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Why is some money 'good' and other money broken? A short walkthrough of the three jobs every functioning currency has to do - medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value - why all three are required, and how hyperinflation, gold, cowrie shells, and digital currencies all map onto the same framework.

Brent crude rebounded to $92 a barrel on Wednesday from a two-month low as Hormuz tanker attacks undercut US-Iran truce hopes, keeping supply risks in focus.

Nominal (US) raised $240M for software that helps engineers build and test complex aerospace, defense and manufacturing hardware.

Before there were coins, there were commodities - useful things that doubled as money. A short walkthrough of why salt, cattle, and gold became the world's first currencies, the five properties that decided which commodities won, and the built-in instability of money you could also eat, milk, or wear.

Oura agreed to acquire AI-native primary care startup Counsel Health for $625M.

Once communities agreed money was money, the next problem was proving it. A short walkthrough of how the first stamped coins replaced weighing-and-biting with institutional trust - collapsing transaction costs, enabling vast empires, and introducing a brand-new failure mode: debasement, the silent inflation that toppled currencies long before paper money existed.

Project Omega (US) raised $80M to recover materials from spent nuclear fuel and build radiovoltaic power systems.

How did money break free from metal? A short walkthrough of paper money's accidental origin in medieval China - warehouse receipts that quietly became more useful than the gold inside the warehouse - the Yuan Dynasty hyperinflation that followed, Europe's 600-year-later adoption through private banks, the fractional reserve trick that multiplied money supply, and why digital money is just the same idea taken to its logical conclusion: trust in a promise, with no physical form required.

Primordial Labs (US, New Haven) raised an $18M Series A led by Ballistic Ventures for natural-language control of drones and other military equipment.

PORT (UK) raised €14.5M in equity and debt for autonomous delivery robots that use existing courier networks.

Neobe (UK) raised €6.1M to engineer bacteria that break down the barriers protecting tumours.

Dreeze emerged from stealth with a $33M seed led by Norwest and Bessemer for cloud application revival.

Nidus (US) raised $30M, with Kleiner Perkins among the investors, to deploy embodied-intelligence robotics in defence factories.

For most of the 20th century, money was tethered to gold - and then, in a single August evening in 1971, that tether was cut. A short walkthrough of how the gold standard actually worked, why a fixed gold price ($35 an ounce) became an economic straitjacket, what Bretton Woods tried to do, why Nixon ended gold convertibility, and why fiat money - backed by nothing but trust - turned out to be more flexible, more resilient, and the foundation of every modern economy.

Alterra Labs (US, New York) raised a $12.5M seed led by Oak HC/FT to build simulated environments that test and train medical AI.