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Heart Machine ends development on Hyper Light Breaker mere months after it entered early access

by admin October 9, 2025

Heart Machine has ended development on Hyper Light Breaker and is laying off a number of staff as a result.

The roguelike released into early access at the start of the year but has been met by a mixed reaction. It followed the successful Hyper Light Drifter and studio follow-up Solar Ash.

Heart Machine confirmed the news to Game Developer, but has not confirmed how many employees have been laid off.

Hyper Light Breaker | Double Down Update TrailerWatch on YouTube

“As we wrap up our work on Hyper Light Breaker, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to part ways with a number of talented team members. This was not our ideal path, but rather the only one available given the circumstances,” reads a statement from the studio.

“While this path will include a conclusion on the project, it reflects broader forces beyond our control, including shifts in funding, corporate consolidation and the uncertain environment many small studios like us are navigating today.”

The studio previously laid off staff in November last year, but stated at the time “a strong and timely launch will rekindle opportunities for those affected as we look to evolve and grow [Hyper Light Breaker] throughout Early Access”. It seems the game’s poor reception has not allowed the studio to follow through.

“Hyper Light Breaker is really, really punishing,” said Christian Donlan on Hyper Light Breaker for Eurogamer. “It’s punishing in a way that I understand, because it’s probably balanced for multiplayer and because this is probably a small team who can’t endlessly feed new stuff into the procedural maw, and so they need players to take their time with what’s there. But it makes for an uninviting introduction if you’re a fan of the series and you love these games for their lonely beauty.”

Heart Machine’s next game is still on the way – that’s the cyberpunk-themed metroidvania Possessor(s). It’s due out next month on PS5 and PC.

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October 9, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

OpenAI’s new video generation tool Sora 2 is here, but don’t worry, Sam Altman says it will avoid the ‘degenerate case of AI video generation that ends up with us all being sucked into an RL-optimized slop feed’

by admin October 1, 2025

Sora 2, the latest model of OpenAI’s text-to-video tech, has now launched alongside a dedicated app. Besides spitting out all of the soulless, AI-generated Studio Ghibli-style animation one could ever want, Sora 2 can now generate live action clips with both sound and a frankly scary level of visual accuracy.

Granted, not all of the clips OpenAI shares in its announcement are flawless, with its AI-generated snippet of a practicing martial artist featuring a warping bo staff and smooshed phalanges. Still, OpenAI is keen to highlight Sora 2’s gains in depicting consistent body mechanics that adhere to the rules of the physical world; the twirling body horror of earlier models generated gymnastics clips may be a thing of the past.

The company also touts Sora 2’s ability to “directly inject elements of the real world” into its AI-generated clips. It elaborates, “For example, by observing a video of one of our teammates, the model can insert them into any Sora-generated environment with an accurate portrayal of appearance and voice. This capability is very general, and works for any human, animal or object.” If you’re so inclined to descend into the realm of deepfakes, the Sora app, powered by Sora 2, is available on the iOS store now.

OpenAI touts the app as not just a video generator but also a social environment.

“You can create, remix each other’s generations, discover new videos in a customizable Sora feed, and bring yourself or your friends in via cameos,” the company writes. “With cameos, you can drop yourself straight into any Sora scene with remarkable fidelity after a short one-time video-and-audio recording in the app to verify your identity and capture your likeness.”

One can see the whimsical appeal of sharing AI-generated clips of yourself riding ostriches and pulling off extremely dangerous stunts, but I also can’t ignore the risk posed by deepfakes. For one thing, US president Donald Trump shared an expletive-laden deepfake video on Truth Social literally the day before Sora 2’s launch (via Ars Technica).

The sombrero superimposed over representative Hakeem Jeffries is hopefully a telltale sign for most viewers that the remarks senator Chuck Schumer is depicted as saying in this clip (which was not created using Sora 2) are wholly fabricated. However, given that a Microsoft study suggests folks struggle to accurately identify AI-generated still images 62% of the time, it’s hard not to be concerned about deepfakes’ capacity for disinformation.

Videos generated with Sora 2 don’t even feature a tiny AI watermark, like those introduced in Gemini’s ‘Nano Banana’ image-editing update. OpenAI say they are ‘launching responsibly,’ with in-app features designed to “maximize creation, not consumption,” and address “concerns about doomscrolling, addiction, isolation, and RL-sloptimized feeds.” But comments made by company CEO Sam Altman on his own blog read contrapuntal even to this stated feed philosophy.

