing "near-duplicates" and "contradictions," and trimming outdated or overly detailed entries. It also directs the system to monitor "existing memories that drifted," with the aim to "synthesize what you've learned recently into durable, well-organized memories so that future sessions can orient quickly."Another feature, called "Undercover mode," appears to allow contributions to public open source repositories without revealing that they originate from an AI system. The prompts tied to this mode emphasise protecting "internal model codenames, project names, or other Anthropic-internal information." They also instruct that commits should "never include... the phrase 'Claude Code' or any mention that you are an AI," and avoid attribution like "co-Authored-By lines or any other attribution."The codebase also includes a lighter feature called Buddy. This feature has been described as a "separate watcher" that "sits beside the user's input box and occasionally comments in a speech bubble." These companions are small ASCII-style animations that can take on different shapes. Internal notes say that it was supposed to be released in a small number of places first, then more widely.Other features referenced in the leak include an UltraPlan mode that allows Claude to "draft an advanced plan you can edit and approve," with execution times ranging from 10 to 30 minutes. There is also mention of a Voice Mode for direct spoken interaction, a Bridge mode enabling remote sessions controlled from external devices, and a Coordinator tool designed to "orchestrate software engineering tasks across multiple workers" using parallel processes and WebSocket communication.
Polymarket to overhaul platform and introduce Polymarket USD stablecoin in coming weeks
The changes aim to increase efficiency and user security on the prediction market platform. Polymarket, widely regarded as the largest fully on-chain prediction market, has announced plans for a comprehensive upgrade of its platform within the next two to three weeks. The revamp will include new smart contracts, a reengineered order book, and the launch of the company's own stablecoin, Polymarket USD -- all designed to enhance user experience and boost operational efficiency. ContentsUpgraded trading infrastructure with CTF Exchange V2Transition to new data standards and user implicationsIntroducing the native stablecoin Polymarket USD and enhanced wallet supportUpgraded trading infrastructure with CTF Exchange V2 The most significant update centers on the imminent launch of Polymarket's CTF Exchange V2. This updated smart contract is aimed at enabling faster, more efficient, and cost-effective transactions on the blockchain. By refining the order-matching system, users will benefit from swifter trade execution and lower fees. Additionally, the data structure that defines orders on the platform will undergo streamlining, simplifying user interactions. Transition to new data standards and user implications With the release of the V2 version, the Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) functionality will also be overhauled. Improvements drawn from off-chain order book models will be blended into on-chain solutions, extending the platform's technological capabilities. Developer teams leveraging Polymarket's software development kits will need to update their integrations to accommodate the revised data structure. For most end users, the upgrade will result in only brief maintenance periods during the transition. The Polymarket team emphasized that this upgrade stands as the most substantial change since the platform's inception. They also noted the increased competition and rapidly growing user base as driving factors behind this overhaul. Furthermore, they observed that the number of next-generation prediction market platforms has risen significantly in recent months, with prominent companies like Coinbase and Crypto.com entering the sector. Introducing the native stablecoin Polymarket USD and enhanced wallet support In a notable shift for crypto trading habits, Polymarket has introduced Polymarket USD -- a new stablecoin designed for its platform. Unlike USDC.e, which is not Circle's official version, Polymarket USD will be directly backed one-to-one with USDC on the Polygon network. This change addresses previous user concerns regarding the nature and backing of USDC.e, aiming to provide greater transparency and assurance for participants. According to company statements, the transition to Polymarket USD will occur automatically for the majority of users, with only more active traders required to perform a few minor technical steps. This move is expected to deliver a more secure environment for value transfers and token transactions on the platform. Another technical enhancement includes the activation of EIP-1271 support, enabling both multisignature and smart contract-based wallets to interact seamlessly with Polymarket. The upgrade is designed to make it easier for wallet solutions like Safe to integrate with the prediction market platform. Additional company announcements clarified that existing order books would be cleared and the platform would undergo short-term maintenance during the upgrade process. Advance notice of about one week will be provided to users, allowing them to prepare for these operational pauses. While the company has previously shared updates about its native POLY token, no information regarding POLY was included in the most recent announcement, according to new disclosures from the firm. Founded in 2020, Polymarket is backed by Intercontinental Exchange. Recent reports indicate that the company is preparing for a new investment round that could value the platform at approximately $20 billion, reflecting heightened interest and confidence in the prediction market sector. You can follow our news on Telegram, Facebook & CoinmarketcapDisclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Aave loses key risk manager Chaos Labs amid contributor exodus and disputes
