Latest news with #Helio
Cision Canada
31-07-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
9GAG & Moonit Join Forces to Launch Meme Money Markets, Turning Viral Memes into Tradeable Tokens in Real-Time
NEW YORK, July 31, 2025 /CNW/ -- The memecoin economy just went fully autonomous. 9GAG (a MemeStrategy-affiliated company), the internet's most influential meme factory with over 200 million users, has joined forces with Moonit to ignite the first AI-powered system that instantly converts viral memes into tradable crypto assets on Solana without human intervention. Forget waiting for developers, insiders or hype cycles. With Moonit's breakthrough Meme Money Market protocol, every viral post on 9GAG can be tokenized at the speed of the scroll, minting cultural energy into on-chain assets in real-time – zero friction, zero favoritism, zero manipulation. "Meme Money Markets rewrite the rules by removing middlemen aka "the dev" entirely," said Stijn Paumen, CEO of Helio. "It doesn't wait for permission or spin. It captures raw virality and injects it directly into the on-chain bloodstream. It's the purest, most trustless expression of attention-as-value ever deployed." Meme First. Token Next. No Dev. Every Meme Money Market token follows a trader-optimized blueprint designed for fairness, liquidity, and full transparency. No founders, no pre-sales, no backroom allocations. Just memes, minted at the moment of impact. "This isn't just a new monetization model – it's a new cultural physics," said Ray Chan, founder of 9GAG. "Memes are no longer passive content, they're autonomous assets with real-world value, owned by the communities that made them go viral." Culture Is the New Crypto Born originally from DEX Screener's Moonshot and reborn now as a collaboration between Helio, MoonPay, DEX Screener, 9GAG, Memeland, and MemeStrategy. Moonit is now the definitive infrastructure for real-time culture-to-crypto conversion. To date, it has powered over 300,000 token launches and onboarded 700,000+ users. Built for the masses, Moonit makes crypto invisible: wallets are generated by email, and tokens can be purchased via card, PayPal, Venmo, or MoonPay Balance – no wallet setup or prior crypto knowledge needed. Meme Money Market is already live at and accessible via Tokens are immediately tradable across bots and apps like Axiom, Photon, and Jupiter, and an Auto-Launch SDK is now available to any platform looking to tokenize cultural moments at scale.
Indianapolis Star
26-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Doyel: Alex Palou cements legacy as best of his generation, one of best ever, at Indy 500
Alex Palou is climbing out of the fastest car of his life, the one that just won the 2025 Indianapolis 500, and he's pulling off his gloves, his helmet, the protective sock on his head. He's trotting away from his racecar, parked there just across the bricks, and jogging toward the first turn. Now he's running, faster, faster, until he's sprinting. He is running toward his family, his team owner, his IndyCar crew … but he's also running away. Away from the cruel whims of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, those bizarre quirks that often decide who will win the Indy 500 by deciding who won't. Away from the questions, the doubts, the nonsense that the best younger driver of his generation – just 28 years old, on pace to become one of the best drivers of any generation – won't or maybe just can't win on ovals. Six years into his career, the numbers entering the 109th Indy 500 were staggering: Three IndyCar series championships, all in the last four years. Fifteen wins on street or road courses. Zero wins on ovals. None. So there's Alex Palou after crossing the bricks, running toward Turn 1 and picking up speed, seeing his team rushing toward him, climbing over the wall. This is when Palou stops running. There's nothing to run away from. Not anymore. Now his team is here, and everyone's jumping up and down and the IMS sellout crowd of 325,000 is roaring and Palou is surrounded by teammates. One of them shouts something that can be heard above the celebration: 'Now you're a real IndyCar driver!' And Alex Palou starts to cry. Picture gallery: See Alex Palou win 109th Indianapolis 500, celebrate To win the Indy 500, sometimes it helps to lose it first. That's the story of Alex Palou in 2025, when he won this race in part because he lost it in 2021. Well, Helio Castroneves won it that year. It was Helio's fourth win, and the old master used all his guile and experience to survive Palou's clearly superior car. 'I don't know if he was waiting to pass, or he was going all out,' Palou said later that day. 'I'll have to ask him.' In 2021 Helio had been biding his time, saving up for one shocking late pass, getting it on Lap 199 and then running into lapped traffic ahead. This was good for Helio, because he didn't have the car to hold off Palou by himself. But with slower cars ahead of him? Oh yeah. Helio had the car for that, because he just stuck close to the lapped traffic – essentially hemming in Palou behind him. Palou had the car to pass Helio, and everyone knew it. But he didn't have the car to pass Helio and the cars ahead of him. And Palou knew it. Why the trip down memory lane? Because it happened again in 2025 – happened Sunday – when Palou went into the final 14 laps trailing 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, and it was Ericsson who had the superior machine. Well, maybe not the superior machine, but the superior fuel-and-tire situation. Even an elite driver needs luck to win a race like this, to avoid the whims and quirks that make some lose a race like this – hang around, I'll show you some cruel examples from Sunday – and Ericsson had the luck. He'd chosen a conservative fuel-and-tires strategy, and not been forced