“It is easy to imagine the degenerate case of AI video generation that ends up with us all being sucked into an RL-optimized slop feed,” Altman first admits.

As such, he shares that the app has various “mitigations to prevent someone from misusing someone’s likeness in deepfakes, safeguards for disturbing or illegal content, periodic checks on how Sora is impacting users’ mood and wellbeing, and more.”

Altman even goes as far as to say that, if OpenAI cannot sufficiently address aspects of the app that lead to negative social outcomes, then the company would discontinue the service.

But Altman also caps off a longer passage regarding how the Sora feed aims to show content that users are interested in by writing, “And if you truly just want to doom scroll and be angry, then ok, we’ll help you with that.” To me, this reads not only as a shrugging off of responsibility, but also fairly nihilistic; for all OpenAI’s talk about the Sora app’s safety features, what can be done if its users still choose to gaze into the abyss?

(Image credit: OpenAI)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also reference the existentialism and labour concerns the launch of the Sora 2 model will no doubt inspire in my freelance creative friends. Altman writes on his blog, “Creativity could be about to go through a Cambrian explosion, and along with it, the quality of art and entertainment can drastically increase.” And I would like to suggest that he may be right, just not how he thinks.

While Altman wants OpenAI’s app to be at the forefront of a tidal wave of creativity, my personal hope is that audiences get sick of realistic, computer generated imagery as a result of Sora 2’s proliferation. My blue sky thinking—however naive it may be—is the hope that, in response to audiences seeking out visual art that could only ever be made by humans, practical effects and puppets make a comeback in a big way.

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October 1, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Lynx’s yearlong pursuit of WNBA title ends early in semifinals

by admin September 30, 2025

Michael VoepelSep 29, 2025, 10:42 AM ET
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PHOENIX — Kayla McBride covered her face with her shirt, trying to soak up the tears. A season she and her Minnesota Lynx teammates envisioned would bring a trophy and champagne instead ended Sunday with sadness and frustration.

This wasn’t in the script the Lynx had been authoring so diligently for the past 4½ months. They were the WNBA’s best team. They won a franchise-record 34 games and had the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. And then Minnesota’s season transformed from a feel-good musical to a shocking horror movie.

In the Lynx’s must-win Game 4, Cheryl Reeve, the WNBA’s longest-tenured head coach, wasn’t on the sidelines, serving a one-game suspension for a Game 3 ejection and criticism of the officiating. Napheesa Collier, an MVP favorite for most of the season and by far Minnesota’s most important player, had to watch from the bench after an ankle injury late in Friday’s game.

The Lynx blew multiple double-digit leads and lost 86-81 to the Phoenix Mercury, ending this playoff campaign and the promise of a season that held championship aspirations. At a somber postgame news conference, veteran guard McBride tried to sum up the heartbreak.

“To be close two years in a row,” said McBride, who scored 31 points in Game 4.

“S— f—ing hurts.”

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Last season, minutes after a 67-62 overtime loss to the New York Liberty in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 20, the Lynx came to their news conferences with angry comments about the officiating and how they felt it had cost them the championship.

The Lynx vowed then to run it back in 2025, but this time claim the franchise’s fifth title. And for nearly five months, it seemed as if they did everything right: They returned their entire starting five, made some key additions, had the league’s best regular-season record and clinched home-court advantage for the playoffs with five games still left on their schedule.

They started the postseason with a 2-0 sweep of Golden State in the first round. They won Game 1 of the semifinals against Phoenix and had a 48-32 lead at halftime in Game 2 of the best-of-five series.

Then things spun out of control. For the first time in franchise history, the Lynx lost a game in which they led by at least 16 points at halftime; they had been 61-0 previously. And that 89-83 overtime loss to the Mercury last Tuesday wasn’t just a speed bump the Lynx needed to overcome to continue their mission.

It was the beginning of the end.

Napheesa Collier suffered a left ankle injury in the final minute of Game 3 and had to watch from the bench as Phoenix eliminated her top-seeded Lynx on Sunday. Christian Petersen/Getty Images

In Friday’s Game 3 in Phoenix, the Lynx had a 67-63 lead after three quarters. But Minnesota lost the fourth quarter 21-9, as well as someone even more significant: Collier, who was injured on a steal by Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas with 23.8 seconds left.

