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Bumble is in advanced talks to go private in a deal worth about $1 billion, Reuters reported on Monday, October 12, 2026. Ithaca Holdings is the prospective buyer. The talks come as Bumble tries to win back users with AI. Neither company has confirmed a deal. Both declined to comment. Still, Bumble shares surged roughly 50% to $3.80 that Monday, their biggest one-day percentage gain on record. A $1 billion price tag for a $14 billion debut Founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2014, Bumble went public in 2021 at a valuation of about $14 billion. Five years later, the proposed price tells a very different story. Paolo Pescatore, an analyst for PP Foresight, said the potential agreement is proof of Bumble’s difficulties, adding that: Going private looks less like a strategic masterstroke and more like an admission that Bumble’s current strategy is failing. The numbers a buyer would inherit Bumble’s Q2 results indicate the reasons for the investors’ concerns. Its revenue declined by 15.2% year-over-year to $210.5 million. The number of paying users also dropped by 16.4% to 3.2 million. Bumble reported a net loss of $127.9 million of which $169.3 million were impairment charges, even though the adjusted EBITDA represented $72.9 million. The slide started earlier. In 2025, the company registered a near 10% drop in revenue that amounted to approximately $966 million, while its paying user base declined by more than 11% to approximately 3.7 million. Bumble Revenue and Paying Users Decline in 2025 and Q2 2026 Industry fatigue, or a Bumble problem Bumble’s competitor, Match Group, appears to be doing better as revenue fell only 1% to $853 million in the second quarter. Meanwhile, net income increased by 36% to $171 million. Tinder also showed signs of improvement. Daily active users dropped by only 4% year-on-year, which was the smallest decline in the last 10 quarters. Hinge’s revenue has increased by 22%. Match aims to bring Hinge’s annual revenue to $1 billion by 2027. Dating-app fatigue remains a challenge. But Match’s results suggest Bumble’s issues range beyond just the users getting bored with swiping. Bumble vs Match Group Q2 2026: Revenue, Profit and User Trends Can AI pull users back, or push them away Bumble hopes its AI-led Bumble 2.0 can change that. The redesign brings richer, chapter-style profiles and the possibility of swipe-free dating. Its March unveiling helped send shares up more than 40%. Wolfe Herd had earlier floated AI dating concierges, as Cryptopolitan reported. Whether users want that help is less clear. A peer-reviewed study suggests confidence in algorithms can encourage AI dating adoption. Yet an SSRN working paper reported 54% fewer usage minutes and 62% fewer app openings among the AI adopters studied. Those findings do not represent all daters. At the same time, less expensive AI will make companion chatbots more attractive than dating apps. However, the use of these chatbots raises privacy and security issues, as noted by the Congressional Research Service. The opportunity remains substantial: Grand View Research estimates a $10.7 billion global dating-app market in 2026, reaching $17.9 billion by 2033. The challenge is converting AI features into users who stay, pay, and trust the platform Micah Abiodun | usagoldmines.com
October 13, 2026

Dogwifhat dismisses claims of misleading donors in Vegas Sphere plan Owotunse Adebayo | usagoldmines.com

The team behind Solana-based memecoin Dogwifhat has dismissed claims that it led investors and donors in its Las Vegas Sphere plan. The team addressed public concerns over the ‘Sphere Wif Hat’ initiative that it embarked on last year via a post on X.

According to records, the crowdfunding campaign, launched by supporters, was supposed to get the token’s logo on the Las Vegas Sphere.

However, the campaign is yet to come to fruition despite seeing about $700,000 days after donations were announced on March 10. The price of the token reacted to the proposal at the time, surging by 25% to hit a new all-time high.

At the time, the campaign was backed by several big traders within the Solana ecosystem, with the official account of the Solana-based memecoin also calling for donations.

Dogwifhat promises to stick to the timeline 

According to the X post, Dogwifcoin mentioned that the Wif Sphere campaign organizers have been in talks with several parties to achieve the ad placement goal. According to the account, the team is not a corporate entity, so it needs to collaborate with a brand. “Since the Wif team is not a corporate entity, the organizers are collaborating with an established brand to execute this advertisement,” the account said.

The account also assured donors that the timeline has been agreed upon among all the parties involved in the negotiations. It added that should the campaign no longer go ahead as planned, the contract will be voided, and funds will be returned to donors. “There has been no intent to mislead any parties,” the account added.

The need to clarify activities surrounding the ad placement was because of a Decrypt report that said that a representative of the Las Vegas Sphere denied any agreement to place the Dogwifhat meme coin at the venue. The spokesperson noted that there has never been any deal towards that effect, noting that the venue’s name was being used for deceptive purposes. “We have never had a deal with Dogwifhat, and our agency at the time only had one very preliminary conversation early last year,” the spokesperson said.

Controversy trails Dogwifhat’s Las Vegas Sphere ad 

The Dogwifhat account also generated controversy after the account posted “Officially confirmed. Viva hat vegas,” alongside the image of an artist rendering the meme dog on the location. A while after, the account deleted the post, generating a buzz among members of the crypto community. It has since updated the post, retaining the artwork and adding a screen displaying “Q1 2025.”

In July 2024, one of the campaign organizers, Mihir, mentioned that he was confident that the campaign was going as planned. He added that the representatives from the Las Vegas Sphere had created new crypto-focused terms after hearing about the campaign. He mentioned that the organizers had met a couple of times to formulate crypto-related policies to conform with the initiative. He mentioned at the time that they were still working to fit things into their criteria.

Mihir did not shed light on the other aspects of the deal at the time, fearing that it might hamper their chances of sealing it.

Meanwhile, users are still not convinced about the memecoin project’s response, noting that the statement is coming almost a year after the fundraising kicked off. Others noted that the organizers had a long time but failed to get anything done.

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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak

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