In 2026, the hottest new asset isn’t an AI startup or a meme coin. It’s…a word. Somewhere, a trader is staring at a livestream, whispering, “Say it, say it,” because “will the announcer say doink?” is now, functionally, a derivative. Prediction markets have turned the attention economy into the tradable economy—and once you see […]The post From Water Breaks to Handshakes: How Prediction Markets Monetize the Mundane appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The TJX Companies plans to add 146 net new stores during its fiscal year 2027, which ends Jan. 31, 2027, increasing its store count by about 3%. The retailer’s plans include 104 net new stores in the United States, 13 in Canada, 19 in Europe and 10 in Australia, TJX Chief Financial Officer John Klinger said […]The post Off-Price Retailer TJX Accelerates Brick-and-Mortar Expansion Plan appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Visa completed its acquisition of Argentina-based companies Prisma and Newpay, eight days after announcing that it planned to do so. The company said Feb. 19 that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the firms and expected the transaction to close during the current quarter, subject to closing conditions. Visa said in a Friday (Feb. 27) press release that it completed […]The post Visa Closes Prisma and Newpay Acquisition to Expand in Argentina appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Tether has frozen $3.5 billion of its stablecoins since 2023 and a total of $4.2 billion since the company’s launch, in cases where the tokens were linked to illicit activity, a company spokesperson told Reuters in a report published Friday (Feb. 27). The stablecoin issuer currently has more than $180 billion of its dollar-pegged stablecoin in circulation, according to the report. The firm is […]The post Tether Has Blocked $3.5 Billion in Crime-Linked Stablecoins Since 2023 appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The White House is telling federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence (AI) products, a sharp escalation in a dispute that started inside the Defense Department but now touches the broader government. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Friday (Feb. 27) that President Donald Trump said the federal government will no longer work […]The post White House Moves to End Federal Use of Anthropic’s Claude AI appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

AT&T boosted the efficiency of its internal Ask AT&T personal assistant by reworking the orchestration layer and shifting more of the work from large language models (LLMs) to small language models (SLMs), VentureBeat reported Thursday (Feb. 26). This change improved latency, speed and response times; cut costs by 90%; and enabled the system to […]The post AT&T Slashes AI Costs 90% by Swapping Large Models for Small Ones appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Digital assets have gotten boring enough that their growth is now buried in procedural filings, not viral social media headlines. Take, for example, the news that blue-chip global bank Morgan Stanley submitted an application to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a charter for a new institution called “Morgan […]The post Morgan Stanley’s OCC Application Is Wall Street Colonizing Crypto’s Back Office appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The biggest risk in B2B payments today isn’t failing to modernize. It’s assuming that modernization alone delivers value. The real test arrives in what many finance leaders privately call the “year-two problem,” or the period after regulatory migration deadlines pass and new systems go live. That’s when firms discover that upgraded rails do not […]The post CFOs Capture B2B Payments Digitization Value by Targeting Year-Two Gap appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

A bill introduced in the Senate Thursday (Feb. 26) would strengthen the role of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) in improving capital access and economic development in underserved communities, its supporters say. The “Access to Fair Financing for Opportunity and Resilient Development Act” (AFFORD Act) was introduced by Sens. Steve Daines […]The post Senate’s AFFORD Act Seeks New Capital for Underserved Markets appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Dots raised $8.9 million in a Series A funding round to continue expanding the capabilities of its global payouts platform for marketplaces and service-based businesses. The round brings the total amount the company has raised to date to $14.6 million, Dots said in a Thursday (Feb. 26) press release. The Dots platform has delivered […]The post Dots Raises $8.9 Million to Scale Global Payout Platform appeared first on PYMNTS.com.