Reeve, seeing her franchise player on the floor in pain, lost her temper. She was ejected from the game, which the Mercury won 84-76, and again castigated the league’s officiating in a brief postgame address to the media.

The play on which Collier was injured was just the spark that lit a long-built fuse for Reeve. She is still bothered almost a decade later by a missed shot clock violation committed by Los Angeles in Game 5 of the 2016 WNBA Finals, which the Sparks then won by one point for the championship.

Then, of course, last season’s late call against the Lynx in Game 5 against New York prompted Reeve to say afterward, “This s— was stolen from us.”

Reeve thought this season could be a salve for that. Instead, it leaves the Lynx with another wound.

“You want it for the people [you’re around] every single day,” McBride said. “In pro sports, it doesn’t get any better than what we have in our locker room. We lay it out for each other. It’s never been about anything else but each other.”

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1:56

Cheryl Reeve rips officiating after Lynx’s Game 3 loss

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve sounds off on the referees after the Lynx’s Game 3 loss to the Mercury.

To understand the depth of the disappointment, look at how long it has taken to build this foundation. Seven years have passed since the retirement of the three key players from Minnesota’s four championship teams from 2011 to 2017 — Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson. The Lynx started a new era in 2019 by drafting Collier, who dropped to No. 6 in what has proven to be likely the biggest draft underestimation in league history.

“She was the type of person who was exactly an extension of the Lynx culture that was built before her,” Reeve said during a postgame news conference on Sept. 6. “Without that — if you have a superstar that isn’t somebody people want to be around — people aren’t as interested in coming to Minnesota to play.”

In Collier’s first three seasons, the Lynx never made it past the second round of the playoffs. In 2022, the team missed the playoffs altogether for the first time since 2010. After a first-round loss in 2023, the Lynx still faced questions headed into 2024. But they answered those, building a team around Collier as the superstar. They won a Commissioner’s Cup title in June, then came agonizingly close to the WNBA title in October.

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“I call it the honeymoon. People didn’t necessarily see us in the space we were in last year,” Reeve said at a pregame news conference on Sept. 21. “So we started the season from a much different perception about us. The expectations were much greater.”

This season, the Lynx returned their top six players from 2024: forwards Collier, Alanna Smith and Bridget Carleton, and guards Courtney Williams, McBride and Natisha Hiedeman. They brought back forward Jessica Shepard, who had missed the 2024 season because of her overseas commitment.

They also made strategic changes. They added Maria Kliundikova, a free agent signing on June 6, and another 6-foot-4 post player like Smith and Shepard who brings more size in the paint. On Aug. 3, they traded for guard DiJonai Carrington, the league’s Most Improved Player last season and known for her high-level defense.

The Lynx appeared to have planned for every eventuality. Even when Collier injured her ankle in August and missed seven games, the Lynx stayed on track. They lost the Commissioner’s Cup final to Indiana on July 1, but that only strengthened their resolve to win the season championship.

And Collier, at least publicly, seemed to brush away the disappointment of coming up short in the race for MVP — A’ja Wilson took her fourth after a fantastic second half — saying her real goal was the championship.

“I feel like I am still focused on the championship,” Collier said Sept. 21, the day the MVP winner was announced. “That has been my main goal the whole season. Of course, I want to win MVP. But the championship is what I really want for this season.”

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Reeve ejected, Collier limps off on Mercury’s game-sealing sequence

What went wrong? Reeve and her staff will dissect that all offseason. Losing both Collier and Carrington — who suffered a season-ending foot injury in Game 2 of the first round — took a big toll.

But the Lynx also saw some of their killer instinct wane. They squeaked by Golden State in Game 2, 75-74. They trailed 47-40 at halftime of their Game 1 semifinal before rallying against Phoenix. Then they lost three in a row. They had not had more than two consecutive defeats in the regular season — and did that only once, in August when Collier was out.

After a strong start in Game 4 on Sunday, and a 13-point lead going into the fourth quarter, the Lynx seemed poised to force Game 5 back in Minneapolis.

