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Canva was the rare startup that grew fast and made money—then AI cut its growth forecast by a third

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Canva was the rare startup that grew fast and made money—then AI cut its growth forecast by a third

Canva has spent years proving that it can do something many high-growth startups struggle to achieve: grow rapidly while making money. Then came generative AI.

The design-software company cut its expected revenue growth rate by a third to 20% after the unexpectedly high cost of delivering AI features prompted it to slow its rollout. Canva CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins told Fortune users’ demand for new AI features “significantly exceeded” the company’s expectations, 

“This validated the demand, but also showed us we needed to reduce the cost of completing an AI task to support a broad rollout,” Perkins said over email. “Rather than broadly rolling out a product before the underlying economics were ready, we decided to slow the rollout while we rebuilt the architecture, reduced unit costs and strengthened the business model.”

The cost problem lands at a pivotal moment for Canva because AI is central to its effort to become a broader workplace-software platform. Perkins previously told Fortune that the AI market was too fragmented, and Canva has since added tools including Canva Code as it seeks to expand beyond design into enterprise workflows. 

This illustrates a broader dilemma spreading across the software industry: Companies can’t afford to sit out the AI boom, yet embracing it can undermine the lucrative economics of the businesses they are trying to protect.

“AI is making SaaS no longer a zero marginal cost solution, which has really been what I would call a lot of software’s secret sauce up until now,” Derek Hernandez, Pitchbook’s senior research analyst covering the intersection of SaaS and AI, told Fortune. “People want a much more capable product and solution, which through today’s technology means cost of usage is becoming a really global challenge for all of these companies.”

Perkins said in her email that Canva has reduced the cost per task by nearly 90% since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April, an agentic upgrade to the Canva platform, but with Canva AI users creating three times as many designs as in the previous version of Canva AI, the company is focusing on improving its economics. Figma, Canva’s public-market parallel, has disclosed its version of AI trade-offs: Its free-cash-flow margin fell to 14% in the second quarter from 27% in the first, forecasting third-quarter revenue growth at 36%, a deceleration from its June quarter 48%. 

AI costs compress margins for SaaS

Hernandez told Fortune that Canva and Figma are the “biggest signals” that AI is breaking SaaS’s traditional model, as rising inference expenses—the recurring cost of processing AI requests—now show up as slower growth for Canva and margin compression for Figma.

“If you have a basic analogy of a car, everything it takes to build a Ford F150 would be training, and then gas, mechanic costs, and anything else would be inference, because that’s the point of using the product,” Hernandez explained. “Canva and Figma both hit the same wall about five days apart, but they cited it in different places.”

The AI cost reset carries particular weight as Canva evaluates a potential IPO. Fortune reported last year that an employee share sale valued Canva at $42 billion when experts said the company could go public in 2026, though now Hernandez told Fortune Canva might be targeting a time next year. By “making the decision to basically tap the brakes” on the AI rollout, Canva is thinking of investors. 

“I’m sure they’re trying to protect their profitability, especially if they want to go to public investors,” Hernandez said. 



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Prediction markets should dial back faulty filings for incentives to boost trading: CFTC

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Prediction markets should dial back faulty filings for incentives to boost trading: CFTC

Like any regulated trading platform under authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, prediction markets firms try to encourage heavy traders and for firms to act as market makers in ways that can deepen participation and trading volume. But the CFTC is concerned about how they’re doing it, according to guidance issued on Wednesday.

The U.S. derivatives regulator cautioned the event-contracts platforms that it’s seeing an increase in their filings in pursuit of incentive programs, and they are often “procedurally or substantively deficient,” the document said. That hinders the agency from figuring out whether the platform “has provided adequate notice of the terms of the program and sufficiently evaluated the program’s compliance.”

The CFTC is seeing some of the features of these rewards programs “present compliance concerns.” Some of the rewards for high-volume participants can encourage them “to trade solely to reach volume targets, heightening risks of wash-trading, pre-arranged trading, or other fraudulent, manipulative, or disruptive trading practices.”

And market-maker programs, in which firms are encouraged to handle either side of a market, have been guaranteeing net process or to cover losses “through stipends and rebates,” which the regulator warned could also encourage fraudulent behavior and market manipulation.



