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Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Scoops Up $37M in Bullish and Robinhood: A Bold Bet on Crypto’s Future?

by admin August 21, 2025

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Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has continued its aggressive push into crypto-related equities, scooping up $21.2 million in Bullish shares and $16.2 million in Robinhood stock on August 19, 2025.

The purchases, made through the firm’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), highlight Ark’s conviction in digital asset infrastructure even as broader crypto stocks tumbled.

According to Ark’s latest filing, the fund acquired 356,346 shares of Bullish and 150,908 shares of Robinhood.

This marks the third consecutive trading day Ark boosted its Robinhood position, following earlier buys of $14 million on Monday and $9 million last Friday. The moves expand Ark’s exposure to platforms shaping the future of trading and digital finance.

TOTAL saw significant losses on the daily chart. Source: TOTAL on Tradingview

Bullish and Robinhood Slide Amid Market Sell-Off

Despite Ark’s heavy buying, both stocks ended sharply lower on the day. Bullish dropped 6.09% to $59.51, slipping an additional 3.24% in after-hours trading, while Robinhood fell 6.54% to $107.50 and lost another 1.23% post-market.

The sell-off wasn’t isolated. Other crypto-linked equities also suffered, with Coinbase down 5.82%, Galaxy Digital plunging 10.06%, Strategy sliding 7.43%, and Circle off 4.49%.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.46% as investors pulled back ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium, where policy signals are expected to shape market sentiment.

A Strategic Bet on Crypto’s Long-Term Growth

Ark’s latest move builds on a $172 million allocation to Bullish last week, when the Cayman Islands-based exchange made its highly anticipated debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

With Ark now holding more than 1.1 million Bullish shares valued at roughly $73.85 million, the firm is betting big on the platform’s role in the evolution of crypto markets.

Similarly, Robinhood has become one of Ark’s most consistent crypto-adjacent holdings. The recent spree increases its share of ARKK’s portfolio to over 4%, highlighting Ark’s belief in the platform’s long-term potential despite short-term volatility.

Wood’s investment strategy mirrors confidence in crypto’s ongoing institutional adoption, as firms like Gemini, OKX, and Kraken explore IPOs. Ark also maintains significant positions in Circle and Coinbase, further engraving its role as one of Wall Street’s most vocal champions of digital assets.

As volatility shakes out weaker hands, Ark’s contrarian bets may position it to capitalize if crypto markets rebound, raising the question: is this a bold gamble, or a long game in the market?

Cover image from ChatGPT, TotalCrypto chart from Tradingview

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August 21, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Faraday Future pivots to crypto and AI as car sales falter

by admin August 18, 2025

Amid struggles in its EV business, cash-starved Faraday Future is pivoting to crypto and AI.

Summary

Faraday Future is pivoting to crypto and embodied AI
The firm hopes its crypto treasury will attract capital and help it raise cash for its business
So far, Faraday Future has produced only 16 of its FF 91s vehicles

The struggling EV startup Faraday Future is pivoting to crypto and AI. On Sunday, August 17, EV startup Faraday Future announced the launch of a treasury product, as well as a new focus on embodied AI.

Faraday Future is launching the C10 Treasury product, a weighted basket of the top 10 crypto assets, excluding stablecoins. The fund will allocate 80% of the funds according to the index and actively manage the other 20% for greater returns.

The fund is aiming for $500 million to $1 billion in initial crypto asset purchases, with an initial purchase of $30 million. Moreover, the company hopes to earn an estimated 3% to 5% in staking yields, which it will use to fund stock buybacks and innovation in its core business.

Faraday Future’s business struggles

Faraday Future hopes to leverage crypto and AI to reinvigorate interest in its business. According to the firm, the goal is to combine the short-cycle crypto business with the long-cycle embodied AI for electric vehicles.

“The next decade could be a super long bull cycle for the crypto market,” said Ian Calderon, FF Co-Creation Officer. “FF is building a dual-engine circular growth system — combining the long-cycle, high-value EAI EV ecosystem with the short-cycle, high-velocity Crypto ecosystem. These two flywheels will empower each other, redefining what’s possible in mobility and financial innovation.”

