Crossmint raises $23.6M for blockchain adoption

Crossmint, a startup focused on streamlining the transition to blockchain technology, has secured $23.6 million in funding from investors including Ribbit Capital and Franklin Templeton.

The company aims to facilitate the adoption of blockchain by businesses and enable AI agents to operate autonomously onchain.

This funding will support the expansion of Crossmint's enterprise solutions, enhancement of its AI agent infrastructure, and growth of its global reach.

Crossmint offers low-level programming interfaces that simplify the implementation of blockchain services.

With a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license, it supports stablecoin finance for companies, embeds product passports to combat forgery, and establishes onchain loyalty programs.

A key feature of Crossmint's ecosystem is its AI agent-friendly design, which encourages operations with these agents, anticipating their role as primary participants in the future financial system.

The company's GOAT SDK has gained traction as an open-source library for connecting AI agents to blockchain protocols, boasting over 150,000 downloads in the past two months.

Crossmint co-founder Rodri Fernandez emphasised the mission to "make blockchain technology accessible to every business and AI agent," highlighting the company's commitment to expanding enterprise solutions and enhancing AI agent infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Google has unveiled Gemini 2.0 Flash, an AI model capable of editing photos using natural language commands.

This model, unlike others, understands and modifies existing photos while maintaining original content.

By converting images into tokens, Gemini 2.0 Flash manipulates visual content using the same neural pathways it uses to understand language.

The model demonstrates capabilities in realistic subject modification, style transformations, and element manipulation.

However, it has limitations in replicating artist-specific styles.

The model also excels at removing copyright protections, as it can remove watermarks from images.

Gemini 2.0 Flash is available to developers through Google AI Studio and the Gemini API across supported regions, as well as on Hugging Face.