The cross-chain liquidity protocol paused all trading and signing on Friday after an attacker drained roughly $10.8 million across Bitcoin, Ethereum, BSC, and Base.
Spendflo Launches Flo AI: An Autonomous Procurement Workforce
WHY THIS MATTERS
The launch of Flo AI on May 14, 2026, marks the end of “assistant-based” AI in procurement and the beginning of the Autonomous Procurement Workforce. For mid-market companies typically operating with skeletal teams of one to five people, the “coordination tax”—the hours spent chasing signatures, reconciling invoices, and tracking renewals—has been a primary barrier to scaling. By launching three interconnected agents (Flo Procure, Flo Contracts, and Flo AP), Spendflo is effectively providing these companies with a “department-in-a-box” that has already been trained on $3.2 billion of historical spend data.
This matters because it creates a new professional paradigm: The Procurement Engineer. Rather than performing manual labor, these professionals act as systems architects, designing the strategies and policies that the AI workforce executes. In a 2026 economic environment where “lean” is the permanent operating model for the mid-market, Spendflo is betting that the winning companies will be those that replace headcount-heavy manual processes with high-velocity, agentic systems.
Spendflo has launched Flo AI, an autonomous procurement workforce designed for mid-market companies. Flo AI runs the complete procurement lifecycle: intake, approvals, vendor management, contract review, and accounts payable, as a single connected system. It does not assist procurement teams. It acts on their behalf.
Most companies at this stage run procurement with a small team, often one to five people, managing a volume of requests, renewals, and vendor relationships that a larger operation would handle with a dedicated department. Flo AI was built for exactly this: giving lean procurement functions the capacity to operate at a speed and scale that was previously out of reach.
Three agents. One connected system.
Flo is made up of three purpose-built agents, each covering a distinct phase of the procurement lifecycle.
- Flo Procure handles every purchase request from first submission to approved purchase order. It routes requests, checks budget and policy, collects vendor documentation, and drives approval workflows to completion. Requests no longer wait on a procurement manager to coordinate them through the process.
- Flo Contracts reads, redlines, and tracks vendor agreements. It surfaces non-standard clauses, extracts key commercial terms, and flags upcoming renewals before they slip through. Every contract processed through Spendflo informs how Flo Contracts handles the next one.
- Flo AP (Accounts Payable) matches incoming invoices against purchase orders and contracts, routes exceptions for human review, and processes payment. Because Flo AP shares context with Flo Procure and Flo Contracts, it verifies invoices against what was actually agreed at sourcing, not just what the vendor submitted.
The three agents work as one system. Context carries forward at every stage. What Flo Procure learns about a vendor informs how Flo Contracts reads their agreement. What Flo Contracts extracts from the agreement informs how Flo AP handles the invoice. This continuity is what separates Flo from the point solutions most procurement teams are stitching together today.
Spendflo: The problem Flo AI was built to solve
Mid-market companies face a specific procurement challenge. They have outgrown informal processes but have not yet built the procurement infrastructure that larger organisations rely on. The gap is filled by small teams doing high volumes of manual work: chasing approvals, reconciling invoices, managing renewals, and fielding requests from across the business.
The tools available to them have not kept up. Most procurement software was designed either for large enterprise deployments with dedicated implementation teams, or for early-stage companies with simpler needs. Point solutions for intake, contracts, and accounts payable exist in abundance. What has been missing is a system that connects them, one that carries the context of a purchase request all the way through to the payment that closes it.
Flo was built on that full context from the ground up. Since founding, Spendflo has processed more than $3.2 billion in total spend across invoices, purchase orders, and contracts on its platform. That data informs how Flo categorises spend, identifies exceptions, and understands what efficient procurement looks like across different industries and company sizes.
Siddharth Sridharan, CEO, Spendflo commented: “The companies we work with are not looking for more software to manage. They are looking for a procurement function that runs. Flo handles intake, approvals, contracts, and accounts payable. What remains for the procurement team is the work that actually requires their judgment: vendor strategy, commercial negotiation, and the decisions that move the business forward. We are starting to see a new kind of procurement professional emerge at these companies. Someone who thinks in systems, sets the strategy, and lets the agents execute. That is the direction this is heading.”
