Robinhood Expands Prediction-Market Push with Crypto.com and OG.com Tie-up
Equity stakes tied to exchange valuations allow retail brokerages to capture the clearinghouse margin generated by their own prediction-market order flow.
Robinhood has acquired minority stakes in .com and its prediction-market OG.com under a multi-year infrastructure agreement. Under the terms of the deal, Robinhood will route retail event contracts through OG.com's Trading Commission-regulated exchange and clearinghouse, with the rollout beginning for eligible U.S. customers. The equity stakes are priced against valuations established by an earlier Citadel Securities investment, which valued Crypto.com at $20 billion and OG.com at $5 billion. The partnership adds a third infrastructure supplier to Robinhood's prediction markets hub alongside Kalshi and Rothera, expanding the brokerage's event-contract supply ahead of the U.S. professional football season and midterm elections. Event-contract trading has surged as a driver for Robinhood, generating $156 million in the second quarter to outpace both equities and crypto transaction revenue. While the arrangement bypasses the need for Robinhood to build standalone derivatives infrastructure, it concentrates counterparty and operational risk in OG.com's clearing stack.
Robinhood Q2 Transaction Revenue ($M)
Event contracts generated $156 million in Q2, surpassing equities and crypto.
Circle to acquire cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million
Buying existing local banking rails converts Circle from a pure stablecoin issuer into an end-to-end global payout network, bypassing individual country licensing bottlenecks.
Circle agreed to acquire Singapore-based cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million in an all-stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, Circle will pay in Class A common stock, with the final consideration subject to adjustments for Tazapay's outstanding , transaction expenses, and cash position at closing. The transaction requires approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and is expected to close in 2027. Tazapay processes more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume and maintains payout rails across more than 100 markets, with already accounting for roughly 60% of its transaction volume. The gives Circle direct ownership of regulated last-mile banking infrastructure, bypassing the need to build local payment connections country by country. The deal marks Circle's largest acquisition since its purchase of exchange Poloniex in 2018.
Tazapay Annualized Payment Volume ($B)
Annualized payment volume doubled to 25 billion dollars.
Mandated index rebalancing forces passive capital out of declining consumer discretionary brands, accelerating the equity market's structural reallocation toward enterprise hardware and cybersecurity infrastructure.
Nike is exiting the 100 on September 21 after a multi-year stock decline erased roughly $230 billion in from its peak. The athletic apparel giant will lose its spot in the alongside Simon Property Group, Honeywell Aerospace, and Colgate-Palmolive as four technology companies take their places. While Nike retains its membership in the broader S&P 500, its removal from the blue-chip subset underscores a punishing turnaround period marked by a 76% five-year stock slide and fiscal 2026 of approximately $46.4 billion. Passive funds tracking the S&P 100 must now sell the departed stocks to buy incoming tech names like Dell Technologies, Palo Alto Networks, Arista Networks, and SanDisk. The rebalance reflects a stark market shift toward infrastructure and cybersecurity as investors rotate away from lagging consumer brands.
Block Applies for US National Trust Bank Charter to Expand Crypto Services
Securing a non-depository national trust charter allows Block to centralize its Bitcoin custody under federal fiduciary law without assuming the capital requirements of a traditional lending bank.
Block has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to establish a national trust bank called Builders Bank and Trust. The proposed institution would operate as an uninsured national trust bank providing custody and related fiduciary services for and , while avoiding taking or issuing loans. Jack Dorsey's company submitted the application after market close on Tuesday to secure federal preemption and bypass state-level regulatory patchwork as its digital operations scale. Lee Woolley, who currently serves as Block's digital asset strategy lead and previously led the Department Federal Credit Union, is slated to take over as president and CEO of the new bank. The OCC aims to process charter applications within 120 days, though the filing has not yet been posted for public comment.
Silver Lake Merges Cegid and Silae in €10 Billion Enterprise Software Deal
Combining Cegid's ERP architecture with Silae's payroll engine builds a unified European enterprise data layer needed to train specialized AI models across mid-market HR and accounting workflows.
Silver Lake is merging its companies Cegid and Silae in a transaction valued at more than 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion). The combination unites Cegid's business management software with Silae's payroll and HR platform to create a European technology group with annual of 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion). The merged entity will house a 1,400-person developer team tasked with scaling investments as software providers face pressure from automation fears. Silver Lake, which currently holds majority stakes in both firms, will retain its majority interest in the combined group. Christian Lucas of Silver Lake will serve as chairman, while Christian Pedersen takes over as CEO. The transaction is slated to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approval.
AIIB Develops Platform to Pool Private Capital for Asia Infrastructure
Replacing bespoke deal-by-deal negotiations with a programmatic co-investment platform allows multilateral lenders to systematically aggregate institutional insurance and pension capital into infrastructure debt.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is developing a new platform to pool institutional for infrastructure projects across Asia, aiming to quadruple the private funds it mobilises. Scmp.com reports that the initiative will allow insurers and pension funds to co-invest in infrastructure alongside the bank on a programmatic basis, replacing deal-by-deal negotiations. The Beijing-headquartered lender has mobilised roughly $17.5 billion in private capital since its inception through the end of 2025. Chief investment officer Kim-See Lim stated that the platform is currently at an early stage, with further details expected within six to nine months following a joint conference with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The push addresses a persistent regional shortfall, with the Asian Development Bank previously estimating annual infrastructure needs of $1.7 trillion through 2030 against a yearly of up to $700 billion.
Asia Annual Infrastructure Funding ($B)
The annual shortfall reaches up to 700 billion dollars.
UBS CEO Warns of Investor Complacency Amid Rising Geopolitical Risks
cnbc.com reports that UBS Group AG CEO Sergio Ermotti warned on Thursday that investors have grown complacent despite mounting geopolitical and economic risks. Ermotti pointed to ongoing wars in Ukraine and Iran, straining supply chains from U.S.-China rivalries, and stubborn that keeps pressure on . Wealthy clients are responding by diversifying across sectors and geographies rather than making large directional bets. Ermotti expects major central banks including the and to raise rates in the coming months as inflationary pressures persist. Meanwhile, UBS posted fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations and announced a $3 billion program for 2026.
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