Melos Ambaye / Bloomberg:
Elliptic: ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5 surpassed $100B in transactions in under a year, but demand cooled and daily volume fell from a peak of $1.5B+ to ~$500M  —  The ruble-backed stablecoin created to circumvent sanctions on Russia has surpassed $100 billion in transactions in less …

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Counterpoint: India smartphone shipments were flat YoY at ~153M; Apple shipped 14M iPhones, raising its share of shipments to a record 9%, up from 7% in 2024  —  Apple's iPhone is gaining ground fast in India, shipping about 14 million units in 2025, based on market data shared exclusively with TechCrunch.

Benjamin Wallace / New York Times:
A look at Kalshi and Polymarket's rise; reports say Polymarket had 491K monthly active traders in December 2025, and <0.04% of addresses took 70% of profits  —  Two months after quitting his job as a corporate C.P.A. to trade full time in prediction markets, Joel Holsinger, 26, was well along the road to making his first $100,000.

Miranda Nazzaro / FedScoop:
OpenAI and longtime US government contractor Leidos announce a partnership to roll out generative and agentic AI tools for specific missions at federal agencies  —  While AI is increasingly used in agencies already, company leaders say the collaboration will help tailor the technology to specific missions.

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the Trump administration dismissed two Commerce Department officials, who focused on Chinese tech threats, raising concerns about a softening stance  —  Departing staffers worked for a Commerce Department office charged with protecting the U.S. from Chinese technological advances