Cryptopolitan

Inflation is staying hot for longer, and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva says the Iran war is a big reason why. Speaking Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation, Kristalina said the economic pain is spreading well beyond the countries involved in the fighting.

Kristalina explained that countries close to the conflict are taking a hard hit. She also said oil-importing nations are getting squeezed, especially those with little protection against rising costs.

“It is global. Everybody uses energy. Everybody feels the pinch of prices going up. And it is asymmetric. It affects different countries differently. If you are in the vicinity of the conflict, it’s a big hit on you. If you are an oil importer, it is a big hit on you. If you have no reserves to protect yourself, you are in a very tough situation,” Kristalina said.

IMF says poorer economies absorb the hardest blow from higher energy costs

Kristalina then said some of the worst pain is now being felt across Asia, where many economies rely heavily on imported energy.

“Poor, vulnerable countries, whether they’re in Asia or in Sub-Saharan Africa, they’re being hammered dramatically, and when we discuss our response, we will zero in on these highly vulnerable countries,” said Kristalina.

We know that last week brought a cease-fire, but it was shaky, and the future of the conflict is still unclear. That leaves a lot of uncertainty for workers, shoppers, and businesses in the United States and elsewhere. A regular Wall Street Journal survey of economists now shows a weaker outlook for the year ahead than earlier estimates this year.

Even so, most of those economists do not think the war will fully knock down an economy that has already lived through sharp inflation and major policy changes in trade and immigration. They now put the chance of a recession in the next 12 months at 33%, up from 27% in January.

The same survey, taken from April 3 through April 9, cut its 2026 growth forecast to 2% from 2.2%. It also raised its estimate for year-end consumer inflation to 3.2% from 2.6%. The outlook for hiring got weaker too. Economists now expect net job growth of 45,000 a month, down from the earlier estimate of 64,500.

Oil market damage keeps inflation pressure alive in America’s economy

Kristalina also said there will be no quick repair job, even if the fighting cools in the coming days or weeks. She told Margaret Brennan that the war has damaged infrastructure, and that damage will take time to undo.

“We have hopes for peace that would improve the conditions for everybody, but we are also looking at impact on infrastructure. A lot has been damaged, and it would take time to bring back to full operation,” she said.

That means even if the battlefield goes quieter, the economic mess can keep going.

Kristalina said the current crisis could push more governments toward greener energy plans, even though those plans will not help overnight.

“The one good thing that we need to remember is that whenever we have an energy shock, we improve,” she said. “Every energy shock in the past would lead to two things: more energy efficiency and more diversification of energy.”

Cryptopolitan reported on Friday that America’s latest inflation report said economists think those oil disruptions can keep lifting prices in the months ahead even if the cease-fire holds.

The survey expects West Texas Intermediate crude, the main U.S. oil benchmark, to fall to $79.66 a barrel by the end of the year.

That would still be about 18% below Friday’s closing price of $96.57. But economists still raised their year-end forecast for core inflation, which strips out food and energy, to 2.9% from 2.6%.

That measure is based on the personal consumption expenditures index, which the Federal Reserve watches closely. They were also asked how high crude would need to go for recession odds to climb above 50%.

Answers ranged from $95 to $225 a barrel, with an average of $146. Estimates for how long oil would need to stay high ranged from four weeks to 55 weeks, with an average of 12 weeks.

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UK regulators are racing to assess the danger posed by Anthropic’s latest AI model, after officials decided its ability to find hidden software flaws could become a direct risk for banks, insurers, exchanges, and the wider financial system.

According to the Financial Times, the talks involve the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, HM Treasury, and the National Cyber Security Centre, which are reviewing vulnerabilities in IT systems across British finance.

British banks, insurers, and exchanges will be warned within the next fortnight about risks linked to Claude Mythos Preview, the latest release from Anthropic, which was previously reported by Cryptopolitan. The British response follows a summons from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who called leaders from major Wall Street banks to discuss the same issue.

Last week, when Anthropic released Mythos to select customers, the $380 billion San Francisco start-up said the system had already found “thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser,” including some that had gone unnoticed for decades.

Regulators prepare bank warnings as Anthropic’s cyber model drags old system flaws into view

The issue is set for the next meeting of the Cross Market Operational Resilience Group, or CMORG, where British regulators and finance companies discuss threats to the sector. CMORG is co-chaired by Duncan Mackinnon, the Bank of England’s executive director for supervisory risk, and David Postings, head of UK Finance.

The group includes senior representatives from eight of the biggest UK banks, four financial infrastructure providers, two insurers, plus the NCSC, the FCA, and HM Treasury. The Telegraph first reported the agenda. The Bank of England declined to comment.

Anthropic said, “It would not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely.” It also warned that “the fallout for economies, public safety, and national security could be severe.”

Officials are examining whether tools like this could expose weak spots across payment systems, trading venues, insurance networks, and other core parts of the market. David Raw, managing director for resilience at UK Finance, said, “We are aware of the press reports on the Anthropic AI development and the risks highlighted.”

He added, “UK Finance engages with our members and through our public/private partnerships on any significant operational risks that could affect the resilience of the UK financial services sector.”

The Bank of England can also call the separate Cross Market Business Continuity Group within one to two hours during an urgent threat, but it has not done that here.

OpenAI pauses Stargate UK while Britain wrestles with power costs and AI rule uncertainty

The wider AI backdrop is rough at the same time. OpenAI, a rival to Anthropic, is pausing its multibillion-pound UK data center project, Stargate UK. The plan included a large site in northeast England and access to powerful chips through partnerships with Nvidia and Nscale.

