Crypto.com’s latest round of layoffs underscores a familiar pattern in the crypto sector: rapid expansion followed by sharp recalibration. While the company frames the 12% workforce reduction as a strategic pivot towards “key business initiatives” and AI integration, it also reflects deeper structural tensions within high-growth tech firms.
Having scaled to over 100M users, Crypto.com now faces the classic challenge of operational bloat. Layered teams and siloed functions—common side effects of aggressive hiring during boom cycles—can slow decision-making and dilute accountability. In that sense, the restructuring is less surprising than it is inevitable.
What stands out, however, is the role of artificial intelligence as both justification and catalyst. Like many enterprises, Crypto.com is leaning into AI not just as a tool for innovation, but as a means to drive efficiency—often at the expense of roles in growth and customer engagement. This signals a broader shift where automation begins to reshape even traditionally human-centric functions.
Yet, repeated layoffs since 2022 raise questions about long-term workforce planning and resilience. For employees, the abrupt nature of notifications—such as losing access overnight—highlights the human cost of these transitions.
Ultimately, Crypto.com’s move reflects an industry still searching for stability amid evolving technologies and market realities.
REGIONAL
Crypto.com Cuts 12% of Staff in Third Round of Layoffs: The Singapore-headquartered exchange let go of roughly 180 employees globally — including more than half its Singapore team — citing a push to integrate enterprise AI and redirect resources. Growth and CRM functions bore the brunt, with some staff learning of cuts after being locked out of Slack.
Carsome Secures US$30M to Boost Growth and Tech Efforts: Fresh off record FY25 results, the used-car platform secured backing from HKIC, Gobi Partners, and Asia Partners. CEO Eric Cheng says funds will advance AI capabilities, cross-border supply chain networks, and next-generation mobility services across the region.
Talino Bets on Fintech Plumbing, Secures US$7.5M: The Philippine fintech pivots from venture studio to “fintech foundry”, raising a Series A led by Chemonics International. Its API-first infrastructure targets cross-border corridors between the US and the Philippines, using Mojaloop rails, stablecoin transfers, and regulatory-as-a-service capabilities.
Datakrew’s US$2.6M Raise Bets on EV Battery Failures: The Singapore-based deeptech startup closed a pre-Series A backed by Greenwillow Capital, Beenext, and 500 Global. Its OXRED MyFleet platform targets commercial EV fleets across SEA, converting raw telemetry into battery health and safety intelligence before failures happen.
SmartSolar’s US$1.3M Debt Raise Signals Maturing Solar Market: The Ho Chi Minh City-based rooftop solar provider secured a US$300,000 senior loan and a US$1M facility from European backers, bringing total funding to US$3.15M. Operating a solar-as-a-service model, it has deployed nearly 4MWp across 75-plus Vietnamese SME sites since 2024.
OMOWAY Unveils OMO-Robot Architecture at Singapore Launch: The company introduced its full-stack intelligent two-wheeler platform at Changi Airport, confirming the OMO X — billed as the world’s first mass-produced self-balancing electric motorcycle — has entered production. Commercial rollout begins in Indonesia, with Jakarta pre-orders opening in late April 2026.
Malaysian SMEs Embrace AI But Confidence Gap Widens — Xero: A Xero report found 81% of Malaysian SMEs have adopted AI, yet 82% say they need more education before deploying it with confidence. Data privacy concerns, lack of governance policies, and decision-making uncertainty are suppressing deeper integration despite strong optimism.
Vietnam Moves to Pilot Licensed Crypto Exchanges This Month: Hanoi plans to launch regulated domestic exchanges to curb overseas trading and tighten capital flow oversight. Five firms — including affiliates of Techcombank, VPBank, and Sun Group — passed initial qualification, as the finance ministry drafts rules prohibiting nationals from trading on foreign platforms.
INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
Hackuity Wants to Fix Cybersecurity’s Prioritisation Problem: Co-founder Pierre Samson explains how Hackuity’s risk-based vulnerability management platform moves beyond CVSS scores, using its proprietary True Risk Score to help SEA enterprises identify and act on the small fraction of vulnerabilities that truly matter.
Hyperspace Is Making Stores Think and Act Like Websites: Ulisse Ltd’s LiDAR-powered Hyperspace platform gives physical retailers real-time crowd intelligence, enabling staff redeployment before queues form. A Singapore grocery pilot reported a 45% drop in checkout wait times and a 22% uplift in fresh produce sales within one month.
