Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Page 8

Agents at Work

Microsoft Cut 4,800 Jobs While Spending $190B on AI. It Says the Two Aren’t Related.

Microsoft eliminated 4,800 roles while investing $190B in AI infrastructure. Analysts say workforce reductions fund AI capex. The 'not replacing people' framing examined.

◆ Dana EllisonJul 10

Agents at Work

Cloudflare Cut 1,100 Jobs. Two Weeks Later, Its CEO Published a Taxonomy of Who Gets Replaced by AI.

Matthew Prince divided employees into builders, sellers, and measurers — then declared measurers obsolete. He did it while posting record revenue. The question: is this honesty, or a template?

◆ Dana EllisonJul 10

Agents at Work

87,000 AI Job Cuts and Counting. The Quiet Reversal Nobody Is Tracking.

More than half of leaders who cut staff for AI say they were wrong. Three anchor cases show what happens next.

◆ Dana EllisonJul 10

Agents at Work

Coinbase Cut 700 Jobs to Build ‘AI-Native Pods.’ Three Days Later, the System Went Down.

Brian Armstrong is replacing managers with AI agents and 'player-coaches.' The workforce isn't buying it.

◆ Dana EllisonJul 10

Money & Markets

CFTC Chair Selig Signals Unilateral Rulemaking as CLARITY Act Stalls

With legislative progress on digital commodity oversight hitting a wall, the CFTC is preparing to bypass Congress to define the market's rules of the road.

◆ Nolan PrattJul 10

Money & Markets

Coinbase’s UK FCA Authorization: The Regulated Execution Surface Agents Need

The exchange's new UK MiFID license creates a multi-asset regulated venue — the piece agent trading infrastructure has been missing.

◆ Nolan PrattJul 10

Money & Markets

Stablecoins Just Lost $7.7B — The Biggest Drop Since Terra. The Pipes Are Still Running Faster Than Ever.

June 2026 saw the sharpest stablecoin contraction since the Terra collapse, driven by geopolitical shock, MiCA enforcement, and a new consortium challenging USDC's economics. But transaction volume hit a record. The settlement layer for AI agent payments is being squeezed from every direction.

◆ Nolan PrattJul 10

Money & Markets

The OUSD Consortium Wants to Turn Stablecoin Issuers Into Utilities. Circle Has 56% of Its Revenue Riding on Whether It Works.

Stripe, Coinbase, Visa, Mastercard, and 140 others are backing a stablecoin that shares reserve yield with distribution partners. With the Coinbase-Circle agreement expiring in August, the timing is not coincidental.

◆ Nolan PrattJul 10

Money & Markets

Treasury’s AML Rule for Stablecoins Is Out. The OCC and Fed Rules Aren’t.

Six agencies face a statutory deadline to publish final stablecoin rules on July 18. But the law's actual compliance window doesn't kick in until January 2027 — and the gap between rulemaking and enforcement is where the agent payment economy gets shaped.

◆ Nolan PrattJul 10

Money & Markets

USDC Handles 70% of Stablecoin Transaction Volume. That Changes Which Currency Agents Settle In.

Visa's adjusted onchain data shows USDC dominates real economic activity — even as USDT remains larger by market cap. For agent payment platforms, the settlement currency decision is increasingly made for them.

◆ Nolan PrattJul 10