Once dubbed a potential Tesla competitor, Faraday Future’s business has been struggling. By January 2025, the company had only produced 16 of its flagship FF 91 vehicles. Most were given to employees and advocates.

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Faraday Future Unveils $10B Crypto-AI Strategy for EV Growth

by admin August 18, 2025

California-based electric vehicle (EV) startup Faraday Future officially launched a $10 billion strategy that brings together its Embodied AI (EAI) platform and the crypto economy. It announced the launch of the “EAI + Crypto” Dual-Flywheel & Dual-Bridge Ecosystem Strategy on August 17 at an event in Pebble Beach.

Faraday Future is connecting its smart EV operations with a Web3-powered financial system to build a two-way, self-sustaining loop that leverages the long-term value of AI-driven EVs and the high-velocity potential of digital assets.

A Real-Time Crypto Index and A Treasury to Back It

In a press release, the firm revealed its plan to launch a “Crypto 10” treasury product, by investing up between $500 million and $1 billion in digital assets, and explore tokenized vehicle sales. It’s starting with an initial $30 million crypto investment, but has a vision to scale up to $10 billion.

“The next decade could be a super long bull cycle for the crypto market,” said Ian Calderon, Faraday’s Co-Creation Officer and founding board member of the California Blockchain Working Group.

Moreover, the company is also launching a C10 Index, a market-cap-weighted crypto basket tracking the top 10 non-stablecoin digital assets, intending to develop a full-fledged exchange-traded fund (ETF). The company also has plans to launch the “EAI Vehicle Chain,” a blockchain-based platform for tokenized vehicle sales and crypto-backed deposits.

According to the company, the strategy could generate staking yields and other crypto-native returns to help fund vehicle development, share buybacks, and general corporate growth. It’s a financial experiment as much as a technological one.

California State Treasurer Fiona Ma also offered public support, calling the plan a bold and forward-thinking move that could create high-quality jobs, attract global capital, and advance sustainable economic development.

Also Read: Metaplanet Buys 775 Bitcoin, Total Holdings Reach 18,888 BTC

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August 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

“Multiple” future Hardspace projects are coming, as Hardspace: Shipbreaker devs Blackbird Interactive take full ownership

by admin August 17, 2025

Floating amid the scrap belts of space, some news. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is now owned by developers Blackbird Interactive, with the studio having bought control of the ship-stripping sim from publishers Saber Interactive. They’re not having a rest after cracking open that bubbly either, writing that “multiple Hardspace projects” are in development.

Blackbird revealed all of this via a Steam post, writing that they’ve “reached an agreement with Focus Entertainment, our publishing partner, to reacquire full ownership of the Hardspace: Shipbreaker intellectual property”. So, as you might expect, doing plenty of Hardspacey things is going to be a big part of the studio’s plans going forwards.

To that end, they revealed here that “multiple Hardspace projects are already in development”. “We’re not ready to share any specifics yet, but rest assured we have paid close attention to your feedback and are laser-focused on ensuring this next generation of Hardspace expands on the original game in all the right ways,” Blackbird added.

In the run up to releasing these new games, the studio aim to “grow the Hardspace community”, urging folks to join the series’ Discord server, where breaking updates will be launched into your orbit whenever they’re ready. You can also pre-register for the “LYNX Pioneer Program” via Blackbird’s website, if you fancy the chance to take part in early playtests and offer feedback on future Hardspace games. There’s some other community stuff like contests and the chance to generally chat with devs included in that too.

Also, Hardspace: Shipbreaker itself will be getting a “small update” that’ll mainly take care of housekeeping details to indicate the change in ownership, like revamping the privacy policies and splash screens.

Our Liam wrote the following about the game in his review:

What a thrill, to exist on the sidelines. To look longingly out towards the stars and wonder what’s going on beyond your little corner of this expansive universe. To understand a society purely through its waste products. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a truly marvellous thing to spend time within. I quite like being a background character, it turns out. Being the hero is overrated. If Shipbreaker has taught me anything it’s that the satisfaction of a hard day’s work beats saving the universe every single time.

There are also thoughts on it from Alice O and Alice B, if you’re keen to fill your Alice quota.