Meilin Wong: SEA Startups Win with Credibility, Not Just Visibility: The Milk & Honey PR CEO and PRCA Fellow argues founders confuse being visible with being credible — a costly mistake in a market where trust drives funding. After three decades spanning PR, branding, and co-founding, she urges leaders to align messaging across every touchpoint, not just investor decks.
INTERNATIONAL
Jeff Bezos Eyes US$100B Fund to Buy and Automate Manufacturers: The Amazon founder is in early talks to raise a fund targeting chipmaking, defence, and aerospace firms, deploying AI to accelerate manufacturing transformation. A separate venture, Project Prometheus, has separately raised approximately US$6.2B, with Bezos reportedly set to serve as co-CEO.
Alibaba Posts 66% Net Income Drop Despite AI Revenue Surge: Revenue rose just 2% year-on-year to US$41.4B for Q4 FY2025, weighed down by heavy investment in quick commerce. Cloud Intelligence revenue grew 36 per cent, AI product revenue logged triple-digit growth for a tenth consecutive quarter, and Qwen surpassed 300M monthly active users.
Alibaba Hikes AI Computing Prices by Up to 34%: The Chinese tech giant is raising prices on T-Head AI chips and Cloud Parallel File Storage by between 5 and 34 per cent, following a structural reorganisation aimed at monetising AI products. The moves coincide with the launch of Wukong, an agentic AI service for enterprise customers.
Trump Administration Defends Anthropic Blacklisting in Court: The Pentagon designated Anthropic a national security supply chain risk after the AI company refused to remove guardrails preventing its models from being used in autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. The Justice Department argues the move concerns contract conduct, not protected speech.
OpenAI Pivots Aggressively to Enterprise Ahead of Possible IPO: With ChatGPT now serving 900M weekly active users, OpenAI is repositioning as a high-productivity enterprise platform targeting US$280B in revenue by 2030. A December “code red” was declared to sharpen ChatGPT’s competitive edge against Google and Anthropic, while an IPO could come as early as Q4.
Senator Probes US$10B Payment in TikTok Deal Structure: Senator Mark Warner has demanded the White House disclose the legal basis and intended use of a US$10B payment — equivalent to 71% of the joint venture’s valuation — reportedly being made by Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX as part of the Trump-brokered TikTok sale.
KKR to Invest US$310M in India’s E-Bus Platform Allfleet: Marking KKR’s first India deal under its Global Climate Transition strategy, the firm will take a majority stake in Allfleet and a minority stake in manufacturer PMI Electro. Allfleet is set to deploy over 5,000 electric buses under long-term concession agreements with state transport authorities.
Yotta Seeks US$4B Valuation Ahead of India AI IPO: India’s largest Nvidia AI processor cluster is targeting US$500–600M in a pre-IPO round, with sovereign wealth funds including Mubadala among potential backers. Operating roughly 10,000 H100 chips and expecting over 20,000 B300 processors live by August, Yotta is positioning itself as a sovereign computing provider.
CYBERSECURITY
Singapore’s AI Boom Demands Stronger Data and Cyber Defences: Asia Pacific AI spending is set to hit US$90.7B by 2027, with Singapore leading regionally. Businesses must prioritise robust data management and multi-layered cybersecurity — including encryption, access controls, and privacy-by-design principles — to protect AI systems and sustain growth.
Inference Attacks in AI-Integrated Platforms: A Growing Threat: When AI is embedded in business workflows, attackers need not breach databases directly — they can probe model outputs to reconstruct sensitive training data, customer records, or internal documents. The fix requires a “least revelation” design principle, not just access controls, alongside query throttling and anomaly detection.
Super Micro Co-Founder Charged With Smuggling Nvidia Chips to China: US prosecutors allege Yih-Shyan Liaw and two associates used a Southeast Asian middleman to falsify paperwork and ship Nvidia-powered servers to China without export licences, generating US$2.5B in sales since 2024. Super Micro placed the individuals on leave and distanced itself from the scheme.
SEMICONDUCTOR
Singapore Startup AAT Opens R&D Facility for Next-Gen Chip Tools: Applied Angstrom Technology launched a 10,000 sq ft Atomic Precision Innovation Center in Yishun, backed by iGlobe Partners and Enterprise Singapore, targeting Micron and GlobalFoundries. The move reinforces Singapore’s position as producer of roughly 20% of the world’s semiconductor equipment.
