Ben Weiss / Fortune:
Valinor, which aims to use smart contracts to replace manual lending processes in the private credit industry, raised a $25M seed led by Castle Island Ventures  —  Many corners of finance—stock exchanges, banks, and payments firms—are embracing digital assets, but the private credit industry …

Reuters:
Sources: E*Trade is in talks to lead SpaceX IPO share sale to retail investors; Robinhood and SoFi have pitched for roles but SpaceX is mulling cutting them out  —  Morgan Stanley's E*Trade is in talks with SpaceX to take the lead in selling the rocket maker's shares to everyday U.S. investors …

Boaz Barak / Windows On Theory:
State of AI safety: as capabilities grow and models can monitor other models, issues like adversarial robustness persist and society is still not ready for AI  —  Here is a quick overview of my intuitions on where we are with AI safety in early 2026:  — So far, we continue to see exponential improvements in capabilities.

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Match Group agrees to settle an FTC lawsuit claiming it illegally shared user data from the OkCupid app with facial recognition tech company Clarifai in 2014  —  Match Group (MTCH.O) agreed to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawsuit claiming it gave an outside company unauthorized access …

Sujeet Indap / Financial Times:
A Delaware judge reassigns Elon Musk cases over “disproportionate media attention” after allegations she “liked” a LinkedIn post celebrating a Musk legal defeat  —  Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick denies bias but cites media glare as risk to justice