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August 17, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

You can have a “direct impact” on Crusader Kings 3’s future, and get a few hints to where the grand strategy is heading next

by admin June 22, 2025

“Your kingdom, your call” announced the Crusader Kings 3 trumpets earlier this week when they put out a new player survey, which is a terrifyingly verbose achievement for brass instruments, but useful for anyone who wants to give Paradox their opinions on where the grand strategy game should head next, as well as get a few hints about the futures it might already be making plans for.

While I do imagine Paradox will probably take some of the information gathered on board if the survey shows any serious trends in a certain direction, I mainly found this interesting enough to cover due to the sort of questions being asked. I’m always keen to learn how the folk making decisions actually view their own games, or at least which of the many niblets of received wisdom I’ve magpied from various GDC videos over the years they actually consider important.

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Case in point, the first question is “what player archetype fits you best”, in which they list all the fun things you might do in CK3 and link this to someone who prefers either roleplaying or “overcoming systemic challenges”. Example survey response below:

I enjoy roleplaying first, and systemic challenges second (creating an empire through well-planned marriages, surviving against overwhelming military odds, grooming the perfect heir, etc.)

Which is interesting to me in the sense that it suggests design thinking along the lines of “here’s a roleplaying tool with a secondary systemic benefit”, in contrast to:

I enjoy systemic challenges, and roleplaying second (creating the strongest regiments in the world, having more income than all my neighbors, etc.)

Which, again, I find this fun to think about in terms of design motivation – here’s an important primary system like military or economy a player can finagle to their liking, with the added roleplaying wrinkle that someone might also like to play “guy who has all the gold”. And yes, I do enjoy roleplaying that particular guy, in between reading Playboy for the articles. It’s not hoarding, I’m engaging in emergent fiction. About a coin-brained lordling. Who has work in two hours.

As for more tangible clues of where the game might be heading next, there’s some detailed questions about the theme of “trade and merchants”, where you can answer what aspects of the theme are most appealing to you personally, with answers like “naval trade”, “merchant republics”, and “banking”. Ditto the themes “feudalism & crusades”, “empires & laws”, “rib n’ saucy”, and “religion (christianity)”.

Brendy found a lot to love in the landless roaming and emergent storytelling of the Roads To Power expansion, and also left more dead bodies behind than he’d originally intended, or so he claims anyway.

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June 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Loving Hagga Basin in Dune Awakening? Developer has plans (within plans) to bring more maps like that in future updates

by admin June 20, 2025

Future updates for Dune: Awakening will seemingly include “Hagga-Basin-like maps”.

Revealed by community manager Iggy in the Dune Awakening Discord server, he wrote: “I think Joel kinda leaked in the past that we plan to add more Hagga-Basin-like maps in the future as part of new content”.

Iggy refers to pre-launch developer vlogs in which Dune: Awakening spoke about the roadmap for future updates. Creative director Joel Bylos stated updates for the game would be free, with only optional cosmetics, battle passes, and especially large expansions being sold.

Check out our video on the weird history of Dune games!Watch on YouTube

Iggy later echoed this point, stating: “Content will come as part of free updates, as far as I am aware. If it ever comes as part of a paid package, I imagine it would be because it’s something big.” Iggy continues “But for now I think we have said we plan to release content for free, and then optional stuff via optional DLCs so we can actually afford rent, lights, and pineapple on pizza.”

Dune Awakening has proven exceptionally popular since its launch on Steam, breaking 150,000 concurrent players and popping off among the higher reaches of the Top Sellers list alongside Stellar Blade. A recent patch for the game provided several quality of life fixes, and ended the practice of crushing players with orniphopters in PvP.

Eurogamer’s recent review of Dune Awakening, which scored it four stars, offered praise to the progression through Hagga Basin. It features the following: “[…] the process of gathering material around the starter area of Hagga Basin, refining your haul at your handcrafted base, and manufacturing new gear is made endlessly compelling with an unwavering faithfulness to the source material.”

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June 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Xbox’s AMD partnership sheds light on the future of the division’s ecosystem

by admin June 17, 2025

Microsoft has no plans to get out of the console business anytime soon. The company has been reiterating for a while that it’s going to make at least one more generation of Xbox consoles. It’s now been confirmed that AMD will power the upcoming hardware, as it did with the Xbox Series X/S.