The departure follows exits of ACI and BGD Labs, raising concerns about continuity, risk management and operational stability as Aave enters its next phase. Chaos Labs, one of Aave's key risk managers, is leaving the DeFi lending giant's ecosystem, marking the latest in a string of high-profile contributor exits that have reshaped the protocol's core operating team in recent months. The departure follows earlier exits from major contributors like ACI (Aave Chan Initiative) and BGD Labs, signaling growing internal friction over the protocol's direction. Since 2022, Chaos Labs has overseen risk across Aave's markets, helping the protocol grow from roughly $5 billion to more than $26 billion in total value locked, while maintaining "zero material bad debt." But despite that track record, the firm says it can no longer continue under current conditions. "The engagement no longer reflects how we believe risk should be managed," said Omer Goldberg, CEO of Chaos Labs, in a post on X, pointing to a "fundamental misalignment" with Aave's evolving strategy. A key sticking point is Aave's V4 upgrade, which introduces a new architecture and significantly expands the scope of risk management. Chaos argues this shift increases both operational complexity and responsibility, without a matching increase in resources or alignment. "Taking on something new responsibly requires new infrastructure... and the full operational burden of going from zero to one again," Goldberg wrote. The firm also flagged economics as unsustainable. Even with a proposed $5 million budget, Chaos said it has been operating at a loss and would continue to do so. "Even with an increase of $1m, we'd still be operating Aave's risk with negative margins," Goldberg said. At the same time, Chaos warned that the loss of experienced contributors is raising operational risk, especially as Aave transitions between versions. "Continuity of brand is not the same thing as continuity of system," Goldberg wrote. For Aave, the departure leaves open questions around how risk will be managed through its next phase of growth. CoinDesk reached out to Aave Labs for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Polymarket introduces Polymarket USD stablecoin and unveils major trading system overhaul
The update targets higher trading volumes and prepares Polymarket for a broader user base. Polymarket has launched its most significant platform upgrade, aiming to streamline user experience and boost trading efficiency. Over the coming weeks, the platform will implement technical changes that include the debut of a new stablecoin, an enhanced order book system, and redesigned smart contracts. ContentsNew stablecoin to replace existing collateralTechnical overhaul targets improved speed and scalabilityNew stablecoin to replace existing collateral Central to this upgrade is the introduction of Polymarket USD, a stablecoin fully backed 1:1 by USDC. This new digital asset will serve as the main collateral within the ecosystem, taking the place of the previously used USDC.e. The move is intended to reduce operational complexity and ensure a smoother collateral process for traders. Polymarket is a decentralized predictions platform that allows users to trade on the outcome of real-world events using cryptocurrency-backed collateral. Since its inception, the platform has focused on increasing transparency and accessibility in prediction markets, attracting a growing user base interested in blockchain-based event markets. For most users, the transition to Polymarket USD will be largely automated, requiring only a one-off approval step. More advanced participants and automated trading bot operators will need to manually convert their holdings during the switch. A statement from Polymarket's team emphasized that the upgrade responds to community input and aims to deliver a more stable and efficient trading experience. We've listened to user feedback and are launching a total exchange upgrade, including a rebuilt trading engine, improved smart contracts, and the Polymarket USD collateral token to replace USDC.e. Technical overhaul targets improved speed and scalability Alongside the new stablecoin, Polymarket is introducing a reengineered matching system with updated smart contracts and a full order book mechanism. This overhaul is intended to enhance trade speed, lower transaction costs, and support a wider range of trading strategies. To implement these changes, all existing order books on the platform will be cleared, and trading activity will be temporarily paused during a scheduled maintenance period. The platform plans to notify users