But for the third time in six days, the Mercury took over — and the Lynx saw their dream season evaporate. They became the 11th team in WNBA history to have the league’s best record but not win the championship, and the sixth of those teams to not even make the WNBA Finals.

“I [didn’t] look at this season and say, ‘Oh, this is hard because we’ve got a target on our back,'” Williams said Sunday of carrying the favorites tag ever since starting 9-0. “That’s what we wanted, right? We got hit with that injury bug, and, you know, it’s hard. Shout out to us not giving up.”

Because so many of the league’s players will be free agents for next season — a new collective bargaining agreement is needed first — the Lynx are unsure what their roster will look like in 2026, a fact that makes this season’s painful finish even more poignant.

“As a vet, somebody who’s older, I feel everything,” said McBride, 33. “I just care. But I would feel like this 100 times over to be with the people I’ve been with. You just want it to keep going.”

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September 30, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

8,000% in Week: Binance Founder Ends Speculations on His Affiliation With ‘Next BNB’

by admin September 29, 2025

Aster’s launch has been one of the most jaw-dropping crypto stories of the year. The decentralized exchange built on BNB Chain has seen daily trading volumes go above $20.8 billion, leaving Hyperliquid behind on $9.7 billion.

Its token, ASTER, shot up by more than 8,000% in just a week since its debut, peaking at $2.30 and pushing its market capitalization past $3.7 billion.

The speed of that move makes it look like Binance founder CZ might have had a hand in it. People are still wondering about the launch, the financing ties through YZi Labs and the sudden appearance of Trust Wallet partnerships. Aster was being called “the next BNB,” and some posts even said Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was part of the core team.

Is Binance and CZ behind Aster?

That rumor died down pretty quickly though as Zhao himself made it clear that he isn’t running Aster, he is just advising its builders.

But this didn’t really change things much. As long as Binance was involved in some way, even if it was a small part, that was enough to keep the project in the eye of the public.

It’s not all about Binance ties as Aster’s got market participants hooked with a fresh product feature — hidden orders that let traders make bids and offers without showing them on-chain.

That feature, along with the fee discounts and how well it works with BNB’s ecosystem, gave it the kind of reputation that most new DEXes miss out on.

Skeptics say the exchange is washing its volume because it’s got a few big wallets holding a lot of the supply. But supporters say that the fact that BNB Chain is backing it, CZ is on the advisory board and it’s getting a lot of traction shows why people already think of Aster as the next big thing.

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Borderlands 4’s latest update aims to deliver more performance fixes, ends up causing more stuttering for some

by admin September 28, 2025

Another day, another Borderlands 4 update aiming to smooth out more of the performance problems which have plagued the looter shooter since launch, especially on PC. Unfortuntely, this latest patch looks to have led to an uptick in stuttering for some players, with Gearbox recommending some shader messing around as a potential fix.

In fairness to the studio, you can’t say they haven’t been working hard to get Borderlands 4 running a bit more smoothly since problems in that department became apparent, with this being the third post-launch patch targeting performance in the past couple of weeks. One of them was confusingly noteless, but hey.

Anyway, this one has notes, and delving into them you’ll find a few tweaks to weekly activities being granted top billing before things descend into fix territory. The weekly big encore boss has been swapped to a tougher version of another existing boss and will offer more loot. The weekly wildcard mission’s changed and Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine has been moved.

In terms of fixes, Gearbox cited the rectifying of “various instances of hitching, low FPS, and crashes” as well as “infinite loading screens during crossplay”. Characters should also load up faster in menus, and their animations have been updated to match the fixes. Sadly, it seems that the update’s actually led some players to experience more performance problems, with Gearbox acknowledging this in a follow-up tweet.

“Stuttering issues should resolve over time as the shaders continue to compile in the background while playing,” they wrote. “If you’re still experiencing issues after 15 minutes of continuous play, you can also clear your shader cache via your video card manufacturer’s approved method.” If problems persist, you’ll have to file a support ticket.

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That aside, studio have also made some changes to rewards and progression with this update, plus some minor tweaks to individual vault hunters. On top of that, there’s a bit of gear balancing, with the tweaks as follows:

Hellwalker: now always spawns with Fire element
Tediore weapons: +10% Damage and +10% magazine size
Order Pistol Lucky Clover (Rocket Reload): increased fire rate
Order Sniper Rifle Fisheye: increased Damage

Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins has revealed in a tweet that the game’s next patch’ll be much heavier on the balancing tweaks. “As a note, we had too many Vault Hunter buffs to safely fit into today’s big update,” he wrote. “Instead, we broke up them into their own balance update that we’re targeting to release early next week instead.”