Xbox president Sarah Bond made the announcement in a short video. Under the multi-year partnership, Xbox and AMD are “advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation; to unlock a deeper level of visual quality; and immersive gameplay and player experiences enhanced with the power of AI, all while maintaining compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games,” Bond said.

A leaked presentation from May 2022 (which was part of the massive Xbox leak the following year) indicated that Microsoft had yet to make a decision about the processor and GPU for the next Xbox console(s), suggesting in one slide that it planned to strike an agreement with AMD to supply those and in another that it yet had to make an “Arm64 decision.” As we now know, the company is doubling down with AMD.

Microsoft

On the surface, the AMD agreement is the main news coming out of Bond’s announcement. But, if you read between the lines, there are lots of other interesting details to tease out from what she said in the short video.

For one thing, the AI aspect of Bond’s carefully crafted statement lines up with details in the leak (and other developments) about Microsoft embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning in future Xbox games, including for things like AI agents. So the company is likely to keep going down that path.

Bond said that Microsoft and AMD will “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices including our next-generation Xbox consoles, in your living room and in your hands,” implying that the company is planning more handhelds beyond the Xbox-branded ROG devices that are coming later this year. Those are also powered by AMD.

In addition, Bond said the next-gen of Xbox devices will maintain “compatibility with your existing library of Xbox games.” Xbox has made a commitment to backward compatibility, but that’s still welcome to hear.

Those are fairly interesting nuggets, no doubt, but there were two other things Bond said that I think are starting to shed more light on the future of the Xbox ecosystem. First, she said that her team is “building you a gaming platform that’s always with you, so you can play the games you want across devices anywhere you want, delivering you an Xbox experience not locked to a single store or tied to one device.”

That “single store” phrasing is a chin stroker, especially in light of the new user interface Xbox is making for the ROG handhelds. The Windows-powered devices won’t only allow users to play games from the Xbox PC app, Xbox consoles via remote play and the cloud. They’ll integrate games from other PC storefronts, such as Battle.net (which is run by Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard), Steam, GOG and more. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass users have long had access to EA Play games as part of their subscriptions. Ubisoft+ is on Xbox consoles too.

Microsoft

Perhaps this concept of not being “locked to a single store” will start to work in other ways. Valve said a few years ago that it would be happy to integrate Game Pass into Steam, for instance. Likewise, Microsoft has said it would welcome Steam and the Epic Games Store app onto its PC app store (though Valve and Epic probably wouldn’t want to give Microsoft a cut of game sales). Maybe we might finally see those come to fruition in the next few years.

But how might those integrations work on an Xbox console? Bond hinted at that too. She said Xbox is “working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one platform for gaming.”

Sure, that could be a reference to PC gaming. But Bond didn’t explicitly state that, which has me wondering if the next Xbox console might be more of a Windows PC that sits under your TV. That would align with comments made a few months back by Jez Corden of Windows Central, who said the next Xbox is “a PC, in essence, but with a TV-friendly shell.”

As with the likes of the Steam Deck and other handheld PCs, this would potentially give game developers a specific set of specifications to work with (though ensuring their games are optimized for as many desktop and laptop configurations as possible will still be a complex task). Perhaps the user interface Xbox is debuting on the Ally X devices is a sign of things to come on larger displays.

Moreover, the Xbox and Windows teams are stripping out unnecessary aspects of the operating system in the Xbox Ally handhelds to make them run more efficiently. What’s to stop them from doing the same in the next Xbox console? That could enable Xbox to offer a more unified ecosystem across all platforms, while streamlining things for developers who want to make games for both PC and Xbox. Don’t forget that Microsoft has been making a real effort to make Windows run more smoothly on ARM-based processors as part of its Copilot+ PC push.

We might have to wait two or three more years to get a fuller sense of Microsoft’s vision for the future of Xbox consoles. But it certainly has the opportunity to knit its platforms more closely together and make playing Xbox (and PC) games across devices a more seamless experience.