ahead of time about the maintenance window to minimize any potential disruption. Daily platform users are expected to see only minor changes, as the interface will discreetly manage most transitions in the background. However, regular traders may observe improved transaction flow and faster order executions following the upgrade. The upgrade signals a strategic shift for Polymarket toward a more traditional exchange-like setup to handle larger trading volumes and meet the needs of a broader audience. The technical changes also position the platform to adapt to increased demand and potential regulatory developments in the crypto prediction space. Polymarket's upgrade is scheduled to roll out over several weeks, and key details, such as the final switch date and any user actions required, will be communicated directly to the platform's community as the transition approaches. You can follow our news on Telegram, Facebook & CoinmarketcapDisclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Chamath Palihapitiya Warns Companies With IPOs After SpaceX: 'Get The Heck Out' - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Chamath Palihapitiya said on the All-In Podcast that the 2026 IPO class faces a sequencing problem, and that companies waiting behind SpaceX may find the market has already eaten its fill. "Get the heck out and get public and get your money and fortify your balance sheet ASAP," Palihapitiya said. "I think the risk builds the further down the IPO chain you're in." The warning lands days after Bloomberg reported that roughly $600 million in OpenAI shares sat unsold on secondary marketplaces. Next Round Capital founder Ken Smythe told Bloomberg his firm could not find a single buyer among hundreds of institutional investors. A year ago, that stock would have cleared in days. Bids that did materialize came in around $765 billion, a 10% discount to OpenAI's $852 billion primary round valuation. Anthropic Is The Opposite Story While OpenAI shares gather dust, Anthropic is seeing what one secondary broker called "essentially unlimited interest." Hiive, a secondary market platform, registered more than $1.6 billion in demand for Anthropic shares at roughly $600 billion. Augment co-founder Adam Crawley told Bloomberg the math is simple: better risk-reward. On Polymarket, traders give Anthropic a 66% chance of going public before OpenAI. A separate contract prices OpenAI's odds of completing an IPO by year-end at just 40%. The Thanksgiving Problem Palihapitiya framed the IPO pipeline as a Thanksgiving dinner. SpaceX gets consumed first. The next company does "good to great." Then appetite runs out. "You just can't absorb incrementally trillions of dollars of new demand," he said. Palihapitiya argued that once SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are all public, the AI technology baked into all three will cannibalize the moats supporting current tech multiples. He expects tech-sector P/E ratios to compress toward non-tech levels. What Traders Are Watching David Friedberg added on the pod that Middle Eastern sovereign capital, historically a major source of late-stage funding, may be tightening due to the Iran conflict. That would shrink the buyer pool further just as selling pressure peaks. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) remains the most liquid public proxy for SpaceX exposure, trading around $352. Image: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.
Chaos Hits Wireless Festival as Kanye West to Headline All Three Nights
All hell has broken loose since Wireless announced Kanye West would headline every night of their MPs Demand Kanye Ban Over Antisemitic Comments Members of Parliament are furious. They say Kanye shouldn't even be allowed into the UK, let alone headline one of the biggest music events of the year. Labour MPs Luke Akehurst and Rachael Maskell have called for a ban. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is also pushing the Home Secretary to block Kanye's entry. "It is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism," said Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe." Even London Mayor Sadiq Khan slammed the booking, branding Kanye's past statements as "not reflective of London's values," though he stressed City Hall wasn't involved in the private deal. Kanye's Apology and Mental Health Claims Kanye has apologised, explaining his antisemitic remarks were made during a four-month manic episode linked to bipolar disorder. He even took out a full-page apology ad in the Wall Street Journal and removed a track titled 'Heil Hitler' from streaming services. Star Power or Public Danger? The Battle Over Kanye's UK Gig Despite the uproar, the Home Secretary still has the power to deny Kanye entry if he's deemed "non-conducive to the public good." But fans argue it would be a shame to block him after his recent comeback. His two sold-out shows at LA's SoFi Stadium raked in £33 million - making it one of the highest-grossing concert events EVER. Some say Kanye should be allowed to perform for his loyal UK fans and move on, especially given the bigger crises facing Britain right now - like the cost of living. After all, he'll just fly in, do his set, and head straight back to America. Maybe he'll even toss out a 'Shabbat Shalom' shout during his act. What's the problem?