Here’s hoping that Gearbox can get their shooty thing running nicely soon, especially since yapping CEO Randy Pitchford thankfully looks to have stopped giving impromptu setup advice on the socials. As for the game itself, Jasmine Mannan gave it a go for us and generally liked what these four bordered lands had to offer.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

BTC Ends Weak Quarter Amid Seasonal Pressures as mNAV Contracts in Treasury Companies

by admin September 27, 2025

BTC$109,500.27 just ended what is historically the largest cryptocurrency’s third-worst week of the year with a greater-than-average drop of 5%. Week 38 effectively closes out the third quarter, which is up about 1%, as well as September, which has managed to hold flat.

While the figures are consistent with the period’s historical reputation as one of the weakest seasons of the year, a few catalysts might have contributed to the underperformance.

On Friday, more than $17 billion in options expired, with the max pain price — the strike price at which option holders lose the most money and options writers profit the most — sitting at $110,000, which acted as a gravitational center for the spot price.

A key technical factor remains the short-term holder cost basis at $110,775, which reflects the average on-chain acquisition price for coins that moved in the past six months.

Bitcoin tested this level in August, and in bull markets, it typically moves toward this line multiple times. This year, it broke significantly below that level only once: during the tariff tantrum in April, when it dropped to as low as $74,500.

Cost Basis (Glassnode)

Zooming out, it is important to assess whether bitcoin remains in an uptrend characterized by higher highs and higher lows to get an idea of whether the rally is sustainable.

Analyst Caleb Franzen highlights that bitcoin has slipped below its 100-day exponential moving average (EMA), with the 200-day EMA sitting at $106,186. The previous significant low was around $107,252 on Sept. 1, and for the broader trend to remain intact, bitcoin will need to hold above that level.,

Macro Backdrop

The U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 3.8% in the second quarter, well above the 3.3% estimate and the strongest performance since the second quarter of 2023. Initial jobless claims dropped by 14,000 to 218,000, coming in below expectations and marking the lowest level since mid-July. While spending data came in line with the market’s expectation. The US core PCE price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying inflation that excludes food and energy, rose 0.2% in August 2025 from the prior month.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries bounced off the 4% support, and is now trading near 4.2%. The dollar index (DXY) continues to hover around long-term support at 98. Meanwhile, metals are leading the action, with silver at around $45 approaching an all-time high at levels last seen in 1980 and 2011. U.S. equities, in the meantime, are just shy of their records.

Bitcoin remains the outlier at more than 10% below its peak.

DXY (TradingView)

Bitcoin-Exposed Equities

Bitcoin treasury companies continue to face severe multiple-to-net-asset-value (mNAV) compression. Strategy (MSTR) is barely positive year-to-date. At one point, it dipped below $300, a negative return for 2025.

The ratio between Strategy and BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) stands at 4.8, the lowest since October 2024, which shows just how much the largest bitcoin treasury company has underperformed bitcoin over the past 12 months.

MSTR/IBIT Ratio (TradingView)

Strategy’s enterprise mNAV is currently 1.44 (as of Friday). Enterprise value here accounts for all basic shares outstanding, total notional debt and total notional value of perpetual preferred stock minus the company’s cash balance.

The silver lining for MSTR is that three of the four perpetual preferred stocks, STRK, STRC and STRF, are all sporting positive lifetime returns as Executive Chairman Michael Saylor looks to buy more BTC through these vehicles.

A growing issue for MSTR is the lack of volatility in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency’s Implied volatility — a measure of the market’s expectation of future price fluctuations — has dropped below 40, the lowest in years.

This matters because Saylor has often framed MSTR as a volatility play on bitcoin. For comparison, MSTR’s implied volatility is at 68. Its annualized standard deviation of daily log returns over the past year was 89%, while over the last 30 days it has fallen to 49%.

For equities, higher volatility often attracts speculators, generates trading opportunities and draws investor attention, so the decline is likely acting as a headwind.