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Uniswap slides 10%, below key support level: Will sell pressure lead to more losses?

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moneyvests
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Uniswap slides 10%, below key support level: Will sell pressure lead to more losses?


Uniswap [UNI] is under massive downside pressure. After holding between $3.9 and $4, this consolidation range broke down. As a result, $3.9, which has acted as support the past week, failed to hold, with UNI plunging to a low of $3.4.

As of this writing, Uniswap was trading around $3.5, marking a 10.5% drop on the daily charts. However, the altcoin trading volume surged 151.8% to $319 million, suggesting rising activity on the sell side.

Uniswap $3.5 million in long liquidations sparks panic

This sudden market drop triggered a massive wave of long liquidations. According to CoinGlass data, over $3.25 million worth of long positions were liquidated. 

Uniswap Liquidation
Source: Coinglass

With the risk of liquidation surging, traders who had long positions panicked and increased spending significantly. 

Over the last 24 hours, UNI saw $137 million in Futures outflows compared to $106 million in inflows. As a result, the altcoin’s Futures netflow dropped 328% to -$31 million, a clear sign of aggressive selling in the Futures market. 

Uniswap futures inflowsUniswap futures inflows
Source: CoinGlass

The increased selling activity on Futures further weakened the market, leading to a price decline.

Spot sellers show more determination

After Uniswap [UNI] failed to defend the key support level, traders, especially on the Spot, panicked. Most of them sold their holdings, fearing making more losses.

Uniswap Exchange Inflow (Total) Uniswap Exchange Inflow (Total)
Source: CryptoQuant

Exchange activity confirms this bearish shift. According to CryptoQuant, Uniswap’s exchange inflow surged to 5.1 million while outflows also rose to 3.9 million. 

As a result, altcoin’s exchange netflow rose to a monthly high of 1.2 million. The rising inflows and outflows showed both buyers and sellers stepped into the market as the market slip continued. 

Uniswap Exchange Netflow (TotalUniswap Exchange Netflow (Total
Source: CryptoQuant

However, sellers showed greater determination and overpowered buyers. Historically, such market conditions have often preceded weaker price action and more losses on the price charts. 

What’s next for UNI?

Uniswap is overrun by sellers across the market, and the downside risk is higher than ever. For starters, the altcoin positive index continued to decline, falling from 26 to 19 at press time.

At the same time, the ADX rose from 34 to 40 while the negative index climbed from 14 to 13. When ADX and -DI are rising while the +DI is falling, it reflects strengthening downside momentum and weakened bullish momentum.

UNI ADX SMIUNI ADX SMI
Source: TradingView

The Relative Vigor Index [RVGI] further confirms this bearish structure, holding on a downtrend for five consecutive days. 

Taken together, these two indicators point towards the likelihood of some more losses on Uniswap’s price charts. Therefore, if selling pressure continues to rise from all directions, UNI is likely to lose the $3.4 support with $3.0 as the next key levels.

Final Summary

  • UNI declined 10%, breaching the $3.9 support level, to a three-week low of $3.4. 
  • Uniswap dropped as traders across the market panicked and hurriedly closed their positions. 



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Kalshi taps DoubleZero for Wall Street-style high-speed data feed

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moneyvests
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Kalshi taps DoubleZero for Wall Street-style high-speed data feed

The growing presence of financial institutions in cryptocurrency brings with it increasing demand for Wall-Street style systems in digital asset markets, such as servers that offer split-second advantages when executing trades.

Kalshi is looking to meet that demand by adding Solana-based DoubleZero’s low-latency market data feed to its prediction market order book.

The DoubleZero Foundation said this will provide trading firms with a machine-readable view of a prediction market for pricing, hedging and signal generation on Solana, one of the major layer-1 blockchains.

The foundation described DoubleZeroEdge as a transport layer, sending live exchange and onchain data over dedicated fiber, publishing the data and distributing it simultaneously to all connected traders.

In traditional finance (TradFi), institutions use specialized networks to access data at high speed, whereas in crypto, traders still largely rely on the internet. DoubleZero attempts to address that through a bespoke onchain system.

“This is the same distribution model that has underpinned traditional financial exchanges, from NYSE to Nasdaq to the CME, for decades,” the foundation said in an emailed announcement on Wednesday.



