Andreessen Horowitz, better known as a16z, has announced an investment in AI agent security startup Runta, though the size of the deal was not disclosed. The company is building what it describes as a supervisory layer for enterprise AI agents, aimed at setting boundaries around what those systems can access, what actions they are allowed to take, and how much money they can deploy in a single operation. Founder Guanlan Dai, who previously worked on the technical team at Cloudflare and served as a founding engineer at API connectivity startup Kong, compared AI agents to children that can act independently but still need rules, oversight, and limits. Runta’s pitch is that as enterprises deploy more autonomous AI agents capable of interacting with internal systems, handling transactions, and completing complex tasks, they will need infrastructure for identity management, permission control, risk limits, and runtime supervision. The company says its goal is to help reduce the risk of data leaks, operational mistakes, and financial losses tied to autonomous AI systems.

Sleepagotchi said it is rebuilding a Web3 health economy by expanding beyond its original “sleep-to-earn” mobile game into an AI-powered decentralized health app. The project started by rewarding users with digital collectibles for maintaining consistent sleep habits, then moved into a broader health product that analyzes data from smartphones and wearable devices to generate personalized health insights. CEO Kenny Wood said the team concluded that sleep sits at the root of many health and emotional problems, with poor sleep affecting both mood and overall wellbeing. Based on that view, Sleepagotchi aims to combine on-device AI with utility-focused crypto infrastructure so it can deliver personalized health guidance without sending sensitive biometric data to corporate cloud servers or putting that data on-chain. The app uses a decentralized multi-agent system in which a sleep coach, health coach, diet planning agent and shopping agent handle different tasks locally on the user’s phone while passing state data in real time. The company plans to use its native stakable token, SLEEP, for a future marketplace and premium health tracking features. Basic insights and automated guidance are free, while additional AI queries after a daily quota is used up would require payment in SLEEP. Sleepagotchi said it has raised $6.5 million, has more than 2 million users, and generated over $100,000 in revenue during a three-week testing period.

Visa is expanding its stablecoin push with the launch of Visa Stablecoin Platform, according to Fortune. The new offering is designed to help banks and fintech companies plug stablecoin payment capabilities into their existing payment rails and treasury systems rather than build separate infrastructure from scratch. The platform is intended to support roughly 15,000 financial institutions and more than 200 million merchants connected to Visa’s global network. It will allow businesses to use U.S. dollar stablecoins for settlement, fund movement, and financial management within traditional payment workflows. At launch, the platform will support OUSD, a new stablecoin introduced by the Open Standard alliance, while remaining compatible with stablecoins Visa already supports, including Circle’s USDC and Paxos-issued USDG. Visa says it processes about $15 trillion in payment volume each year and has already handled billions of dollars in stablecoin settlement. The company argues that stablecoins offer faster settlement, lower transfer costs, and better transaction traceability through blockchain records. The move comes as other major payment companies step up their own stablecoin efforts, with Mastercard recently launching a stablecoin settlement offering and American Express joining the Open Standard ecosystem.

Tether has released its brain-to-text engine as open-source software and made it available for use, according to a post from CEO Paolo Ardoino. Ardoino said the tool, developed under Tether AI, is now fully integrated into the QVAC platform. The newly released version is not a minor update. He described it as a larger and more complex iteration of the same research model previously developed by the team. Ardoino also noted that the earlier version of that model placed fourth in an international competition that included 466 participating teams. The update points to a broader public release of the technology through QVAC, with Tether presenting the engine as both open and ready for use.

Visa has launched a stablecoin platform designed for banks and fintech companies, according to Fortune, adding a new layer to its push into blockchain-based payments and settlement. The company said the service offers a one-stop setup that helps clients connect stablecoins to their existing payment, treasury settlement and fund flow systems, rather than building that infrastructure from scratch. Visa said the goal is to make stablecoin usage easier across its network of about 15,000 financial institutions and more than 200 million merchants. The company processes roughly $15 trillion in payments each year and has already handled stablecoin settlement volume in the billions of dollars. The new platform will combine Visa’s existing stablecoin capabilities and reduce the technical burden of dealing directly with blockchain systems, allowing clients to focus on the payment experience. For merchants, Visa said stablecoins can support instant settlement and lower transaction costs. As a strategic starting point, the platform will use Open Standard’s OUSD stablecoin, which was launched two weeks ago, while also adding to Visa’s existing support for USDC and USDG. Visa is a partner of Open Standard, and American Express and Mastercard are also involved in OUSD-related cooperation.

Ondo Finance and SBI Group have announced a strategic partnership centered on tokenized Japanese equities and broader distribution of Ondo products through SBI’s ecosystem. Under the plan, the two companies aim to bring Japanese stocks on-chain and make Ondo’s tokenized offerings available across SBI Group channels. The companies also said they plan to use SBI’s JPYSC stablecoin for on-chain settlement and collateral. According to the announced structure, the tokenized instruments will be issued by Ondo Global Markets (BVI) Limited. Distribution will take place through SBI Group’s network, which the announcement said serves millions of investors in Japan. Both sides framed the partnership as a link between Japan’s established capital markets and the global tokenization economy. They said the arrangement is intended to broaden investor access to Japanese assets through tokenized rails, while relying on SBI’s local ecosystem for distribution and settlement.

U.S. semiconductor shares broadly moved lower on July 16, according to BlockBeats, with losses spreading across chip, storage and optical communications names. Arm fell 6.40%, Marvell Technology dropped 6.20%, Micron Technology lost 5.12%, Qualcomm fell 4.40%, Intel declined 4.21%, AMD slipped 3.91%, Broadcom dropped 3.79%, and Nvidia fell 2.24%. The sell-off was sharper in storage stocks. SanDisk fell 8.77%, Seagate Technology dropped 7.70%, Western Digital lost 7.51%, SK Hynix declined 7.46%, and Micron Technology was down 5.12%. Optical communications names were also among the session’s weaker performers. Corning fell 8.17%, Astera Labs dropped 6.57%, Applied Optoelectronics lost 6.44%, Nokia declined 6.00%, Credo fell 5.63%, and Coherent dropped 5.57%.

A newly created wallet deposited 5 million USDC into Hyperliquid and used 2x leverage to open a long position in CXMT, according to monitoring data cited by BlockBeats from Lookonchain on July 16. The position was reported as 194,175 shares of CXMT with an estimated value of $1.38 million. Lookonchain also said the liquidation price for the trade was set at $4. The update only identified the address as a new wallet and did not disclose additional ownership details. The transaction was presented as a whale-style move tied to activity on Hyperliquid.