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June 17, 2025 0 comments

Esports

J.J. Spaun’s future, favorites at The Open and how Ryder Cup are teams shaping up

by admin June 17, 2025

Mark Schlabach
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Mark Schlabach
ESPN Senior Writer
- Senior college football writer
- Author of seven books on college football
- Graduate of the University of Georgia
Paolo Uggetti

Jun 17, 2025, 08:11 AM ET

OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open, the third major championship of the season, produced the most unlikely champion in J.J. Spaun, who won in thrilling fashion with back-to-back birdies on the final two holes at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday.

Spaun was the only golfer to finish under par at 1-under 279, and he was the lone survivor on a day when the rain and wind made Oakmont even more treacherous.

The final major championship of the season, the Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland on July 17-20, is a month away.

Who will be the favorites in The Open? Will Spaun’s unlikely victory propel him to more wins? What about the Ryder Cup?

What do you expect from J.J. Spaun the rest of the season?

J.J. Spaun talks to the media after winning the 2025 U.S. Open. Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Mark Schlabach: Last season, Spaun missed the cut in 10 of his first 15 starts on the PGA Tour and was ranked 169th in the world. He was worried he might lose his tour card.

“Last year in June I was looking like I was going to lose my job, and that was when I had that moment where, ‘If this is how I go out, I might as well go down swinging,” Spaun said.

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Spaun turned things around late in the summer, and he’s been playing some of the best golf of his career this year. He tied for second at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches in February and lost to Rory McIlroy in a Monday playoff at the Players Championship. He’d been close to adding a second career victory on tour, and he finally got it done at one of the most difficult golf courses in the world.

“I think it’s just perseverance,” Spaun said. “I’ve always kind of battled through whatever it may be to kind of get to where I needed to be and get to what I wanted. I’ve done this before. I’ve had slumps kind of at every level. I’ve always kind of, I went back and said, ‘You’ve done this before. You’ve been down before. You got out of it.’ There’s kind of like a little pattern, so hopefully I don’t do that pattern again.”

Spaun’s competitors weren’t all that surprised that he won the U.S. Open, which is saying something. Although Spaun might not be that familiar of a name to people who don’t follow golf closely, he is considered one of the best ball-strikers in the world. His putter got hot over four days at Oakmont, which is one of the biggest reasons he won.

Paolo Uggetti: While at first glance it may seem like Spaun was a fluke U.S. Open winner, it’s a testament to his evolution as a player that he was able to outlast every person in the field this week.

As his new coach Josh Gregory detailed following the final round, Spaun could have been content just being a middling PGA Tour player — he had $17 million in career earnings prior to this week, after all — but instead he wanted, Gregory said, to be elite.

“It’d be very easy to settle and say what I’m doing works,” Gregory said. “To his credit, he said ‘I need to be better.'”

For Spaun, who has always been an elite ball-striker, that meant working on his putting and his chipping, which Gregory said he has helped with. This week was proof of the work he’s put in, and it will set him up well for the rest of the year. Now, whenever there is a course that prioritizes iron play, Spaun looks like he’ll also be able to rely on converting once he finds the green.

While contending at the final major of the year may be far-fetched given Spaun has never played in the Open, I fully expect Spaun to be in the mix at several PGA Tour events, including the upcoming Tour Championship.

Thoughts on the Ryder Cup after the year’s first three majors?

Schlabach: U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley was greeted by cheers of “USA! USA!” when he reached the 18th green at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday, and it’s a battle cry he’s going to hear often over the next few months.

Spaun all but secured his Ryder Cup spot by winning the U.S. Open. He’s third in points, trailing only world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Xander Schauffele. Bryson DeChambeau is fourth, followed by Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. They’re probably locks to make the team.

Besides Spaun winning, Russell Henley and Ben Griffin were probably the biggest moves at Oakmont. They tied for 10th at 5 over, and they’re now seventh and eighth in Ryder Cup points, respectively.

The top six players in the points standings after the BMW Championship on Aug. 17 will automatically make the team; Bradley will also make six captain’s choices.

Uggetti: I’m certain captain Luke Donald enjoyed seeing Viktor Hovland once again get close to securing his first major title as well as Tyrrell Hatton and even Jon Rahm, who nearly backdoored himself into contention, performing well. They all finished inside the top 10 and will all certainly be at Bethpage even if Rahm and Hovland are currently outside the top-6 in the European rankings at the moment.