Korea and Taiwan Chip Sectors Most Exposed to Helium Shortage: Fitch Ratings flagged mounting supply risk as Middle East tensions disrupt Qatar’s LNG output and constrain Strait of Hormuz shipments. South Korea sources nearly 65% of its helium from Qatar, while Taiwan’s dependence is similarly heavy — with both nations critical to global chip production.
Vietnam Courts NVIDIA and Marvell in Semiconductor Ambitions Push: At APEX EXPO 2026 in Los Angeles, Vietnam’s National Innovation Centre signed cooperation agreements and held meetings with leading chip firms. While the country shows momentum in assembly and packaging, Malaysia and Singapore remain ahead in supplier depth and advanced manufacturing credentials.
AI
Alibaba Launches Wukong AI Agent Platform for Enterprises: Alibaba’s new agentic AI platform, built under its reorganised Token Hub business group, coordinates multiple AI agents to handle complex enterprise tasks. Available via DingTalk and as a standalone app, Wukong will integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and WeChat, with planned connections to Taobao, Alipay, and Alibaba Cloud.
Asia’s Deeptech Decade: Where AI, Healthtech and Cleantech Converge: Singapore is functioning as the orchestration hub as Asia’s AI sector shifts from adoption to competitive differentiation, healthtech moves from pilots to clinical deployment, and cleantech advances through systems-based innovation. The region’s pragmatism — designing for dense cities, multilingual populations, and complex supply chains — sets it apart from Western counterparts.
AI Access Is Easy — AI Advantage Is Rare: Across Southeast Asia, widespread AI tool adoption is not translating into measurable business outcomes. The bottleneck is not technology but capability: framing the right problems, redesigning workflows, and building the “AI generalist” profile — operators who embed AI into real processes rather than merely experimenting with it.
If Your AI Can’t Understand You, Your Team Probably Can’t Either: Poor AI output is rarely a model problem — it is a clarity problem. Drawing on the CLEAR briefing framework (Context, Logic, Expectation, Aesthetic, Result Format), the author argues that vague prompts mirror vague leadership, and that AI’s instant feedback loop exposes organisational thinking gaps that human teams quietly paper over.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
SEA Founders Are Designing the Wrong Thing — Fix Decision Environments: Culture decks and OKR frameworks are insufficient for building resilient startups. The real leverage point is designing decision environments — the structural conditions under which teams choose under pressure — so that surfacing risk, protecting user trust, and exercising sound judgement become the default, not the exception.
The First Meta-Nation Won’t Be a Country — It May Start in SEA: As cross-border data flows outpace physical trade, fintech and AI platforms in Southeast Asia are quietly accumulating sovereign-like power — setting monetary rules, allocating capital, and coordinating labour at scale. The author argues that founders building financial infrastructure today may be constructing a digital polity, whether they intend to or not.
Private Equity’s US$3T Blind Spot: When Value Creation Plans Don’t Deliver: With over US$3T in unrealised PE portfolio value globally and exit markets tightening, polished investment decks are no longer sufficient. Drawing on the contrasting fates of Toys “R” Us and Hilton, the author argues that sustainable returns now require turning value creation plans into genuine operating systems — starting with knowing what is actually happening inside the business today.
Gender Gap in GenAI Skills Is Narrowing, But Progress Is Uneven: Coursera data shows women’s share of GenAI enrolments rose from 32 to 36% globally between 2024 and 2025, with Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines recording gains. However, women’s participation actually fell in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Spain over the same period.
SEA Gaming Market Turns ESL Tournaments into Media Ecosystems: With Southeast Asia’s gaming market projected to hit US$14.83B in 2025, ESL events have evolved far beyond match play into fan-co-created content engines, festival experiences, and brand platforms — blurring the line between audience and producer across TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch.
Vietnam’s New Crypto Rules: What Startups and Investors Must Know: Vietnam’s updated framework mandates licensing, AML/KYC compliance, stablecoin restrictions, and explicit crypto taxation. While compliance costs rise for smaller players, restrictions on foreign platforms open domestic market share — and early adopters stand to gain first-mover regulatory advantages.
Pakistan’s Carbon Market Opens a New Door for Startups and SMEs: New Carbon Market Policy Guidelines allow Pakistani businesses to generate and trade carbon credits internationally, aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Startups in clean energy and sustainable packaging stand to gain, though high certification costs and complex approval procedures remain significant barriers.
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