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  • 💸 $600M Crypto Liquidation Shakes Markets | 🦊 Mozilla Axes Pocket & Fakespot | 🤖 Google AI’s Calendar Glitch

💸 $600M Crypto Liquidation Shakes Markets | 🦊 Mozilla Axes Pocket & Fakespot | 🤖 Google AI’s Calendar Glitch

Crypto bulls get wiped out, Mozilla trims the fat for focus, and Google’s AI forgets what year it is—just another day in tech’s fast lane.

Author

Sascha Thiele
May 31, 2025

In partnership with

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🖋 Today’s Angle

Welcome to your Saturday morning reality check—where Mozilla is cleaning house faster than a Marie Kondo marathon, crypto bulls just learned what $600 million in liquidations feels like, and tech funding somehow keeps defying gravity. Today's theme is "pruning season"—companies are cutting what doesn't work while doubling down on what does. Whether it's Mozilla ditching Pocket to focus on Firefox or startups securing massive rounds in AI and industrial tech, the message is clear: efficiency beats everything in 2025. You're watching survival of the focused unfold in real time.

––Sascha Thiele

💰 The Finance Overview

Tech stocks ended Friday relatively flat as markets brushed off trade tensions, with the S&P 500 recovering from a 1% intraday drop to close nearly unchanged while the Nasdaq slipped just 0.4%. The tech sector is trading at 27.3x PE ratio with $18.0T market cap—up from April's $16.1T—showing resilience despite tariff uncertainty. Startup funding continues its hot streak with Snorkel AI landing $100M at a $1.3B valuation and Applied Computing securing £9M for industrial AI solutions. FAANG stocks showed mixed performance, with Apple gaining 0.73% and Netflix surging 2.03%, while Tesla dropped 3.29% and Nvidia fell 2.85%. The infrastructure play remains strong as companies bet big on AI data platforms and edge computing solutions, signaling investors still believe the AI revolution has legs.

DowJones: $DJI ( ▲ 0.09% ) 
German DAX: $DAX ( ▼ 0.27% ) 

What Happened: Bitcoin slipped below $104,000 Friday, triggering the biggest liquidation event since February with over $600 million in forced closures of bullish futures positions. The cascade hit 89% long positions, with Bitcoin futures leading losses at $153 million, followed by Ethereum at $122 million and Solana at $33 million. The largest single liquidation was a $12.25 million BTC/USDT position on OKX.

Why It Matters: This liquidation bomb suggests overleveraged markets finally met their match when Trump's renewed China tariff threats spooked global markets. When this much bullish leverage gets wiped out, it often signals either a major correction ahead or—ironically—a contrarian buying opportunity as weak hands get flushed out.

What Happened: The crypto selloff intensified over the weekend with Dogecoin plummeting 8% and Pepe cratering 12%, while the broader CoinDesk 20 index dropped 4.2%. Most major altcoins fell 2-5%, with only Cronos Network's CRO bucking the trend with a mysterious 12% gain. Analysts point to U.S.-China trade tensions and Bitcoin whale selling as primary catalysts.

Why It Matters: When memecoins get hit this hard, it typically signals retail panic rather than institutional repositioning. The fact that Bitcoin whales shifted to net selling after months of accumulation suggests even the smart money is taking profits, potentially setting up a deeper correction across all crypto assets.

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🚀 Tech & Business

What Happened: Mozilla announced it's shuttering both Pocket and Fakespot, giving users until October 8 to export their data before everything gets deleted. The company acquired Pocket in 2017 and Fakespot in 2023, but both services never gained significant traction. Pocket's mobile apps are already unavailable for download, and Fakespot's browser extensions will stop working June 10.
Why It Matters: This is classic 2025 focus strategy—Mozilla is admitting these side projects were distracting from their core Firefox mission. When a company starts cutting services this aggressively, it usually means they're either in trouble or getting serious about growth. Given Firefox's market position, probably both.

What Happened: Snorkel AI just closed a massive $100M Series D at a $1.3B valuation to expand its AI data platform, while Applied Computing secured £9M for industrial AI solutions targeting oil refineries. London-based Assisterr also raised €2.4M for its no-code AI agent platform, and RoxFit landed £800K for its hybrid fitness app. These deals show investors are still betting big on practical AI applications.

Why It Matters: While crypto markets are melting down, AI startups keep attracting serious capital because they're solving real problems. Snorkel's focus on enterprise data development and Applied Computing's industrial applications prove that AI with clear ROI still gets funded—unlike the "AI for AI's sake" projects that are quietly dying. These companies understand that in 2025, you better have revenue potential, not just demo potential.

What Happened: Google's AI Overviews feature spent three days insisting it was still 2024 when asked "Is it 2025?"—complete with citations from Reddit and Wikipedia's 2025 page. The glitch followed earlier blunders like recommending rock-eating and pizza glue, prompting the company to deploy emergency fixes .

Why It Matters: This isn't just a calendar malfunction—it's a stark reminder that even the smartest AI still struggles with basic contextual awareness. When 1.5 billion users rely on your search engine and 10% use AI Mode daily, getting the year wrong isn't a bug—it's an existential crisis. The real joke? Engineers probably spent more time debugging this than it took to build the first moon landing code .

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🏁 Tomorrow’s Forecast

June kicks off with markets holding their breath for next week's trade developments while crypto licks its wounds 🩹

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