Polygon Labs announced the completion of a SOC 2 Type 1 examination for its Polygon Open Money Stack API and dashboard, covering the Security Trust Service Criteria. Independent auditor Schellman & Company, LLC confirmed that Polygon has implemented suitable security controls. A Type 2 examination is underway to test operational effectiveness over several months. CEO Marc Boiron stressed that as a technology provider handling real money, it must meet financial institution standards.

Open-source AI company Nous Research has updated its hiring page with eight categories of full-time openings, offering a clearer look at how it is building out Hermes Agent beyond model research. The roles span AI evaluation, cloud infrastructure, product analytics, security, enterprise deployment and UI/UX design, indicating that the company is adding both engineering depth and commercial execution capacity around its agent product. The listings show Hermes Agent moving on several fronts at once. Nous Research is hiring a Machine Learning Engineer focused on evals, including benchmark design, LLM-as-a-Judge systems, weekly regression testing and red-team workflows. It is also recruiting a Forward Deployed Engineer to install Hermes Agent Enterprise in customer environments, integrating enterprise APIs, internal data sources, authentication systems and business applications across cloud, on-premises and hybrid architectures. At the same time, the company is expanding Hermes Cloud, which is now in preview and positioned as a way to run AI agents as always-on cloud services with persistent memory, scheduling, automation and isolated sandboxing. Product, analytics and design roles point to a broader push into desktop, web, mobile and terminal experiences. Nous Research also says candidates without a matching listed role can still pitch how they want to contribute and submit materials directly.

Tether said KPMG U.S. has completed the first independent audit of the financial statements of Tether International, S.A. de C.V. for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, issuing an unqualified opinion. The audit found that Tether’s reserve assets exceeded liabilities by $6.814 billion at the end of 2025, a milestone after years of scrutiny over the backing of USDT. The work covered the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity, and cash flows, and included physical inspection of the company’s gold bars as well as checks on transaction records, valuation, counterparties, systems, and evidence of ownership. Still, the development does not close the transparency debate. Tether has not released the full audit report, leaving open questions about disclosures, audit scope, related-party transactions, and the makeup of reserves. The report also comes as U.S. stablecoin regulation tightens under the GENIUS Act, even though the law’s audit requirements do not automatically apply to offshore issuers such as Tether. In that setting, the KPMG opinion strengthens Tether’s position, but it does not settle the broader issues around disclosure, reserve risk, or future compliance.

PANews’ weekly funding roundup showed a pickup in crypto deal activity from Aug. 3 to Aug. 9, with 12 disclosed blockchain financing events totaling more than $94.9 million. Capital was concentrated in infrastructure, stablecoins, real-world assets and centralized finance, while DePIN, GameFi and rewards platforms also logged fresh deals. The headline M&A transaction came from Mastercard, which said it had completed its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK, a deal previously reported in March as being worth up to $1.8 billion. On the financing side, Yellow Card announced a $40 million strategic round backed by SC Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital and Blockchain Capital. Other disclosed transactions included rounds for Blockspace, MAGNE.AI, InvestiFi, JPYC, Dow Protocol, Vangrid and Bundle. PANews also tracked a separate wave of AI and robotics funding, where large checks continued to cluster around infrastructure, cloud capacity, optical networking and enterprise agent platforms, with Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and the newly launched 224 Ventures also stepping up commitments to the sector.

According to ChainCatcher, Omilia, a Cyprus-based enterprise AI customer service company, has completed a $67 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Expedition Growth Capital. Omilia said the proceeds will be used to accelerate business expansion in North America and other global markets. The company also plans to open its first U.S. office in the second half of 2026. Omilia was founded in 2002. It develops proprietary voice AI technology for enterprise contact centers, providing self-learning agent CX solutions. The platform supports compliance standards including FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR. The funding amount, lead investor, and expansion targets come from the company's announcement. The company expects to establish a U.S. presence in 2026. Its product focuses on voice-driven automation for call center environments. The compliance certifications cover security, data protection, and industry-specific requirements. Expedition Growth Capital led the round.

Japan's digital securities platform Progmat migrated ¥452 billion in assets to a dedicated Avalanche Layer 1 network, achieving EVM compatibility, sub-second finality, and 3–5x faster transaction processing, with cross-chain settlement services on the roadmap.

Source material says Tron remains active in stablecoin transfers, Chainlink is expanding cross-chain infrastructure, and APEMARS has raised over $450,000 in Stage 19 with a stage-based presale model and token burn schedule.

Saturn selects Chainlink CCIP as its interoperability layer. Deposits of USDat and sUSDat exceed $220 million in six weeks; STRc outstanding surpasses $8.5 billion.