Tokens As The New Currency?

Tokens As The New Currency?

Author: Morning Brew August 20, 2026 Duration: 20:56
Stripe made the OpenRouter deal official at $7.5B. Unitree's Shanghai debut popped 460% past a $50B market cap, YouTube dangled millions to keep creators off Netflix, Slack launched Slack Code, and Binance turned AI agents loose on trading. Links Stripe agrees to acquire NYC-based OpenRouter; a source says Stripe is paying $7.5B, with $1.5B going to the startup's founders and $6B to its investors (The New York Times) Collison frames tokens as the central currency for companies building with AI, capping two years of Stripe buying the plumbing under AI spending, from Metronome to Bridge (SiliconANGLE) Hangzhou-based humanoid robot maker Unitree's stock surges 460% in its Shanghai trading debut, giving it a $50B+ market cap, after it raised ~$904M in its IPO (Bloomberg) Unitree says its new "Superman" humanoid can hit 12.66 meters per second, faster than Usain Bolt's top speed, and leap two meters, ahead of the World Humanoid Robot Games (Futurism) The 30-second video of Unitree's "Superman" robot jumping and sprinting down a track (Unitree Robotics on X) Sources: YouTube is offering top creators millions to post videos exclusively on YouTube for a period and will penalize those that post to Netflix concurrently (Bloomberg) Slack launches Slack Code, adding dedicated, project-specific channels that let teams collaborate with AI coding agents "like teammates" across all Slack plans (The Verge) Binance launches Agent OS, a platform that lets AI agents analyze markets and execute trades on users' behalf; users set limits on AI agents' access and trades (TechCrunch) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. Download Cash App Today: ⁠https://cash.app/⁠ #CashAppPartner. Terms apply. Bitcoin services by Block, Inc. See the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast

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Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Tech Brew Ride Home
Podcast Episodes
Crypto Takes An "L" In The Senate [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:29
The Senate failed to advance the crypto industry's Clarity Act, Meta prepared to launch camera-free Luna smart glasses this fall, OpenAI and Anthropic staff said they were blindsided by their CEOs' AI-slowdown pledges, a…
Trump Says: No Slowdown! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:47
President Trump dismissed AI-safety warnings as a "hoax" on a live call with Jensen Huang, a Google DeepMind researcher resigned warning AI "could kill us all," cybersecurity stocks led the S&P 500, and Apple rolled out…
The Great AI Slowdown? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:41
Dario Amodei called for pacing frontier AI development, endorsed by Sam Altman and Elon Musk, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube launched a streaming lobbying alliance, Anthropic told investors it's profitable again, and exper…
It's A Doozy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:07
Anthropic detailed how it disrupted AI misuse for cyberattacks, surveillance, and bioweapons research, OpenAI paused new ChatGPT Pro signups amid Astra demand, AI assistant Instinct sought $1B in new funding, and IDScan…
The Man Who Quit The AI Industry [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:37
Researcher Jacob Coxon said he quit Anthropic over fears the AI race is uncontrollable, Automattic put Matt Mullenweg on leave after a board dispute, Apple unveiled a health app with "Health Age" scoring, and Apple Watch…
The iPhone Duo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:16
Apple unveiled its first foldable, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max with a new A20 Pro chip, AirPods 5 with 50% more noise cancellation, and Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4. Apple announce…
Did AI Just Solve Math? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:41
Bloomberg detailed Apple's decade-long path to a $2,000+ foldable iPhone, Gamers Nexus alleged LG smart TVs eavesdropped via built-in microphones and tracked nearby devices, and a mathematician accused OpenAI of secretly…
Tim Cook Ain't Goin Anywhere [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:14
Tim Cook's new pay package signaled he'd stay deeply involved at Apple, Travis Kalanick's Atoms drew a $100M Uber investment for robotaxi tech, OpenAI's chief scientist called for industry-wide AI slowdowns, and AI wiped…
Is Astra AGI? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:54
OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra, calling it a leap toward AGI, while reports surfaced that rogue OpenAI agents hijacked a German wiki, Microsoft unveiled Project Zenith for local AI development, and Tesla's newly launched Cy…
Nvidia Buys Hugging Face For A Rabbit? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 21:32
Nvidia agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9B, betting on its $399 Microduck robot as a physical-AI data engine, Meta rolled out Muse Spark 1.3 to rival Fable 5.1 and GPT-5.6 Sol, and Microsoft restructured its reporting…