Someone who is inside the top-6 is Robert MacIntyre, whose Sunday run to second place helped him score his best-ever finish in a major and bump his name all the way up to fourth in Ryder Cup standings.

MacIntyre was considered the last man two years ago in Rome, but he more than held his own going 2-0-1. On Tour this season, MacIntyre has four top-10 finishes, and that kind of result at a course like Oakmont will certainly strengthen his case and put him in a great position to return to the team in September.

Too-early thoughts on The Open Championship?

Scottie Scheffler didn’t play great the U.S. Open, but still managed to finish T-7. David Cannon/Getty Images

Schlabach: Scheffler battled his swing and his putter for 72 holes at Oakmont, but he managed to tie for seventh at 4 over for another top-10 finish at a major. Even at less than his best, Scheffler is still better than most, and I think the list of golfers who can contend at Royal Portrush starts with the three-time major winner.

“My main takeaway is I battled as hard as I did this week,” Scheffler said. “I was really proud mentally of how I was over the course of four days. I did a lot of things out there that could really kind of break a week, and I never really got that one good break that kind of propels you. I’d hit it this far off, and seemingly every time I did, I was punished pretty severely for it.”

Shane Lowry took home the Claret Jug the last time The Open was played in Northern Ireland in 2019, and I think he’ll be among the favorites again. Lowry struggled mightily in his second straight major and missed the cut after posting 79-78.

Rory McIlroy will be looking for redemption after missing the cut at Royal Portrush five years ago. He still battled his driver a bit at Oakmont but went home with some momentum after posting a 3-under 67 on Sunday. I think he’ll get his mind and swing in the right place before arriving in Northern Ireland.

“Look, if I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don’t know what can motivate me,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, as I said, I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks.

“But as I said, getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.”

Uggetti: How about the defending champion making another run at it? With everyone’s eyes on top of the leaderboard Sunday, Xander Schauffele quietly put together an under-par round to finish inside the top 12 at Oakmont.

Slowly but surely, Schauffele’s game has been rounding back into major championship form after he missed some time early in the season with a rib injury. In his last seven starts, Schauffele has five top-15 finishes.

“I’ve never been hurt before. So I think it was all kind of new,” Schauffele said this week. “I felt like I was playing at a pretty high level. Then I got hurt. My expectations of what I knew I could do to where I was were very different, and accepting that was tough. I think that was sort of the biggest wake-up call for me coming back.”

It’s fair to say Schauffele is nearly all the way back and just in time for the second major championship he won last season. The 31-year-old secured the Claret Jug last year at Troon with a marvelous Sunday performance that proved he could excel, not just on PGA Tour setups, but also on links courses with links conditions. Portrush will bring those two things to the stage in a month, and Schauffele will have the benefit of knowing he has won in that kind of environment before.

Besides Spaun, who were the biggest winners at Oakmont?

Schlabach: Viktor Hovland’s swing has been a mess — or at least he believed so — for much of the season, but he managed to get in the mix and finished third at 2 over and in third place. Hovland’s inner battle for perfection might preclude him from joining Scheffler, Schauffele and others as the truly best golfers in the world, but there’s little debate that he’s one of the most talented. Everything is there for him to win a couple of majors, at least.

“I keep progressing in the right direction, and to have a chance to win a major championship without my best stuff and not feeling very comfortable, it’s super cool,” Hovland said. “So I’m going to take a lot of positives with me this week.”

Although Adam Scott would have liked a better finish than Sunday’s 9-over 79, he was right there in the mix until conditions got bad on the second nine. I had believed Scott’s chances of contending in majors were over since he is 44 years old. But this was the first time he’s done it in quite a while, and he still might have something left in the tank to do it again.

Uggetti: I’ll go back to MacIntyre here. The man from Oban looked comfortable in the chaotic conditions Sunday and played the back nine at Oakmont in a bogey-free 2-under to grab the clubhouse lead that nearly got him in a playoff with Spaun.

“I’m just a guy who believes,” MacIntyre said. “Today was a day that I said to myself, ‘Why not? Why not it be me today?'”