Edge of Chaos: Why Pigeons Refuse to Become "Machines" - Neuroscience News
Summary: If you found a guaranteed way to get a reward, you'd probably stick to it, right? According to a new study, pigeons aren't that predictable. Researchers tested the century-old Law of Effect -- the idea that animals repeat behaviors that lead to rewards -- by giving pigeons food for pecking five buttons in any of 120 possible orders. While the birds did favor certain sequences, they never "locked in." Instead, they stayed at the "edge of chaos," constantly rotating their favorite patterns and trying new ones, suggesting a biological drive to remain flexible in an unpredictable world. If you were rewarded for following a particular pattern of behavior, wouldn't you keep doing it? The answer turns out to be more nuanced than you might think. In a new study, University of Iowa researchers report that pigeons rewarded with food after pecking five buttons in any order did, indeed, decrease the variety of their sequences. However, the birds kept their options open, never gravitating toward a single sequence and consistently electing to try different sequences. Ed Wasserman, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, calls the pigeons' pattern of behavior "responding at the edge of chaos." "What we learned is there's something that keeps the birds from becoming fully machinelike in their responses," says Wasserman, the study's corresponding author. "Maybe it's in their best interest to keep some variability in their behavior. You don't want to be too locked in, because things happen, and the world could change." The study also extends the notion of the edge of chaos beyond evolutionary biology, where flexibility to a changing environment can be beneficial to a species' survival. "Might other, more intricate and innovative behaviors like playing an instrument, composing music, and creating visual art involve similarly adaptive variation?" says Odysseus Orr, study co-author and third-year graduate student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences who earned his undergraduate degree from Iowa in 2023. "Only time will tell, but the pigeons provide a convenient gateway for answering those questions under highly controlled circumstances." Wasserman, Orr, and study co-author Sophia Li devised an experiment to test the Law of Effect. This law posits that animals, including humans, will repeat a response -- and winnow other options -- when it produces a rewarding outcome. The researchers enlisted six pigeons to peck five buttons in any order they chose, yielding a set of 120 possible sequences. The birds were given no instructions; in fact, any of the 120 total possible five-button sequences generated a treat. "Under these cushy conditions, how would the birds behave?" Wasserman asks. To find out, the pigeons were placed into separate chambers, where five buttons were lit on a computerized touch screen. Each button had a unique, colored geometric pattern that disappeared when the pigeon pecked it. After the bird pecked all five buttons, in any order, it received food. The researchers found that each of the pigeons performed all 120 sequences. The birds also increasingly performed some sequences at the expense of others, consistent with the century-old Law of Effect. But the researchers were surprised to discover that the pigeons never fully committed to any of their most-favored sequences. More surprising, the pigeons' most preferred five-button sequences rose and fell throughout the eight months and 30,000 times they performed the task. "Such dramatic behavioral instability is most definitely not consistent with the Law of Effect," says Wasserman, who has studied pigeon cognition and behavior for more than five decades. "The pigeons maintain this exploratory tendency and keep trying multiple sequences. They do not abide by the familiar maxim: 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'" The results generally followed earlier behavioral-reward studies with other animals -- including mice, rats, cats, and guinea pigs -- that found they reduced their range of options when finding one that consistently produced a reward, the authors write. But while the variability in the pigeons' response sequences decreased, the Iowa team's study showed clearly that the pigeons also repeatedly switched among their favorite sequences and never ceased considering even seemingly less preferred sequences. Funding: Wasserman's Comparative Cognition Laboratory funded the research. Author: Richard Lewis Source: University of Iowa Contact: Richard Lewis - University of Iowa Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Polymarket's Biggest Upgrade: New Stablecoin and Trading Engine
Polymarket is rolling out its biggest platform upgrade to date, introducing a new stablecoin and rebuilding its trading system. The changes will take place over the next few weeks and aim to make the platform faster, simpler, and more reliable for users. At the center of the update is a new collateral token called "Polymarket USD." It will replace USDC.e and is backed 1:1 by USDC. For most users, the switch will happen automatically with a one-time approval. However, advanced users and bot traders will need to manually convert their funds. At the same time, Polymarket is upgrading how trades are placed and matched. The platform is introducing a new order book system and updated smart contracts. These changes are designed to improve speed, reduce costs, and support more advanced trading activity. As part of the transition, all existing order books will be cleared, and trading will pause briefly during a scheduled maintenance window. Polymarket said it will announce the exact timing in advance. For everyday users, the impact will be minimal. The interface will handle most changes in the background. However, traders may notice smoother performance and quicker order execution after the upgrade. Overall, the update signals a shift in how Polymarket operates. The platform is moving toward a more structured, exchange-like system built for higher trading volume and broader use.