The rise of the procurement engineer
With this launch, Spendflo is introducing a new role it believes will define the next generation of procurement operations: the procurement engineer.
The procurement engineer is not a coordinator. They do not spend their days chasing approvals, tracking down documents, or manually reconciling invoices. They configure and orchestrate an AI agent workforce to run procurement operations end to end. They design the workflows Flo executes. They own the vendor strategy Flo acts on. They set the policies Flo enforces. Their time goes to the work that requires human judgment: negotiations, vendor relationships, commercial strategy, and the systems thinking that makes procurement a lever for the business rather than a cost centre behind it.
This is a structural shift in what procurement functions look like. Most procurement teams today are built around coordination and process management. People spend the majority of their time moving information between systems and stakeholders. As AI agents take over that operational layer, the procurement function reorganises around a smaller, more senior profile: one person with strong commercial instincts and deep systems thinking, running an agent workforce that executes on their behalf.
The analogy is the GTM engineer, a role that emerged when revenue teams realised that configuring and orchestrating go-to-market tooling required a distinct skill set closer to systems design than sales execution. Procurement is undergoing the same shift. The procurement engineer is the person who makes Flo smarter and more precisely tuned to their organisation over time. They are not replaced by AI. They are the ones who run it.
For mid-market companies, lean procurement is not a constraint. It is the operating model. One procurement engineer orchestrating an agent workforce will run procurement with more speed, more intelligence, and more commercial impact than a headcount-heavy team running manual processes.
FF NEWS TAKE
Spendflo is doing for procurement what Salesforce did for sales: turning a chaotic, manual process into a standardized, automated engine. The brilliance of Flo AI lies in its contextual continuity. Most fintech “point solutions” fail because the data in the contract doesn’t talk to the data in the invoice. Spendflo has solved this by building a closed-loop system where the agents share a single “brain.” When Flo AP sees an invoice, it doesn’t just check the math; it checks the specific commercial redlines that Flo Contracts negotiated three months prior.
However, the “Procurement Engineer” role isn’t just a fancy title—it’s a survival requirement. As CEO Siddharth Sridharan noted, this isn’t about replacing people; it’s about elevating the profile of the function. To succeed with Flo AI, mid-market companies must shift their hiring from “coordinators” to “strategists.” If Spendflo can successfully evangelize this shift, they won’t just be a software provider; they will be the architect of a new, more commercially aggressive mid-market business model where procurement is a profit lever, not a back-office bottleneck.
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Signal Says it Might Exit Canada if Forced to Comply with Lawful Access Bill
Privacy messaging app Signal has said it may exit Canada if forced to comply with the country’s proposed lawful access bill, which would require companies to build technical surveillance capabilities that some argue could threaten end-to-end encryption.
In an interview with Canadian news outlet The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Signal’s vice president of strategy and global affairs, Udbhav Tiwari, argued that the bill could threaten encryption and leave private messaging services vulnerable to potential cyberattacks.
Bill C-22 is part of a regulatory package introduced in March. It would require electronic service providers to build surveillance capabilities and retain certain user metadata for up to a year as part of a broader push to help law enforcement investigate crimes such as terrorism and child exploitation.
Some have criticized the bill because of its implications for user privacy, echoing concerns of the EU’s controversial chat control proposal, which posed threats to encryption by pushing for client-side scanning of private messages.
In an X post on Thursday, Canadian Conservative Party Member of Parliament Jacob Mantle claimed that “every member of Parliament in the country” uses Signal primarily for its safety and privacy features, arguing that the bill would contradict that and allow the government to read everyone’s messages.
Tiwari said the firm “would rather pull out of the country” than comply with the law and compromise on the “privacy promises” it has made to users.