All week, the Scotsman putted lights out, ranking fourth in strokes gained: putting and, despite a round of 74 on Friday, kept himself in the tournament that he predicted would have an even par winner.

MacIntyre was almost right.

Once he was finished with his round and he could only watch as Spaun drained the 64-foot birdie to secure a 1-under finishing score and the victory, cameras caught MacIntyre in the scoring room giving Spaun a hearty clap and an earnest “Wow.” It was a human moment that garnered a lot of praise and capped off a week MacIntyre will not soon forget.

“It feels great,” MacIntyre said of being in contention. “It’s what I’ve dreamed of as a kid, sitting back home watching all the majors. Yeah, it feels unbelievable.”

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June 17, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Mario Kart World players have a compelling theory about future DLC

by admin June 15, 2025

Mario Kart World boasted many new exciting features when it was released alongside the Switch 2 on June 5, including a massive main roster totaling 50 playable characters. Of these, 24 are main characters and 26 are detailed as NPC racers, with main characters having access to a slew of quirky, cute, and badass outfits, while NPCs do not. However, not all of the main characters have an equal number of outfits available to them, which has caused a stir in the Mario Kart World community.

Two Nintendo mainstays have the lowest number of outfits in the game, with Donkey Kong and Pauline only having one (1) unlockable outfit each. Naturally, this led to the Mario Kart World community wondering why DK wouldn’t get the royal treatment like other main characters, with some players even throwing the Mushroom Kingdom babies under the kart for having more outfits than him.

“Am I wrong, or does Donkey Kong have only 1 costume to Baby Rosalina at least 4?” someone questioned on X.

“DK only has two costumes???????? This shit is unplayable I want my money back,” another person joked.

“I don’t intend to play as Donkey Kong in the new Mario Kart, but it’s kinda weird that they only gave him one unlockable costume,” another post reads. “Other characters like Pauline or Shy Guy only get one or two outfits as well, but they deserve more. I hope there will be free DLC to amend this.”

Some Mario Kart World players have even gone as far as hypothesizing that Donkey Kong and Pauline were given one outfit each because a huge expansion is planned to coincide with Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Bananza in July.

A version of this theory was located on Reddit, where users gathered clues that pointed to an inevitable DLC expansion. The information mentioned Diddy Kong’s absence from the roster (which Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki had previously addressed, stating that he “can’t say anything at this time”), the lack of focus on Donkey Kong’s main franchise games outside of the arcade game including music, and DK only having one outfit. (Other Kongs, like Funky and Dixie, who have appeared in previous Mario Kart games, are also nowhere to be seen in World.)

And while it may be easy to write off the theory as nothing more than fans already begging for more Mario Kart World content, previously leaked Donkey Kong Bananza information could support the existence of DLC.

In April, Nintendo Korea accidentally leaked an image for Donkey Kong Bananza’s box art on its website, showing the new character Odd Rock replaced by a presumably younger Pauline holding on to Kong’s necktie. A visibly younger Pauline is seen wearing a purple bracelet that matches Odd Rock’s material, which could imply that she can either summon the creature or transform into it. Speculation aside, it’s clear that Pauline will be a main character in Bananza in some capacity. We just don’t know how.

Image: Nintendo

And so far, Nintendo hasn’t shared much information on the upcoming DK adventure. The company hasn’t explicitly detailed why Donkey Kong and Pauline have only one outfit in Mario Kart World either. So, maybe fans are on to something and we’ll get Mario Kart World DLC that shows more love to these two Nintendo icons while simultaneously connecting it directly to Bananza.

If you think about it, doesn’t it make sense to have every MKW fan using and showing off DK and Pauline’s numerous new outfits in a raucous 24-player Knockout Tour race online the week Nintendo releases Bananza? I’m no business major, but it sounds like marketing 101 to me! Regardless, only time will tell.

Besides, Nintendo’s already doing something like this. Nintendo often uses Tetris 99’s Maximus Cup events to promote new releases, the most recent of which was an in-game promotional event for the launch of Xenoblades Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. Could Mario Kart World be utilized in a similar way?

