The phrase “we are still early” remains a popular sentiment in the crypto community in 2025, suggesting that despite bitcoin’s (BTC) price surpassing $100,000, the overall adoption of digital assets is still in its infancy.

Morgan Stalney’s recent survey of financial professionals confirms this sentiment. The investment banking giant surveyed more than 500 summer interns in North America from June 10 to 27, and 147 summer interns in Europe from June 26 to July 7.

The survey revealed that only 18% of interns own or use cryptocurrencies, increasing from 13% the previous year. Meanwhile, the percentage of interns interested in digital assets has risen to 26% from 23%. Meanwhile, 55% still do not care for digital assets, a majority, although the number has receded from 63% last year.

The widespread lack of interest appears significant, especially considering that BTC has already gained acceptance on Wall Street through the introduction of ETFs.

The 11 spot BTC ETFs have amassed $53.7 billion in investor wealth since their debut in January last year, according to data source Farside Investors. Ether ETFs have registered an inflow of $12.4 billion. Corporations are rapidly adding both assets to their balance sheets.

BTC’s price has surpassed $100,000 this year, gaining a foothold in institutional investor portfolios. Ether hit a record high of over $4,800 on Friday.

More open to AI

The survey revealed a clear adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by future finance industry leaders, with 96% of U.S. interns and 91% of their European counterparts reporting the use of technology at least occasionally.

The consensus is that AI is effective, with nearly all respondents agreeing they “save me time” and are “easy to use”. However, 88% of interns also had a nuanced view, believing the technology still “needs accuracy improvement.”

The widespread adoption is consistent with the sentiment on Wall Street, where the Mag 7 firms are expected to spend $650 billion in capital expenditures and research and development this year.

Trillion dollar humanoids market

The survey revealed that most interns are interested in owning humanoids, or sophisticated machines designed with a human-like form and capabilities, but are cautious about their impact on society.

Over 60% of U.S. interns and 69% of European interns expressed interest in having a humanoid at home, with both regions believing the robots will have “viable use cases” and replace many human jobs.

Still, only 36% of U.S. interns and 24% of Europeans agreed that humanoids will have a positive impact on society.

Morgan Stanley estimates that the humanoid market could surpass $5 trillion by 2050, including sales from supply chains and networks for repair, maintenance and support.

“Although humanoids are still under development, there could be more than 1 billion by 2050, with 90% used for industrial and commercial purposes,” the investment banking giant said in a report in May.

According to a June 17 report by Fox News, the company recently introduced two new robots, HopeJR and Reachy Mini, designed to be open, affordable, and easy for anyone to use.

HopeJR is a full-size robot with 66 moving joints, capable of walking, using its arms, and performing a variety of movements independently.

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Hugging Face plans to price it around $3,000, far below what robots of this scale usually sell for. This price makes it more practical for schools, small research teams, or individuals who want to explore robotics without needing a large budget.

Additionally, Reachy Mini is about 11 inches tall and designed for use on a desk. It includes a camera, microphone, and speaker, and it can move its head in six different directions.

Reachy Mini is expected to cost between $250 and $300. It is made to be simple to build and customize. It also integrates with Hugging Face Spaces, which provides users with access to over 500,000 AI tools already available through the Hugging Face Hub.

Both robots are open-source, which means anyone can build them from scratch, modify their functionality, or even add new features.

Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue said this open model is meant to keep robotics accessible and prevent the field from being controlled by a few large companies.

Meanwhile, Mattel, the company behind brands like Barbie and Hot Wheels, has announced a partnership with OpenAI. What’s the goal of the collaboration? Read the full story.

A hot potato: The prospect of humanoid robots building more humanoid robots sounds like something from science fiction, but an Austin-based company has just signed a deal that could eventually lead to this scenario. It’s inevitably caused more fears about human jobs being lost, but the company behind the machines says it will leave employees more time for “creative, thought-intensive projects.”

Robot-maker Apptronik has announced a pilot partnership with American firm Jabil. In addition to its supply chain services primarily serving OEMs, Jabil is involved in designing, engineering, and manufacturing electronic circuit boards and systems.

Jabil said that it has several customers who are developing robots and warehouse automation. The new deal will see it provide a factory environment that will offer real-world validation testing of Apptronik Apollo robots, ahead of scaling the robot for manufacturing. The 5-foot 8-inch, 160-pound robots have a 4-hour-per-battery-pack runtime and a 55-pound payload.

The pilot program will see the robots carry out an array of simple, repetitive tasks such as inspection, sorting, kitting, lineside delivery, fixture placement, and sub-assembly.

Jabil also said it has agreed to begin producing the Apollo robots in its factories, meaning that should the pilot program work out, these robots will eventually be put to work building more of themselves.

The idea of AI-powered robots working tirelessly to create more robots sounds concerning. Apptronik told TechCrunch this is still a ways off, though it is targeting 2026 to begin manufacturing commercial units.

Before we start to worry about robots building more robots, there’s the pressing issue of how this type of increased automation will impact human jobs.

The makers of automation/AI systems regularly claim that their products will help workers rather than replace them, with the machines carrying out more repetitive and monotonous tasks so humans can concentrate on other work.

Apptronik followed the same line, stating that its robots will give people more time for projects that the machines cannot do. The announcement says those whose tasks have been taken by the Apollo robots could spend more time on “creative, thought-intensive projects” – like writing resumes, probably.

This is the second major pilot deal entered into by Apptronik. It signed an agreement with Mercedes-Benz in March 2024 that saw Apollo put to work on certain tasks on the automaker’s production lines.

In January last year, BMW announced that humanoid robots would begin working at its vehicle manufacturing plants, starting in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The 5-foot 6-inch, 130-pound robots, made by Californian Robotics startup Figure, were successfully tested at the facility in June, when they inserted sheet metal parts that were assembled as part of the chassis.