to pay for it with a late yellow flag that would've allowed cars with less fuel and older tires, cars like the one driven by Palou, to coast under caution and conserve fuel and rubber for the final mad dash. Ericsson was going to win this race, if he could just avoi— That. Palou, like Helio four year earlier, was biding his time, saving up for one pass at the end, and doing it in the most shocking way of all: not waiting to the end. Palou may be just 28, but he's a wise old owl himself – three IndyCar series titles in four years, remember – and he chose Lap 186 to make his one final run at Ericsson. He got it, and guess what was waiting? Lapped traffic. Can't make this up. Alex Palou has neither the fuel nor the tires to outrace Marcus Ericsson over the final 14 laps. But like Helio in 2021, Palou has enough of both in 2025 to get behind the final two cars on the lead lap, Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, and let them pull him along. With no need to pass anyone, and no real need to fend off Ericsson with daring aggression, Palou tucks behind DeFrancesco and Foster and basically coasts to the final two laps. Now it's going to get real, because Ericsson can't afford to wait anymore. He has the fuel, the tires and the confidence. If he has to pass three cars in one move, that's what he'll try to do. He's not 24-year-old Alex Palou, circa 2021, with no oval wins behind him and three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves in front. Ericsson, 34, won this race in 2022, then was held off by Josef Newgarden's dragon blocking maneuver in 2023. He's not going to sit back and, maybe later, and ask Palou anything. Ericsson is about to make a move, and Palou knows it. Palou starts weaving, a modified version of the dragon by Newgarden in 2023 and again in '24, and Ericsson is weaving with him and then, wait. What? Moments before someone can wave the checkered flag, they're waving the yellow flag? Someone wrecked? This race is under caution? Can't make this up. Back in the pack, Nolan Siegel had crumpled into the wall. Out comes the yellow flag. The race will end as it began, under caution. Alex Palou had been strategically coasting since Lap 186, and now he can coast with no strategy, no fear, no challenge. The race is over. It's his. Afterward, he will climb out of his car and start jogging, then running, then … well, you know what he did. But check out Marcus Ericsson. He gets out of his car and looks devastated. He's exhausted, but this is more. He has just been gutted by the cruel whims of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, those bizarre quirks that often decide who will win the Indy 500 by helping decide who will not. Those quirks of IMS, those whims of the Indy 500 – they were working overtime this year, weren't they? And they started early, before the race even began, forcing one of the pre-race favorites, Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske, into the wall during the parade lap while causing something in 2008 Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon's car to catch fire near the brakes. One crash and one fire … in the parade lap. Ever heard such a thing? Me neither, but clean out those ears to hear this: The 2025 Indy 500 started under a caution. True story. McLaughlin's crash brought out the yellow flag, and it wasn't until the fourth lap that the race, finally, went green. And it stayed green for one whole turn. Yes, one turn. That's when the whims of Indy 500 ran headlong into the Andretti Curse – and drove Marco Andretti into the wall. The right rear of his car was obliterated, his day over. This was a who's who of Indy 500 drivers derailed by whims, by quirks: pole winner Robert Shwartzman (pit lane crash), two-time defending champion Newgarden (fuel pressure issue), 2016 champion Alexander Rossi (car caught fire on pit lane), 2014 champion and Lap 169 leader Ryan Hunter-Reay (stalled in pit lane), and favorite son Conor Daly (right rear) shortly after Noblesville's own had taken a mid-race lead in the Indy 500 for the third time in four years. Doyel: Multiple Team Penske cars busted again, this time during Indy 500 qualifying The whims, the quirks, threatened to severely injure two crew members, too. The fire that ended Rossi's day sent his crew member holding the fuel, Mike Miller, to IMS emergency room. The fire that ignited in Rossi's engine had followed the fuel to Miller's hands, who ignored the fire on his own body long enough to ensure the fire was out on the car. Crew members saw what was happening, and doused Miller. Shwartzman's pit-lane misadventure also had other ramifications. Shwartzman's car, careening out of control as he approached his crew – 'At the moment when I braked,' Shwartzman told Fox Sports trackside, 'I was just a passenger' – pinned four of them against the wall. Three stayed with the car, but the fourth, fueler Spence Hall, flopped backward over the retaining wall, like a scuba driver slipping into the water. Miller and Hall (right foot) avoided serious injury, their drivers said. The whims, the quirks of this place also ended the race of Rinus VeeKay, who hit pit lane at about 120 mph – the speed limit was soon to become 60 mph – when his brakes locked up. Then, honestly, good fortune struck. Rather than plowing into pit lane at speeds in excess of 100 mph, VeeKay's car spun into the wall and skidded to a stop. His race was over, but nobody was injured. VeeKay will return for the 2026 Indianapolis 500 as the best 20-something driver alive without an Indy 500 win. VeeKay will have that distinction because Palou is off the list, the most gifted driver of his generation outrunning the whims, avoiding the quirks, then sprinting down the track as champion of the 2025 Indianapolis 500. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.