“Bill C-22 could potentially allow hackers to exploit these very vulnerabilities engineered into electronic systems, with private messaging services serving as an ideal target for foreign adversaries,” he added.
The bill is not yet law, as it still has to pass through parliamentary review and receive royal assent before taking effect. Committee hearings began on May 7 and are ongoing.
Tech giants such as Meta have welcomed certain aspects of the bill, noting that it would “provide law enforcement with an effective legal framework to obtain critical evidence and protect public safety,” while also raising concerns that certain parts negatively affect “Canadians’ privacy and cybersecurity.”
Related: US Senate Banking Committee votes to advance CLARITY Act
Signal isn’t the only company feeling pressure from the proposed regulation. In an X post on Thursday responding to The Globe and Mail article, VPN service provider Windscribe said it would follow Signal out of Canada, arguing that the law poses a threat to user privacy.
“We won’t be far behind if C-22 passes. In its current state, VPNs would almost certainly require us to log identifying user data,” Windscribe said.
“Signal isn’t headquartered in Canada so they can just shut off Canadian servers, but our HQ is. We pay an ungodly amount of taxes to this corrupt government, and in return they want to destroy the entire essence of our service to basically spy on its own citizens,” Windscribe added.
Cointelegraph reached out to Signal for comment and will update the article if the company responds.
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Watch These Bitcoin Price Levels Ahead of the CLARITY Act Vote
Bitcoin (BTC) bulls made another attempt to reclaim the $80,000 level on Thursday, as traders expect price swings before and after the CLARITY Act vote.
Key takeaways:
- Odds of the CLARITY Act being signed into law in 2026 rose to 67% in May.
- BTC price must hold $78,000-$79,000 as support for a bullish push to $84,000 or higher.
A 67% chance the CLARITY Act is signed into law in 2026
The CLARITY Act, a proposed US bill that would set clearer rules for how regulators oversee the crypto market and stablecoins, is scheduled for a Senate Banking Committee markup vote on Thursday.
Source: Cointelegraph
Prediction market traders say that there is a 67% chance that the CLARITY Act will be signed into law in 2026, according to Polymarket.
Odds of the CLARITY Act being signed into law in 2026. Source: Polymarket
Traders on rival site Kalshi price-in the odds of the Act becoming law before August and Dec. 31, 2026, at 62% and 67%, respectively.
If the CLARITY Act passes, it could clearly classify Bitcoin as a digital commodity under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversight, reducing legal uncertainty for the industry and further legitimizing crypto in the US.
Related: Bitcoin to $100K in Q2? Strategy’s STRC unlocks potential to buy 3K BTC in two days
Bitcoin is expected to react positively, similar to the GENIUS Act signed in July 2025, which provided the first major US stablecoin framework. Bitcoin was already trading near all-time highs and climbed further amid regulatory optimism.
MN Capital founder Michaël van de Poppe was bullish, saying:
“Big day today with the CLARITY Act vote. Might be a historical day for everyone involved in Crypto and could, very well, signal the start of a stronger cycle.”
Analyst Sharky predicts a muted immediate pump, with the real strong move coming “90 days later, when institutional money finally has legal clarity.”
Not all analysts were optimistic about the event, however, with trading resource Material Indicators saying the passing of the CLARITY Act is “somewhat baked-in to $BTC price,” adding:
“Passing it will likely deliver a knee-jerk reaction from the market that pumps price briefly, but like all narratives, that rally will fade.”
As Cointelegraph reported, some traders expect a quick move in Bitcoin price toward $90,000 following the CLARITY Act vote, supported by improving market conditions and easing selling pressure.
Analysts highlight key BTC price levels to watch
Bitcoin may have delivered an impressive bounce to $82,000 last week, but the bullish sentiment was dampened by resistance from the 200-day moving averages around this level.
The support at $78,000 remains key for bulls, representing the short-term holder realized price and the true market mean.
This coincides with the 21-week exponential moving average (green line), as highlighted by analyst Rekt Capital in the chart below, saying:
“Downside wicking below it would be fine as long as price ends the week with a weekly candle close above the EMA to confirm it as retested support.”
