Mercuryo Claims 60th Place in Sifted 100: Southern Europe Leaderboard, Recognising the Region’s most Innovative High-Growth Startups

The $300 million round is expected to be led by Menlo Ventures, Sifted reported.

The post Palantir (PLTR) Stock Tumbles 5% Amid Political Scrutiny Over Government Contracts Worth $2.2B appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Key Takeaways Shares of Palantir closed approximately 4.8% lower at $127.88 on Wednesday, halting a seven-session rally that had driven the stock up 25%. Concerns emerged following a Financial Times article discussing potential political opposition to Palantir’s government work from Democratic legislators. Federal contract revenues reached approximately $2.2 billion in the twelve months since Trump’s presidential return, marking a 65% annual increase. The stock continues to trade beneath both its 100-day and 200-day moving averages, maintaining a Death Cross pattern established in February. Wall Street maintains a Buy consensus rating with a $174.10 average price target; the company’s next earnings release is projected for August 3. Palantir Technologies (PLTR) experienced a significant decline Wednesday, ending a seven-session upward momentum. Sh

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are betting on AI, health tech, and startups. Mohamed Salah is taking a more traditional route beyond football.

The post ESMA Says EU Retail Ban Covers Many Prediction Markets, With MiCA Awaiting the Tokenized Ones appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Key Takeaways ESMA said event contracts that qualify as financial instruments are already barred from EU retail sale under binary-options rules. The prohibition rests on national measures in force since 2018, so no new legislation is required to apply it. Two regulatory tracks, both already in force In a public statement issued on July 3, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) set out how existing EU law applies to event contracts, the yes-or-no instruments underpinning prediction markets. Its central conclusion is that many of these contracts are not a novel product category requiring new rules, but already fall within measures on the books – a point that goes further than framing the issue as future regulatory risk. ESMA’s reasoning is that event contracts whose underlying question relates to an asset listed in Section C(4) to (10)

Europe’s top securities regulator has clarified that many prediction-market event contracts already fall under the EU’s existing retail ban on binary options – meaning the restriction is live law, not a proposed rule – while contracts issued as blockchain tokens may instead be caught by the bloc’s crypto framework. The statement leaves platforms such as […]

The post Paradigm raises $1.2 billion fund for AI and robotics appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Top crypto VC firm, Paradigm, has finalized a $1.2 billion fund to back AI and robotics startups. This will be the very first time the venture firm will move beyond digital assets since it launched in 2018. The firm stated that the move does not mean it has ceased its crypto operations, however, it shows investors where the industry’s biggest checkbooks are currently facing. The AI fund arrives as money floods into AI while crypto activities reduce, with fewer rounds absorbing most of the capital. “Crypto was the first frontier for us, and it continues to be a really exciting one, but there’s so much else happening right now that’s pretty hard to ignore,” managing partner Alana Palmedo told Bloomberg. Paradigm already spending  AI fund Two of Paradigm’s early interests using the new fund are companies totally away from crypto. They include Zipline International, an autonomous drone deliv

The post Why Crypto Payments Are Growing Across Europe And How PayFi Platforms Like ConfidoPay Are Accelerating Adoption appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Crypto adoption in Europe has moved past the buy-and-hold phase. For years, the conversation was about acquiring assets and watching prices move.  Now people want to actually spend what they’re holding, on subscriptions, travel, everyday purchases, without bouncing between exchanges and bank transfers to get there. The numbers back this up: platforms are quoting that their crypto card orders across Europe have risen by 15% in the first half of 2025. That’s not a massive jump, but it points to real demand for spending tools, not just trading ones. It’s part of what’s fueling the rise of PayFi, the corner of the industry focused on connecting digital assets to real-world payments. At the same time, ConfidoPay, a new PayFi platform is changing the way people spend their crypto directly without having to go through crypto-to-fiat exch

Europe is seeing increased demand for crypto payments and digital asset utility. Learn what's driving adoption and how PayFi platforms are helping bridge crypto and commerce.