Meantime, the fifth-largest bitcoin treasury company, Metaplanet (3350), holds 25,555 BTC and still has roughly $500 million left to deploy from its international offering. Despite this, its share price continues to struggle at 517 yen ($3.45), more than 70% below its all-time high.

Metaplanet’s mNAV has dropped to 1.12, down sharply from 8.44 in June. Its market capitalization now stands at $3.94 billion compared to a bitcoin NAV of $2.9 billion, with an average BTC acquisition cost of $106,065.

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Void Interactive ends “relationship” with Ready or Not community manager over Charlie Kirk comments

by admin September 22, 2025

Ready or Not developer, Void Interactive, has ended its “relationship” with the game’s community manager, following comments they made about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in the tactical FPS’s official Discord server.

As reported by Kotaku, Ready or Not’s community manager, known as ‘Kaminsky’, was asked last week to add variations of “Charlie Kirk” to the server’s filtered words list.

In response, Kaminsky replied: “I just did Charlie. Funny you mention that because me and my roommate are literally just talking about him getting shot. All I have to say is: Nothing of value was lost.”

“Yeah but that’s not our official position,” replied a server moderator.

Following the post, multiple users on X posted screenshots of the exchange, calling for Void Interactive to take action over the comments.

On September 19, 2025, Void Interactive posted a statement from its official X account (and on Steam) addressing the comments and announcing it had “ended” its “relationship” with Kaminsky.

“We are aware of comments made by our community manager about a recent traffic event,” the statement reads. “These statements do not reflect our values or represent our company.”

“We have ended our relationship with this individual and reminded our team of the responsibility we all share when communicating on public platforms,” the post continued.

“Our focus remains on fostering a respectful and professional community around Ready or Not.”

When GamesIndustry.biz asked for further comment on this, including confirmation on whether Kaminsky was a full-time Void Interactive employee or volunteer, a spokesperson pointed us toward the Steam statement and said: “The team at Void Interactive would like to stand by the message they posted on the Steam Page.”

Last week, Sucker Punch Productions fired a senior artist on Ghost of Yotei over a joke she made about Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated during a speaking event on September 10, 2025.

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September 22, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Japan’s space agency officially ends decade-plus mission that carried Hatsune Miku into space one year after losing probe somewhere above Venus

by admin September 21, 2025

Hatsune Miku’s voyage through space has finally come to an end after 15 long years. The Japanese space probe Akatsuki has officially ceased operations, as reported by Automaton. The probe was originally launched on May 21, 2010, after famously being decorated with some 13,000 Hatsune Miku drawings and messages submitted by fans.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) sent the probe next door to Venus to study the planet’s weather patterns and look for “signs of active volcanism.” The probe also captured some stunning images of Venus that show the milky coffee hues of its atmosphere. JAXA reported that it lost contact with the probe in April 2024 and operations were officially terminated on Thursday. Akatsuki was the only operational probe specifically focused on studying Venus over the past ten years.

The Akatsuki team announced the shut down in a post on X (formerly Twitter), as translated by Automaton: “We have concluded operations of the Venus probe Akatsuki. Since last year we have been attempting to restore communications, but determined that recovery would be difficult, and so we have drawn this chapter to a close. We sincerely thank everyone who has supported Akatsuki over the 15 years since its launch.”

Ahead of Akatsuki’s launch in 2010, JAXA invited the general public to send in art and messages to get etched into the probe’s aluminum balance weights. Fans of the voice synthesizer program Vocaloid, which (at the time) powered Hatsune Miku, saw the opportunity to send their favorite fictional pop star to the stars.

They sent in over 13,000 drawings and messages to go on Akatsuki, turning part of the probe into a monument to Miku. JAXA let it fly (literally) and the Hatsune Miku art got to spend 15 long years orbiting Venus.

While Venus may not have any robot friends flying around it at the moment, a few new missions are in the works. NASA is working on two probes, DAVINCI and VERITAS, both slated for launch in the early 2030s, and the European Space Agency is planning to send its EnVision probe to Venus sometime in the next decade, as well.