Nintendo will release Donkey Kong Bananza on July 17 for the Nintendo Switch 2. Mario Kart World is available now on Switch 2.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

TikTok’s uncertain future reveals web2’s weaknesses

by admin June 14, 2025

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.

The ongoing debate around TikTok’s legal status in the United States isn’t just about national security—it’s about control. With millions of creators relying on TikTok for visibility and income, the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the platform’s future highlights the significant impact centralized platforms can have on creators’ livelihoods. In these environments, key aspects of a creator’s presence—from monetization to content accessibility—are shaped by decisions that may not always align with their interests.

TikTok’s situation highlights a broader issue. In recent years, creators on web2 platforms have faced abrupt policy shifts that have significantly impacted their earnings and reach. The YouTube ‘Adpocalypse’ of 2016-2017, for example, saw a wave of videos demonetized due to revised advertising policies. Likewise, Patreon’s fee structure changes in 2017 raised concerns among smaller creators. In 2018, platform-wide content policy updates on Tumblr disrupted longstanding communities. Even changes to Instagram’s algorithm have altered how and whether creators’ content reaches their audiences, often without transparency or recourse.

These examples reflect a recurring pattern: creators on centralized platforms often have limited control over the environments in which they operate. In such systems, policies, algorithms, and monetization options are subject to frequent change, and creators rarely have a say in the process.

While decentralized platforms have yet to become mainstream alternatives, they offer a promising path forward. Historically, challenges such as cost, performance limitations, and clunky interfaces have hindered adoption. But many of these issues are being actively addressed, especially in how data is stored and accessed.

Decentralized platforms can offer creators greater control over their content and its management. Permanent storage is ideal for preserving essential content such as posts and profiles, while temporary storage enables fast, flexible delivery of dynamic or short-lived data. By combining both models, creators can optimize their digital presence for speed, accessibility, and resilience.

The next generation of platforms must prioritize user experience, offering seamless integration with familiar tools, intuitive interfaces, and the reliability that users have come to expect. Web3 won’t displace web2 overnight, but it can offer creators an empowering alternative built on transparency, autonomy, and sustainability.

Decentralized storage solutions, such as Arweave, enable creators to maintain long-term access to their content while reducing their dependence on centralized gatekeepers. This model not only increases resilience against censorship or algorithmic suppression but also opens up new opportunities for monetization that are not tied to the priorities of large tech corporations.

To succeed, web3 solutions must go beyond ideology. They need to deliver concrete improvements, such as more efficient uploads, scalable storage, and interfaces that fit into creators’ existing workflows without forcing them to start from scratch.

As someone working directly in the digital media industry, I’ve seen how vital it is for creators to have true ownership over their work. Decentralization and free speech are not just ideals—they are practical foundations for building more sustainable and creator-centric ecosystems.

What sets decentralized platforms apart is their transparency and openness. Features like open-source software, decentralized provider networks, user-driven storage options, and transparent pricing models reduce the risk of sudden, opaque policy shifts. These design choices offer a degree of protection and predictability that centralized systems often lack.

The ongoing legal uncertainty around TikTok is just the latest chapter in an ongoing story: centralized platforms can be unstable ground for creators. It’s time for a shift. The promise of decentralization—when paired with well-designed systems for both permanent and temporary storage—offers creators a real opportunity to regain control over their content, distribution, and earnings.

The time to build that future is now. At Odysee, we’re committed to giving creators genuine ownership over their work and a platform that respects their autonomy. With the integration of permanent storage networks like Arweave, we are taking decisive steps toward a more open, resilient, and creator-first digital economy.

Julian Chandra

Julian Chandra is the founder and CEO of Odysee, a decentralized video platform launched in 2020 that has become the world’s largest blockchain-based video platform with over 7 million monthly active users. Prior to Odysee, Julian led strategic partnerships for TikTok in Australia and New Zealand during the platform’s early global expansion. With experience spanning both big tech and web3 ecosystems, he focuses on creating tools that give creators ownership, bypass traditional gatekeepers, and promote transparency. Recently, Odysee joined the Arweave ecosystem to further enhance creator autonomy and content permanence. Passionate about free expression and digital sovereignty, Julian continues advocating for technologies that safeguard open access to information in an increasingly centralized internet.

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June 14, 2025 0 comments