Indianapolis Star
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Doyel: Alex Palou cements legacy as best of his generation, one of best ever, at Indy 500
Alex Palou is climbing out of the fastest car of his life, the one that just won the 2025 Indianapolis 500, and he's pulling off his gloves, his helmet, the protective sock on his head. He's trotting away from his racecar, parked there just across the bricks, and jogging toward the first turn. Now he's running, faster, faster, until he's sprinting. He is running toward his family, his team owner, his IndyCar crew … but he's also running away. Away from the cruel whims of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, those bizarre quirks that often decide who will win the Indy 500 by deciding who won't. Away from the questions, the doubts, the nonsense that the best younger driver of his generation – just 28 years old, on pace to become one of the best drivers of any generation – won't or maybe just can't win on ovals. Six years into his career, the numbers entering the 109th Indy 500 were staggering: Three IndyCar series championships, all in the last four years. Fifteen wins on street or road courses. Zero wins on ovals. None. So there's Alex Palou after crossing the bricks, running toward Turn 1 and picking up speed, seeing his team rushing toward him, climbing over the wall. This is when Palou stops running. There's nothing to run away from. Not anymore. Now his team is here, and everyone's jumping up and down and the IMS sellout crowd of 325,000 is roaring and Palou is surrounded by teammates. One of them shouts something that can be heard above the celebration: 'Now you're a real IndyCar driver!' And Alex Palou starts to cry. Picture gallery: See Alex Palou win 109th Indianapolis 500, celebrate To win the Indy 500, sometimes it helps to lose it first. That's the story of Alex Palou in 2025, when he won this race in part because he lost it in 2021. Well, Helio Castroneves won it that year. It was Helio's fourth win, and the old master used all his guile and experience to survive Palou's clearly superior car. 'I don't know if he was waiting to pass, or he was going all out,' Palou said later that day. 'I'll have to ask him.' In 2021 Helio had been biding his time, saving up for one shocking late pass, getting it on Lap 199 and then running into lapped traffic ahead. This was good for Helio, because he didn't have the car to hold off Palou by himself. But with slower cars ahead of him? Oh yeah. Helio had the car for that, because he just stuck close to the lapped traffic – essentially hemming in Palou behind him. Palou had the car to pass Helio, and everyone knew it. But he didn't have the car to pass Helio and the cars ahead of him. And Palou knew it. Why the trip down memory lane? Because it happened again in 2025 – happened Sunday – when Palou went into the final 14 laps trailing 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson, and it was Ericsson who had the superior machine. Well, maybe not the superior machine, but the superior fuel-and-tire situation. Even an elite driver needs luck to win a race like this, to avoid the whims and quirks that make some lose a race like this – hang around, I'll show you some cruel examples from Sunday – and Ericsson had the luck. He'd chosen a conservative fuel-and-tires strategy, and not been forced to pay for it with a late yellow flag that would've allowed cars with less fuel and older tires, cars like the one driven by Palou, to coast under caution and conserve fuel and rubber for the final mad dash. Ericsson was going to win this race, if he could just avoi— That. Palou, like Helio four year earlier, was biding his time, saving up for one pass at the end, and doing it in the most shocking way of all: not waiting to the end. Palou may be just 28, but he's a wise old owl himself – three IndyCar series titles in four years, remember – and he chose Lap 186 to make his one final run at Ericsson. He got it, and guess what was waiting? Lapped traffic. Can't make this up. Alex Palou has neither the fuel nor the tires to outrace Marcus Ericsson over the final 14 laps. But like Helio in 2021, Palou has enough of both in 2025 to get behind the final two cars on the lead lap, Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster, and let them pull him along. With no need to pass anyone, and no real need to fend off Ericsson with daring aggression, Palou tucks behind DeFrancesco and Foster and basically coasts to the final two laps. Now it's going to get real, because Ericsson can't afford to wait anymore. He has the fuel, the tires and the confidence. If he has to pass three cars in one move, that's what he'll try to do. He's not 24-year-old Alex Palou, circa 2021, with no oval wins behind him and three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves in front. Ericsson, 34, won this race in 2022, then was held off by Josef Newgarden's dragon blocking maneuver in 2023. He's not going to sit back and, maybe