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Labubu Mania: From Bridal Boutiques to Blockchain | PYMNTS.com

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David’s Bridal once helped you snag a gown; now it wants to outfit your inner gremlin. The 70-year-old retailer will make you a dress for your Labubu plushie. It’s the latest twist in the runaway toy craze that’s turned Pop Mart’s snaggle-toothed sprite into a $1 billion culture bomb. But wedding aisles are hardly the weirdest place you can nab (or lose) a Labubu. Strap in.

Where to Buy a Labubu When You’ve Lost Your Mind

Mall claw machines, but make it covert. In Los Angeles, collectors stalk random “surprise drops” in Pop Mart-branded vending machines scattered through Westfield Century City and Glendale Galleria. Miss the moment and you’ll pay triple at a tiny Japanese gift shop one floor up.

TikTok Live “drop culture.” Pop Mart’s twice-weekly streams have become QVC for Gen Z insomniacs. Comment “bubu plz” fast enough and you might score a blind box before bots vacuum the inventory.

Crypto exchanges. Yes, there’s a LABUBU token. MEXC and a handful of Solana DEXes let you swap USDT for the memecoin, whose only utility is bragging rights and the occasional plush redemption code during promo events.

Customization Nation

Etsy sellers are cranking out accessories faster than you can say “K-fashion for cryptids”:

  • KC Chiefs jerseys, mini cowboy hats and even 40 oz. Stanley tumblers for a 5-inch monster.
  • TikTok DIYers airbrush “cotton-candy” pastel gradients onto blank figures, turning each toothy grin into confectionery nightmare fuel.
  • Instagram artists take commissions for full repaint jobs — think goth-black Labubu with Swarovski fangs delivered in under two weeks.

Peak Sticker Shock

Record-setting prices are now the norm:

Labubu VariantPrice (USD)Why It’s Nuts
Mint-Green 131 cm “Human-Sized”150,000+One of one; literally toddler-height.
Labubu × Vans Old Skool55,000Sneakerhead clout meets vinyl gremlin.
MEGA Sketch 1000%38,0001:72 chase ratio fuels feral bidding wars.

Fraud, Fakes and the Rise of ‘Lafufu’

Scammers smell FOMO like sharks smell blood:

Counterfeit crisis. U.K. trading-standards raids seized thousands of fake dolls with loose limbs and toxic dyes; some “heads literally disintegrated” during inspection.

BBB scam tracker. More than 70 U.S. consumers paid sketchy sites advertised on TikTok only to receive nothing or a corpse-painted knock-off missing the requisite nine teeth.

Bot brigades. Resellers deploy automation to clear official stock in seconds, then relist on eBay at 5-10× markup, pushing frustrated newbies into shady channels.

Pro tip: if the box lacks Pop Mart’s hologram QR or the doll’s grin looks too gleeful, you’re holding a Lafufu, not a Labubu.

Paying With Crypto (Because, Obviously)

Pop Mart itself sticks to fiat, but secondary marketplaces go full Web3:

  • Collectors in Discord “bububanks” swap ETH for grails using multisig escrow bots.
  • Pharrell’s Joopiter auction accepted BTC for a Sacai × Seventeen collab set that cleared $11,000 apiece.
  • There’s even a Labubu NFT.

The Bottom Line

Labubu’s mutant mash-up of kawaii and chaos has leapt from blind-box addiction to luxury asset class, with side quests in wedding merch, memecoins and law-enforcement seizures. Whether you’re bidding six figures for life-size mint-green vinyl or frantically thumbing a TikTok Live to beat the bots, one truth remains: the gremlin always wins. Happy hunting, and may your nuptials be blessed with nine perfectly pointy teeth.

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Apple’s Sept. 9 Event to Feature Next-Generation iPhone and Apple Watch | PYMNTS.com

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When Apple holds its product launch event on Tuesday (Sept. 9), most of the changes it unveils will reportedly involve hardware rather than software.

The announcements will include the next generation of the iPhone, which accounts for about half of the company’s sales, Bloomberg reported Friday (Sept. 5).

The new iPhone lineup will include high-end versions with new backs called the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, a new ultrathin model called iPhone 17 Air, and a base model with a slightly larger screen called the iPhone 17, according to the report.

The new Apple smartwatches will include an Apple Watch Ultra 3 with a slightly larger screen, an Apple Watch Series 11 with a new screen that has a higher maximum brightness, and an Apple Watch SE with newer displays and a faster chip, the report said.

The company’s AirPods Pro 3 may include smaller charging cases with a new pairing mechanism as well as a new software feature that will translate conversations, per the report.

When Apple announced the upcoming product launch event, it said the event will be streamed on apple.com, Apple TV and YouTube Live.

Apple CEO Tim Cook promoted the event with a post on Apple’s newsroom site, saying, “Get ready for an awe dropping #AppleEvent on Tuesday, September 9!”

It was reported Aug. 24 that the upcoming changes to the iPhone lineup will kick off a three-year overhaul of the smartphones that will follow a series of moderate upgrades.