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September 21, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Crypto Market Prediction: Bitcoin Risks Losing $100,000? Shiba Inu (SHIB): Massive Fakeout Ends $0.00002 Rally, Ethereum’s (ETH) Dangerous Pattern at $4,800

by admin September 15, 2025

The market keeps pursuing local highs on Sept. 15, just as we have covered in our previous crypto market prediction, but unfortunately bears are still fighting and not letting Bitcoin break toward $120,000, which is causing a struggle for smaller markets like Shiba Inu. Ethereum, on the other side, is not seeing enough institutional inflows to make it further.

Bitcoin not breaking it

Despite numerous unsuccessful attempts to break higher, Bitcoin continues to encounter strong resistance around $115,000. Because the market is unable to break through this critical level, there are worries that momentum may be waning and that Bitcoin may be at risk of a more severe retracement that would ultimately put the psychological $100,000 support to the test.

BTC/USDT Chart by TradingView

The absence of clear buying pressure suggests that institutions, which are typically the catalysts for significant breakouts, are not yet bringing in sizable inflows into the market, even though the price has held comparatively well above $110,000 in recent sessions. Although the spot ETF data indicates a positive dynamic with steady but modest inflows, the amount of capital is far from sufficient to drive Bitcoin into a long-term run toward $120,000 and beyond. Price action runs the risk of stagnation in the absence of greater commitments from funds and institutions.

There are indications of fatigue in the technical picture as well. Even though the 50-day moving average continues to support Bitcoin, and it is still on the rise, generally trading volume has decreased in comparison to earlier rallies, indicating that buyers are hesitant at these levels. Bitcoin is not overbought, but it also lacks the momentum usually needed for a breakout, as indicated by the Relative Strength Index (RSI), which stays neutral.

If Bitcoin keeps losing ground at $115,000, a pullback is more likely. If sellers regain control, it would make sense to target a decline toward $112,000 and $106,000. However, current data indicates that there is little demand at the top end, even though a strong institutional bid or macro-driven catalyst could still turn the tide and push Bitcoin toward $120,000.

For the time being, Bitcoin investors should brace themselves for possible volatility. Until it is broken with conviction, the risk of losing the $100,000 mark is still very much in play. The $115,000 ceiling has turned into a defining battleground.

Shiba Inu can’t hold it

The price action of Shiba Inu swiftly reversed after failing to establish a hold above the crucial resistance of $0.000015, resulting in what many investors now refer to as a fakeout breakout. The asset gave the appearance of a persistent bullish trend at first by displaying strong momentum and rising out of a consolidation triangle with high volume.

SHIB experienced a sharp rejection and reversal, though, as selling pressure increased as soon as it touched resistance levels. Given the strong rally before the move, this reversal was surprising. When buyers tried to push the price higher, sellers overloaded the order books around $0.000015, causing a sharp pullback, according to the candlestick structure’s notable upward wick.

Ethereum forms key pattern

Ethereum is forming what looks to be a cup pattern on the daily chart as it tests the $4,800 resistance level once more. The larger context presents a more cautious picture, even though such formations frequently imply a possible bullish continuation.

Slow and hesitant, ETH has been unable to gather the momentum necessary for a clear breakout during the attempted recovery toward $5,000. Ethereum has fluctuated between $4,200 and $4,800 for weeks, displaying strength but lacking the institutional inflows conviction to support the next significant leg higher.

The absence of capital flows driven by ETFs is a major worry. While ETF narratives and institutional adoption continue to help Bitcoin, Ethereum has not seen nearly as much activity. ETH’s capacity to maintain its upward momentum is in doubt if new liquidity does not enter the market.

Blockchain’s Biggest Beneficiaries Sit at Both Ends of the Financial Spectrum

by admin September 7, 2025

Capital markets are in flux. As evolving monetary policy casts a spotlight on a fragmented global economy, the stability of infrastructure for borderless transactions with digital assets stands out as a superior alternative to the traditional system.

Blockchain is a viable solution to many of today’s financial challenges. Uniquely, its clearest beneficiaries are two distinctly different groups: financial institutions and the 1.4 billion people who are unbanked. The former gains next-generation speed and scalability while the latter benefits from newfound accessibility and equity.

Our charge as builders of this industry, if we want to actualize blockchain’s full potential, is to account for the needs of both.

While the financially marginalized have long sought solutions in bleeding-edge tech, the legacy world is just beginning to get the appeal. “We have to be thinking about how we leverage [blockchain] in our environment,” said Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson recently, discussing how costs in asset management are up 80% in the last decade, while revenues are down 15%.