BTC/USD weekly chart. Source: X/Rekt Capital
Bitcoin’s realized price by age cohorts reveals another major level of support sitting further down: the cost basis of the 1-week-to-1-month investor cohort at $76,900.
“The momentum of the ongoing rally has been driven largely by a wave of accumulation over the past 30 days,” Glassnode said in its latest Week Onchain newsletter, adding:
“This cohort’s cost basis now sits at approximately $76.9K, forming the most immediate support floor in the short term.”
Bitcoin realized price by age. Source: Glassnode
On the upside, the cost basis of investors who accumulated BTC during the November 2025-February consolidation period at $86,900 represents the “most probable near-term resistance zone as these holders approach breakeven and face a growing incentive to distribute into strength,” the onchain data provider added.
Crypto trader and analyst Daan Crypto Trades said a break above $82,000 will see BTC rise to fill the CME gap at $84,000, eventually “continuing quite a lot higher” from that point.
BTC/USD daily chart. Source: X/Daan Crypto Trades
As Cointelegraph reported, key support levels for the bulls were the 20-day EMA at $79,000 and the 50-day SMA at $74,000, while bears were expected to defend $84,000.
XRP edges higher while bitcoin, ether and dogecoin slip, keeping focus on $1.49 breakout zone
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The Shiller cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio for U.S. stocks is nearing the 1999 peak seen during the dot-com bubble.
Strive’s SATA Sets U.S. First With Daily 13% Bitcoin-Backed Dividend Preferred
Strive Asset Management is preparing to launch a new structure for income-focused investors, with its SATA preferred stock set to become the first U.S.-listed security to distribute cash dividends on every business day. The shift, scheduled for June 16, marks a departure from the monthly payout model that defines most dividend instruments and reflects a broader push to reshape yield products around digital asset strategies.
The company will maintain its stated annual dividend rate of 13%, yet the move to daily distributions raises the effective annual yield to about 13.88% through compounding across roughly 250 trading days.
Chief executive officer Matthew Cole described the design as a structural innovation aimed at positioning SATA as an alternative to money market funds and other short-duration income vehicles.
The appeal rests on frequency. Investors receive cash flows each trading day rather than waiting for monthly cycles, which can improve reinvestment efficiency and portfolio liquidity. In practice, a holder of SATA stock would see small but consistent payments that compound over time, a feature that mirrors certain fixed income ladder strategies but within an equity wrapper.
Strive’s balance sheet changes form a key part of the narrative. The firm has eliminated all outstanding debt following the repurchase of long-term notes, leaving it without leverage, margin requirements, or encumbered bitcoin. That clean capital structure supports its pitch as a yield vehicle tied to digital assets without layered credit risk.
Strive buys more bitcoin
At the same time, the company has expanded its bitcoin treasury to 15,009 BTC, placing it among the largest public holders of the asset. The accumulation strategy has included acquisitions, open market purchases, and equity issuance through an at-the-market program.
Like Strategy’s preferred structures, SATA can trade above par, which enables further issuance and capital raising tied to bitcoin accumulation.
This dual identity — income product and bitcoin proxy — introduces both opportunity and tension. On one hand, the daily dividend format may attract investors seeking predictable cash flow in a market where yields remain uneven and policy paths remain uncertain. On the other, the underlying exposure ties performance to bitcoin’s price cycles, which can introduce volatility into both valuation and investor sentiment.
Recent financial results highlight that dynamic. Strive reported a net loss of $265.9 million for the first quarter, with the vast majority linked to mark-to-market declines in its bitcoin holdings. While such swings reflect accounting treatment rather than realized losses, they underscore how closely the firm’s financial profile tracks digital asset prices.
Market performance offers a mixed signal. Strive shares have gained about 10% this year, and are up over 30% in the last month, trailing Strategy but outperforming bitcoin over the same period.
That divergence suggests investors are assigning value not only to the bitcoin treasury but also to the engineered yield structure and capital strategy.