Picture This 🖼️
Generate an AI image for me, please.
Trust is the thread running through this week’s stories, both who has it and who’s testing its limits. Platforms are pushing further into AI, institutions are placing bigger bets on crypto, and both are learning that bigger moves invite closer scrutiny.
This week, we will look at:
Why Meta has chosen to tap into the AI-generating world.
How a collapsing yen is pushing Japanese firms into bitcoin and XRP.
Why Vanguard, crypto’s biggest skeptic, just posted a job that says otherwise.
[Meta, Meta on the Wall 🪞]
Meta has launched a new AI image generator.
The Context 🧑💻:
Meta’s AI unit Meta Superintelligence Labs has launched Muse Image, its newest AI image generator.
The Muse Image feature, which was originally called Mango, is now available for free on WhatsApp direct messages, Instagram stories, and the Meta AI app.
There are settings where users can opt out of being featured in AI images; any public-facing Instagram account is available for people to use for AI imagery. Meta has said it will notify individuals if they are used in AI-generated content.
Meta has also announced its plan to release an AI video generation model called Muse Video at a later date. This new AI stack will compete against the likes of OpenAI’s Alphabet and Google’s Nano Banana.
The Coverage 📰:
“Meta Debuts New AI Image-Generation Model Inside Chatbot, Instagram” (Bloomberg)
“Meta Now Lets Anyone Use Your Instagram Photos in AI Images—Unless You Opt Out” (Wired)
“Meta just launched a new AI generator, Muse Image, and users are already pushing back over use of their photos” (TechCrunch)
PR Perspective 🔎:
In launching this new feature, Meta has reopened old privacy wounds. Several reporters are rightfully asking the question as to what this new image generator means for social media users. Many people have left their Instagram accounts as public without the fear that a person could hop onto their account and turn their post into a marketing campaign or distorted content. AI has hype, that is for sure. However, announcements are increasingly receiving more scrutiny, perhaps because, whilst we might live in a technology-obsessed generation, people still crave what’s real and secure.
[No Japanese Yen in the Corporate Reserve Plan 🪙]
A 40-year low yen is pushing Japanese firms into bitcoin and XRP as their reserve safety net.
The Context 🧑💻:
The Japanese yen has hit a 40-year low, pushing Japanese companies to hold reserve assets in bitcoin and XRP. According to SBI VC, the Japanese crypto exchange subsidiary of SBI Holdings, registered accounts have doubled since 2025, crossing two million.
Japanese companies are increasingly putting BTC and XRP in shareholder benefit investment programmes, where crypto assets are distributed as rewards.
The falling currency has also caused the most bankruptcies for the first half of the year since 2022, highlighting the rising economic costs of the slump.
Investor outlook remains bearish, the most it’s been since 2007. Hedge funds are placing bets on greater losses on the yen-to-dollar ratio, with contracts climbing up to almost 138,000 as per CFTC data.
Foreign workers in Japan also reported a decline in interest in staying in the country for work, citing low wages and a weak yen as motivations to work in countries like South Korea.
The Coverage 📰:
“Live markets: Japan’s collapsing yen is pushing companies into bitcoin and XRP” (CoinDesk)
“Bitcoin, XRP Gain Ground in Japan as Weak Yen Fuels Corporate Treasury Diversification” (Benzinga)
“Japan’s appeal to foreign workers falls on low wages and weak yen” (Nikkei Asia)
“Japan sees leap in bankruptcies triggered by weak yen” (The Straits Times)
PR Perspective 🔎:
Japanese firms are turning to crypto as an alternative store of value. This reflects a wider trend of institutional involvement in digital assets, with companies like SBI Holdings adopting stakes in crypto exchanges and firms building up treasuries to counter the yen depreciation. It’s a story to watch as economies globally face rippling effects from the falling yen, and as crypto as an industry regains some footing from Japanese institutional involvement.
[Vanguard’s Crypto U-Turn 🔄]
Crypto’s biggest skeptic just posted a job that says otherwise.
The Context 🧑💻:
Vanguard, a global asset manager, has opened its first-ever search for a Head of Digital Assets, posted 6 July within its Personal Wealth division, after years as one of crypto’s most vocal institutional skeptics.
The hired individual will lead Vanguard’s crypto strategy across tokenisation, stablecoins, custody and blockchain settlement, and represent the $10-12 trillion firm with regulators and industry groups.
This move follows Vanguard’s December move to let brokerage clients trade crypto ETFs, reversing its 2024 block on spot Bitcoin ETFs; the firm has also held a stake as the largest shareholder in Michael Saylor’s Strategy.
CEO Salim Ramji, who joined from BlackRock’s iShares unit in July 2024, has driven the shift, though Vanguard maintains it still has no plans to launch its own crypto products.
The Coverage 📰:
“Vanguard is Hiring for Its First Head of Digital Assets, Signaling a Shift From Its Crypto-Skeptic Past” (Unchained)
“Vanguard opens search for digital assets leader in sign of evolving crypto strategy” (CoinDesk)
“Multi-trillion-dollar asset manager Vanguard hiring crypto exec to help influence market” (The Block)
PR Perspective 🔎:
Vanguard’s actions are quietly outpacing its public stance. The firm has said little has changed on its investment philosophy, yet it’s now building the team to act on tokenisation, stablecoins and custody. That gap is the story, not because it’s contradictory, but because it shows conviction is building faster internally than the firm is signalling externally. In a nutshell, the angle is simple: watch what Vanguard builds, not just what it says.
[Tweet of The Week]
Credit: @Literariium
Connect with YAP Global: Website, X & LinkedIn
The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It’s aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It’s put together by a team at YAP and doesn’t contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we’ll flag that).
The team: Founder Samantha Yap, Samvidha Sharma, Sofia Anderson, Wenwei See, Meghna Dembla, Shajar Qureshi, and TJ Thomas. Your feedback is, as always, welcome. Ping us at thecontext@yapglobal.com. Old newsletters can be found here.
This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, a financial and technology PR consultancy that advises companies in the digital assets, fintech, stablecoins, AI, and agentic finance sectors. Find out more about us here.