Franklin Templeton’s breakthrough illustrates this institutional awakening. Their first-ever tokenized money market fund reduces transaction costs from $1 to less than a penny – for an institution managing $1.7 trillion, the efficiency gains are transformative. But this institutional adoption does more than cut costs; it validates the infrastructure that can serve both boardrooms and the billions still excluded from traditional finance.

The same blockchain rails enabling Franklin Templeton’s efficiency gains can deliver $50 remittances from Dubai to the Philippines in seconds rather than several business days. The technology removes friction, whether you’re settling $100 million in tokenized assets or sending $100 to family abroad.

Major institutions like BlackRock, Fidelity and JPMorgan are proving blockchain’s institutional viability at unprecedented scale. Aid organizations, such as the United Nations Refugee Agency, are simultaneously demonstrating its humanitarian potential, distributing assistance directly to those in need without traditional intermediaries. These parallel developments reflect blockchain’s unique capacity to serve both efficiency and equity.

The institutional momentum creates crucial infrastructure benefits for everyone. When major financial players invest in blockchain networks, they strengthen the rails that underbanked populations can also access. When regulatory frameworks emerge to support institutional adoption, they create legal clarity that benefits all users.

Consider the numbers that drive both institutional interest and human need. Global transaction banking generates nearly $1.4 trillion in annual revenue, yet operational inefficiencies cost an estimated 8-10% of that revenue. For institutions, blockchain technology offers clear solutions to these challenges.

For the unbanked, the stakes are different but equally compelling. Remittances – which exceeded $900 billion globally in 2024 – carry average fees of 6.62% worldwide, with some corridors reaching 10% or more. Working families lose billions annually to these costs. When a domestic worker sends $500 home, losing $50 to fees represents not inefficiency but genuine hardship.

The convergence becomes clear: the same technology solving institutional inefficiencies can address human exclusion from the financial system. Blockchain networks processing transactions for fractions of a penny with 3-5 second settlement times serve both institutional treasuries and individual remittances equally well.

Real-world stress tests prove blockchain’s dual utility. In Argentina, where inflation reached 236.7% by late 2024, both institutions and individuals are embracing digital assets out of necessity. Data shows 61.8% of Argentina’s crypto transactions now involve stablecoins — not as speculation, but as economic survival tools preserving purchasing power against peso devaluation.

This crisis-driven adoption reveals blockchain’s fundamental value proposition: removing dependence on fragile intermediaries and national monetary systems. Whether you’re a fund manager hedging institutional exposure or a family protecting savings, the infrastructure provides the same essential service: stable, borderless value transfer.

The infrastructure exists. Modern blockchain networks have processed tens of billions of operations, serving millions of accounts worldwide. The technology handles institutional scale while remaining accessible to individual users.

But actualizing blockchain’s full potential requires intentional design for both audiences. This means building interfaces sophisticated enough for institutional treasury management yet simple enough for first-time users. It means creating compliance frameworks that satisfy regulatory requirements while preserving accessibility for underserved populations.

Success requires partnerships spanning both worlds – working with established financial institutions to build robust infrastructure while partnering with mobile money operators, community organizations, and fintech companies serving underbanked populations. The goal isn’t choosing between efficiency and equity, but achieving both simultaneously.

Blockchain’s unique promise lies precisely in its ability to serve these seemingly different constituencies with the same fundamental infrastructure. The networks enabling pension funds to tokenize assets can help farmers access credit. The rails facilitating institutional settlement can deliver humanitarian aid directly to refugees.

As builders, our responsibility extends beyond technological capability to purposeful implementation. We must ensure that institutional adoption strengthens rather than supplants financial inclusion efforts. We must design systems that leverage institutional resources to extend access rather than create new barriers.

The infrastructure for borderless, frictionless value transfer is ready. The regulatory frameworks are evolving. The institutional adoption is accelerating. Our success will be measured not just by efficiency gains in existing systems, but by how many people we bring into economic participation for the first time.

The choice we make today determines whether blockchain becomes another tool serving the already-served or the bridge finally connecting everyone to the global economy. Both institutions and the unbanked are counting on us to get this right.

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September 7, 2025 0 comments