later, and ask Palou anything. Ericsson is about to make a move, and Palou knows it. Palou starts weaving, a modified version of the dragon by Newgarden in 2023 and again in '24, and Ericsson is weaving with him and then, wait. What? Moments before someone can wave the checkered flag for the last lap, they're waving the yellow flag? Someone wrecked? This race is under caution? Can't make this up. Back in the pack, Nolan Siegel had crumpled into the wall. Out comes the yellow flag. The race will end as it began, under caution. Alex Palou had been strategically coasting since Lap 186, and now he can coast with no strategy, no fear, no challenge. The race is over. It's his. Afterward, he will climb out of his car and start jogging, then running, then … well, you know what he did. But check out Marcus Ericsson. He gets out of his car and looks devastated. He's exhausted, but this is more. He has just been gutted by the cruel whims of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, those bizarre quirks that often decide who will win the Indy 500 by helping decide who will not. Those quirks of IMS, those whims of the Indy 500 – they were working overtime this year, weren't they? And they started early, before the race even began, forcing one of the pre-race favorites, Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske, into the wall during the parade lap while causing something in 2008 Indy 500 champion Scott Dixon's car to catch fire near the brakes. One crash and one fire … in the parade lap. Ever heard such a thing? Me neither, but clean out those ears to hear this: The 2025 Indy 500 started under a caution. True story. McLaughlin's crash brought out the yellow flag, and it wasn't until the fourth lap that the race, finally, went green. And it stayed green for one whole turn. Yes, one turn. That's when the whims of Indy 500 ran headlong into the Andretti Curse – and drove Marco Andretti into the wall. The right rear of his car was obliterated, his day over. This was a who's who of Indy 500 drivers derailed by whims, by quirks: pole winner Robert Shwartzman (pit lane crash), two-time defending champion Newgarden (fuel pressure issue), 2016 champion Alexander Rossi (car caught fire on pit lane), 2014 champion and Lap 169 leader Ryan Hunter-Reay (stalled in pit lane), and favorite son Conor Daly (right rear) shortly after Noblesville's own had taken a mid-race lead in the Indy 500 for the third time in four years. Doyel: Multiple Team Penske cars busted again, this time during Indy 500 qualifying The whims, the quirks, threatened to severely injure two crew members, too. The fire that ended Rossi's day sent his crew member holding the fuel, Mike Miller, to IMS emergency room. The fire that ignited in Rossi's engine had followed the fuel to Miller's hands, who ignored the fire on his own body long enough to ensure the fire was out on the car. Crew members saw what was happening, and doused Miller. Shwartzman's pit-lane misadventure also had other ramifications. Shwartzman's car, careening out of control as he approached his crew – 'At the moment when I braked,' Shwartzman told Fox Sports trackside, 'I was just a passenger' – pinned four of them against the wall. Three stayed with the car, but the fourth, fueler Spence Hall, flopped backward over the retaining wall, like a scuba driver slipping into the water. Miller and Hall (right foot) avoided serious injury, their drivers said. The whims, the quirks of this place also ended the race of Rinus VeeKay, who hit pit lane at about 120 mph – the speed limit was soon to become 60 mph – when his brakes locked up. Then, honestly, good fortune struck. Rather than plowing into pit lane at speeds in excess of 100 mph, VeeKay's car spun into the wall and skidded to a stop. His race was over, but nobody was injured. VeeKay will return for the 2026 Indianapolis 500 as the best 20-something driver alive without an Indy 500 win. VeeKay will have that distinction because Palou is off the list, the most gifted driver of his generation outrunning the whims, avoiding the quirks, then sprinting down the track as champion of the 2025 Indianapolis 500. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MoonPay acquires stablecoin platform Iron
Cryptocurrency payment firm MoonPay has taken over Iron, an API-first stablecoin infrastructure platform for an undisclosed sum. This move is expected to expand its business offerings, enabling companies to manage multi-currency treasuries, facilitate instant cross-border payments, and generate new revenue through yield-bearing assets. The acquisition also claims to eliminate slow bank transfers, manage multi-currency treasuries, and move funds across borders in seconds. Fintechs and payment processors can now integrate stablecoin rails 'compliance-first payments', while marketplaces and merchants can accept stablecoins, and 'settle instantly'. MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said: 'This acquisition is a strategic step forward, positioning