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Bank of America sends blunt message to Nvidia stock investors

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Bank of America sends blunt message to Nvidia stock investors


Every few quarters, the debate around Nvidia moves. For a while, it was about whether AI demand was real. Then it was about whether margins could hold. Now, heading into its August 26 earnings report, the question is whether the next product cycle can keep a company already running at this pace from slowing down.

Bank of America thinks it can. And the note behind that view is worth reading before the earnings date arrives.

Bank of America Nvidia earnings preview and $350 price target

In a note shared with TheStreet on August 7, Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya called Nvidia (NVDA) his top sector pick ahead of the company’s fiscal Q2 FY2027 results. He expects revenue of $94 billion to $95 billion, roughly $3 billion to $4 billion above Nvidia’s own $91 billion guidance. That guidance excludes any China data center compute revenue, meaning actual results could come in higher if modest shipments to that market resume. Third-quarter guidance, he says, should come in at $107 billion to $108 billion, well above the approximately $104 billion Wall Street is currently modeling.

For context, Nvidia reported Q1 FY2027 revenue of $81.6 billion in May, up 85% year over year, with data center revenue of $75.2 billion. The Q2 guidance of $91 billion implied continued sequential growth. BofA’s $94 billion to $95 billion estimate would extend that momentum further.

Related: Nvidia’s CEO just sent strong signal to stock market investors

But Arya isn’t really writing about the next quarter. “The commencement of Vera Rubin next-generation chip deliveries marks the beginning of an extended upgrade cycle spanning multiple quarters,” he wrote. That’s the argument. Not just a beat. A new cycle.

Arya has a $350 price target on Nvidia, representing roughly 56% upside from $223.96 at the time of the note. He points out that the stock is trading at about 16 times forward earnings, its lowest valuation in roughly a decade, even as the earnings trajectory continues to rise, as TheStreet reported.

Why Nvidia Vera Rubin could trigger a multi-quarter upgrade cycle

Nvidia confirmed at GTC Taipei in June that Vera Rubin has entered full production. The platform pairs Rubin GPUs with the new Vera CPU and is expected to be available from cloud partners in the second half of 2026. AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Oracle are already preparing deployments, with OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX among the first customers. Nvidia is targeting enough capacity to require 2 gigawatts of power for the buildout, as TheStreet reported.



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TAO price touches $205, but weak inflows make breakout uncertain

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moneyvests
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TAO price touches $205, but weak inflows make breakout uncertain


Bittensor [TAO] briefly crossed $205 on August 12 before retreating towards $200, extending its recovery from the August lows without confirming a breakout.

Futures open interest approaching $300m implies traders are already building positions, but capital flowing out and a weak trend mean the move has not attained conviction levels and is yet to broaden.

TAO crypto struggles above $200

TAO was trading at around $199.65, down 0.95% after reaching $205.56 earlier today.

The daily rally briefly carried the price above $203.75, but it could not stay there. Even after the price fell, however, TAO remained above $195.01, leaving the recovery intact for now.

But buyers still need a daily close above the $204–$206 area, and if they get it, $220 would become the next level on the chart.

Below the current price, $195 is doing most of the work. Losing that level would put TAO back under the middle Bollinger Band, with the lower band at $186.27 offering the next reference.

TAO crypto daily price chart
Source: TradingView

Other indicators also did not paint a positive picture, with the Chaikin Money Flow [CMF] at -0.06, showing that capital flows remained slightly negative.

The strength of the trend was also limited, with the Average Directional Index [ADX] at 19.40, with readings in the 20s and 30s normally associated with a more established trend.

Bittensor Open Interest approaches $300M

Data from CoinGlass showed TAO futures open interest was approaching $300 million as at August 12.

Rising open interest shows that traders are adding positions but does not say whether those positions are predominantly bullish or bearish.

Funding shows something more interesting about this setup. TAO’s open-interest-weighted funding rate was near 0.006%, indicating that long-position holders were paying shorts.

That could make the next move sharper. Above the range, attention would turn to $220; below it, $186 remains the main downside level.

Final Summary

  • TAO briefly cleared $205, but weak CMF and an ADX reading below 20 left the breakout unconfirmed.
  • Open interest is nearing $300 million, increasing the chance of a larger move once TAO leaves the $195–$205 area.

 



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