Next year, Apple will introduce its first foldable iPhone, which is expected to include five cameras and come with no SIM card slot.

In 2027, the company will mark the 20th anniversary of its smartphone with a curved-glass model, the iPhone 20, that will feature curved glass all around and will be a break from the more squared-off version of the phone Apple has used for the last five years.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in that Aug. 24 report: “The bottom line: 2025 won’t be a revolutionary year for the iPhone. But it will lay the foundation for major shifts in 2026 and 2027, making it an exciting time for iPhone fans.”

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FIS Aims to Bolster Corporate Nerve Centers With ‘Neural Treasury’ | PYMNTS.com

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Financial technology company FIS has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered treasury management solution.

FIS Neural Treasury combines AI, machine learning and robotics to help corporate treasurers increase efficiency, reduce operational risk and unlock cash flow to finance strategic growth opportunities according to a Thursday (Sept. 4) news release.

“Amidst rapid technological change, rising capital costs and market volatility, corporate treasurers need improved visibility into their global liquidity positions, more intelligent risk management capabilities and the ability to scale operations without proportionally increasing costs,” FIS said in the release.

Neural Treasury, the release adds, helps address these needs with things like Treasury GPT, an FIS tool rolled out in March that the company says is the first large language model (LLM) designed specifically for the treasury industry.

The new suite can also analyze data and cash flow patterns to help predict cash flows and “support more precise and proactive liquidity management,” while also monitoring transaction patterns to detect potential fraud and adapt to improve detection capabilities over time.

“Corporate treasury departments are the financial nerve center of their organizations, but they’re too often constrained by legacy systems that struggle to meet the needs and pace of today’s increasingly complex financial landscape,” JP James, head of treasury and risk at FIS, said in the announcement.

“Neural Treasury is designed to harness the power of AI to help corporate treasurers to act as strategic leaders and support their efforts to optimize important processes like cash positioning, forecasting, payment execution, risk management and more.”

PYMNTS earlier this week wrote about the role AI can play in helping treasurers, noting that the role of the treasurer changed after major upheavals like the 2008 financial crisis, and again during the COVID pandemic.

“These historic crucibles have elevated treasury’s strategic importance. Boards now expect treasurers to provide real-time insight, not just static reports,” PYMNTS wrote.

“But human teams are limited: even a well-staffed treasury department cannot scan thousands of market signals, liquidity positions and geopolitical shifts in real time without help. Spreadsheets and enterprise systems only go so far.”

Enter the agentic AI treasurer, which — rather than functioning as silent engines behind a dashboard — can appear as interactive, explainable agents.

“They can tell a CFO why a swap was executed, walk through alternative scenarios, and even adjust tone and detail depending on the audience, whether it’s a risk committee or a junior analyst,” the report added. “The once-invisible treasury function suddenly becomes a visible, conversational partner.”

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HappyRobot Raises $44 Million for AI Supply Chain Workers | PYMNTS.com

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HappyRobot, an artificial intelligence startup focused on supply chain operations, raised $44 million.

The Series B funding will help the company with hiring, product development and expansion into more enterprise deployments, according to a Wednesday (Sept. 3) press release.

While the company did not share its valuation, a report by Reuters cited unnamed sources who said HappyRobot is now valued at $500 million.

A wave of venture investment into AI firms has raised concerns about possible saturation and increased competition for the companies, the report said.

HappyRobot is hoping its in-house tech and logistics expertise help separate it from general-purpose AI voice startups such as ElevenLabs, according to the report.

“Being verticalized” gives the company an advantage over more general-purpose competitors who might be “clueless about the operations and the intricacies of these industries,” said HappyRobot co-founder and CEO Pablo Palafox, per the report.

Launched 18 months ago, the company has more than 70 enterprise customers, including DHL, Ryder, Schneider and Werner, which use HappyRobot for tasks such as appointment scheduling, collections and outbound sales, according to the press release.

“The early results are clear: AI workers aren’t just cutting costs — they’re unlocking new revenue opportunities, increasing visibility and freeing teams to focus on strategic, relationship-driven work,” the release said.

HappyRobot’s AI operating system combines “real-time truth,” specialized AI workers, and an orchestrating intelligence to manage “complex, mission-critical work,” starting with supply chain and industrial-scale operations, per the release.

The goal is to help enterprises operate with speed and ongoing improvement, “while humans focus on higher-value work,” the release said

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “The Agentic Trust Gap: Enterprise CFOs Push Pause on Agentic AI” found that 15% of chief financial officers surveyed are even considering putting agentic AI to work, with most still in the early evaluation stage.

“This contrasts with the surging adoption of generative AI, which CFOs are increasingly using for tasks like content creation, customer service, coding and data analysis,” PYMNTS wrote Aug. 15. “The report shows generative AI’s deployment for product and service innovation up 21% and for spotting fraud and errors up 31% since March 2024.”

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