Ripple has partnered with BNY Mellon, a global financial institution managing over $2 trillion in assets, to serve as the primary custodian for RLUSD reserves. This development follows RLUSD surpassing the $500 million mark in circulating supply, just seven months after its launch. Ripple’s RLUSD Gains Institutional Backing Ripple has announced that BNY Mellon, the
Rice Robotics, a firm specializing in AI-powered robots, is partnering with Floki. The company will launch a Floki-themed robot and its own RICE token, which will be airdropped to FLOKI holders.
The minibot will be an AI-powered task assistant that can offer several services to users. Users will receive RICE tokens for interacting with the minibots, as human data can help train the firm’s AI models.
Today, Floki broke new ground with its Rice Robotics partnership, possibly becoming the first major business relationship between these two spheres:
RICE ROBOTICS TO LAUNCH A CUSTOM FLOKI AI-POWERED ROBOT AND THE $RICE TOKEN
AI robotics startup @realRiceAI will launch a custom Floki AI-powered companion robot. The AI-powered companion robot, named the FLOKI minibot M1, will be natively integrated with the RICE AI… pic.twitter.com/6QQjpBFGqO
Rice Robotics is the parent company that produces the robots, but Rice AI focuses on the software and DePin protocol that powers these machines.
The firm will launch its RICE token through TokenFi, a tokenization platform part of the Floki ecosystem.
Initially, waitlist users and FLOKI holders will receive the RICE tokens in the ensuing airdrop. After this, the main way to farm new tokens will be through interacting with physical robots.
Essentially, the FLOKI M1 minibots can help users with tasks in the house, and they will receive RICE tokens for interactions. In other words, the Floki-themed robots will record human data to train AI protocols.
Users will be financially rewarded for using their robotic assistants, which have several practical uses. The program may extend to other minibots in the future.
The FLOKI M1 minibot is a very ambitious project, and Rice Robotics already has a waitlist open. In the past, it has worked with high-profile clients such as Nvidia (which has an interest in robotics), Softbank, Dubai Future Foundation, and 7-Eleven. The minibot itself will be powered by Nvidia’s nano-computer.
The firm raised $7 million in Series A funding earlier this year and counts SoftBank as a major AI customer. One of its key investors is e-commerce giant Alibaba.
It will be very interesting to see whether Floki and Rice Robotics have a successful partnership. This endeavor is truly unlike anything that the crypto industry has seen before.
Robotics and meme coins don’t have much in common on the surface, but they could combine popular appeal with real usefulness.
The crypto market’s turmoil remains consistent, but the dips have become a buying opportunity, as investors leverage into altcoins to buy at low prices. Donald Trump’s Liberation Day became the bearish catalyst for the market, crashing crypto prices significantly. The introduction of tariffs ignited the trade war, especially between the US and China, impacting all the financial markets. However, three cryptos defied the odds, how? Let’s discuss.
Top 3 Bullish Altcoins to Buy
Trump’s Liberation Day has highlighted the impact of macroeconomic events on the crypto market, as it wiped out billions of dollars from digital assets. Most crypto prices faced a significant drop, including Bitcoin, but some defied the odds with minimal impact or fast recovery. This includes Fartcoin, Solayer, Virtual Protocol, and other altcoins that investors should consider to buy.
1. Fartcoin (FARTCOIN)
Fartcoin is among the most bullish Solana meme coins, having surged more than 195% in the last 30 days alone. With a surge in demand, this altcoin succeeded in beating Trump’s Liberation Day-fueled crash. It currently trades at $1.14 with a market capitalization of $1.14B per CoinMarketCap.
2. Solayer (LAYER)
Solayer is among the best top altcoins to buy due to its 127% surge in the month, creating an ATH high milestone just a few hours ago. The token currently trades at $3.06 and is highly bullish due to the Binance exchange listing.
3. Virtual Protocol (VIRTUAL)
In contrast to the aforementioned altcoins, Virtual Protocol has entered a consolidation period today, with the price declining nearly 10%. However, experts call it a ‘buy-the-dip’ opportunity as the token is setting a step down before jumping higher. In the last 30 days, its price has surged more than 120%, currently trading at $1.29.
Bottom Line
The crypto market has recovered significantly from Trump’s Liberation Day-influenced crash, but the uncertainty still exists. The investors are awaiting the upcoming FOMC meeting and Fed rate cuts to witness liquidity inflow and crypto prices. Interestingly, despite the crash, a few altcoins showed bullishness that investors can consider to buy.
Hyperliquid users reported a brief outage today, primarily impacting the frontend. Several users were momentarily unable to withdraw funds, place, or close orders. The cause of this outage remains unclear.
Although the glitch was repaired within minutes, some community members reacted with FUD. Many feared unjust liquidations of their short positions, while others speculated that Hyperliquid’s recent growth caused the issue.
Hyperliquid’s Frontend Outage
Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid has been one of the most popular platforms among the crypto community in 2025. Despite its surging popularity, Hyperliquid has experienced a few bumps in the road.
Several high-profile trades, the whole James Wynn saga, and the JELLYJELLY short squeeze kept the platform in crypto headlines recently. Today, the exchange faced another minor setback.
Bad news: the Hyperliquid API is down
Good news: Hyperliquid appears to still be producing blocks
Bad news: you cannot short HYPE because all frontends are down
Good news: you also cannot get liquidated because the API is down (i actually don’t know if this is true) pic.twitter.com/NmIeD2kx98
According to Discord messages from Hyperliquid developers, this outage only lasted a few minutes. Nonetheless, the fan community showed displeasure with the decentralized exchange, worrying about their accounts.
Some accounts even theorized that this mishap could disrupt billions in short positions. So far, however, those fears seem overblown.
The platform didn’t release any public statements on the matter, but given the nature of the outage, it was likely an API issue.
Social media reports suggest that several customers couldn’t place or close orders, the entire frontend seemed dysfunctional, and more.
However, Hyperliquid continued producing blocks during the outage, and it doesn’t look like the backend suffered. The malfunction only lasted a few minutes, not causing any lasting damage.
Technical outages in crypto are not new, especially among new blockchain networks and platforms.
Moreover, the exchange quickly fixed the problems from other crises this year. For all we know, today’s outage could give Hyperliquid developers a better chance to future-proof their frontend.