MoonPay at the forefront of enterprise-grade stablecoin solutions. With Iron's technology, we're putting the power of instant, programmable payments into the hands of enterprises, fintechs, and global merchants.' In an interview to CNBC, he said: 'Iron's technology positions MoonPay to become the definitive infrastructure provider for enterprise stablecoin solutions.' In January this month, MoonPay acquired Helio, a crypto payment processor on the Solana blockchain. Established in 2022, Helio specialises in simplifying cryptocurrency transactions for merchants and creators, offering tools for accepting various cryptocurrencies such as SOL, ETH, and BTC. Last month, MoonPay introduced its MoonPay Balance offering in the US market, allowing users to fund their accounts with fiat currency and engage in "zero-fee purchases". MoonPay Balance was initially made available to European users in November 2024. MoonPay's infrastructure, which supports the exchange between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies, offers payment methods including debit and credit cards, local bank transfers, and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. "MoonPay acquires stablecoin platform Iron " was originally created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
The Independent
14-02-2025
- Automotive
- The Independent
Thousands of Uber and Bolt drivers strike on Valentine's Day
Thousands of drivers from the likes of Uber, Bolt and Addison Lee will go on strike on Valentine's Day. Workers will take action for six hours from 4pm on Friday with the backing of driver groups across the country, according to The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB). The union said the strike action is in response to workers being forced by the tech companies to work 70 to 80-hour weeks with high car rents and poor job security. A union source told The Independent that they confidently expect thousands of drivers to take part. The organisers said this was having ' a devastating financial, physical and mental impact on us and our families.' They added this was an opportunity for drivers to stay united in the face of gig economy giants like Uber. One driver, Helio Santos, started driving for Uber three and a half years ago so he could look after his baby son and two teenagers while his wife worked full time for the NHS. He told The Independent: 'We have become slaves to the app', as he remains on duty for 60 to 70 hours a week completing day and night shifts for the company. 'It is scary. What we have right now is drivers bidding for the same trip with the lowest fare,' he added. 'We are bidding for it to make a living. There is no certainty.' He added that while Uber claim to pay the national living wage, they ignored the running costs. To maintain his car, Helio spends between £350 and £400 on rent and electricity per week to make a minimum of £150 per day. '£150 is nothing for a private hire driver', he said. The Chair for the IWGB 's Private Hire Drivers Branch, Nader Awaad, said: 'Up and down the country, drivers whose lives have been torn apart by apps like Uber are saying the same thing - it's time for us to take back the wheel.' He continued: 'As private hire drivers we offer a great service to the customers and form an essential part of the transport system. We deserve to be paid well and to have our jobs protected. 'Instead, industry profits have soared at our expense. The government and licensing authorities have abandoned us to the mercy of these companies. 'We are left with no choice but to come together and take action ourselves. This log-off on the 14th has reignited drivers' faith that by uniting we can transform this industry for the better.' An Addison Lee spokesperson said: "We have a close working relationship with our drivers, which was further reinforced in our recent bi-annual driver satisfaction survey. We do not expect to see any disruption to volumes or service levels on February 14th.' A Bolt spokesperson said: 'We recognise the vital role drivers play in keeping cities moving, and remain committed to ensuring our prices balance the earning needs of drivers with affordability for passengers.' They added they were the 'only operator' to enable drivers to set their own minimum pricing and also take advantage of dynamic pricing, while drivers also received holiday pay and monetary supplements to ensure they earn at least a national living wage alongside a pension. An Uber spokesperson said: "As workers, all Uber drivers are guaranteed to earn at least the national Living wage when taking trips, with Uber topping up their earnings if they ever fall below this level. The majority of Uber drivers can and do earn much more. 'Uber drivers have the freedom to work where and when they want and have access to industry leading rights such as holiday pay and a pension, as well as formal representation through GMB Union." GMB, Uber's officially recognised trade union, are not taking part in this action.