It was part of a wider £31 billion UK tech investment package. On Thursday, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company would move ahead only when the “right conditions” could “enable long-term infrastructure investment.”

The spokesperson said, “We see huge potential for the UK’s AI future. London is home to our largest international research hub, and we support the government’s ambition to be an AI leader.” They added:-

“AI compute is foundational to that goal. We continue to explore Stargate UK and will move forward when the right conditions such as regulation and the cost of energy enable long-term infrastructure investment.”

When OpenAI announced the project in September, it said it would strengthen the UK’s “sovereign compute capabilities” and bolster native AI development. It also said the project would help power the future economy, boost competitiveness, and support the national AI Opportunities Action Plan.

But Britain’s energy prices were already far above those in the US before the Iran war drove costs higher, and uncertainty remains over whether the law will change to let AI firms train models on copyrighted works through an “opt out” system for creators.

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Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States now controls the Strait of Hormuz after talks in Pakistan meant to stop the war he started with Iran ended with no agreement.

Trump said many points were settled, but the one that mattered most was not, which is nuclear weapons. So he said the U.S. Navy will begin blocking ships trying to enter or leave the strait, and he said Washington will also go after vessels in international waters that paid Iran a toll in crypto or yuan, because, according to him, these toll payments are illegal.

Trump orders a blockade after Pakistan talks fail on the nuclear issue

“THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted. I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” said Trump.

He added that the goal later could become “ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT,” but he said that had not happened because Iran kept raising fears that mines might still be in the water.

Later, Trump said Iran had promised to open the Strait of Hormuz and then failed to do it, which apparently caused anxiety, disruption, and pain across many countries. He also said Iran claimed mines had been placed in the water even though, according to him, its naval force and many of the units used to drop mines had already been destroyed.

“They may have done so, but what ship owner would want to take the chance?” he said. He demanded that Iran move fast to reopen the waterway and said every law on the books was being broken.

Trump said the talks were held under the leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan.

Trump also claimed they kept thanking him for saving between 30 million and 50 million lives in what he described as a possible war with India. The meeting with Iran, he said, began early in the morning and ran through the night, lasting close to 20 hours.

“IRAN IS UNWILLING TO GIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR AMBITIONS!” he said. He named Iran’s representatives as Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Abbas Araghchi, and Ali Bagheri, and wrongfully claimed that his own envoys had developed a respectful relationship with them during the long talks, but he said that meant nothing.

Oil tankers keep moving while traders and shipowners price in fear

Meanwhile, Google search interest for “price of oil” jumped to its highest point in records going back to 2004. That level was reported to be 300% above the peaks seen during both the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war and the 2008 financial crisis. It was also 235% above the 2020 pandemic spike, when oil briefly traded below zero.

Searches for “Strait of Hormuz” also hit a record high, rising 300% above June 2025, when the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran had already pushed fears of a closure.

Even with that fear, shipping data showed that three supertankers loaded with crude passed through the strait during the fragile truce between the United States and Iran.

The vessels were the Liberia-flagged VLCC Serifos and the China-flagged VLCCs Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai. Data from the London Stock Exchange Group showed they exited the Hormuz Passage trial anchorage on Saturday, using a route that bypasses Iran’s Larak Island. Each of those tankers can carry 2 million barrels of oil.

The Serifos was chartered by the Thai state energy firm PTT, according to LSEG and Kpler data. It was also among seven vessels for which Malaysia sought Iranian clearance to pass through the strait, according to two people cited by Reuters.

The ship was carrying crude loaded from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in early March, and it is expected to reach Malacca Port in Malaysia on April 21.

On the Iranian side, Press TV said the talks failed because of what it called excessive U.S. demands, with both the strait and Iran’s nuclear program remaining central points of dispute.

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Bittensor is trying to rebuild investor confidence following one of the most damaging internal scuffles in the decentralized artificial intelligence sector’s short history.

Ironically, it plans on rectifying the challenges by launching a recovery plan that was drafted by the very man who just walked out the network’s door. 

Jacob Steeves, co-founder of the network, shared the above information in an extended statement that is also seen as a response to Samuel Dare’s announcement of the departure of subnet developer Covenant AI from the Bittensor network.

Bittensor’s native token, TAO, lost about a quarter of its value in under 24 hours, following Dare, who is Covenant AI’s founder, publishing a scathing public statement accusing Steeves of running a centralized operation behind a decentralized facade.

What drove one of crypto’s most prominent AI builders to the exit?

Covenant AI operated three subnets in Bittensor’s network and delivered the Covenant-72B, which many in the decentralized AI sector considered a landmark achievement.

Covenant-72B is a 72-billion-parameter language model trained permissionlessly across more than 70 independent contributors on commodity hardware.

In his April 10 statement, Dare alleged that Steeves had suspended emissions to Covenant AI’s subnets, overridden the team’s moderation authority over its own community channels, unilaterally deprecated its subnet infrastructure, and applied economic pressure through large, timed token sales. 

He criticized Bittensor’s governance, alleging that it is not decentralized as portrayed. Dare wrote, “Bittensor operates a triumvirate structure, three individuals who manage the multisig for network upgrades, presented to the community as distributed governance. It is not. It is decentralization theater.”

Dare added, “Jacob Steeves maintains effective control over the triumvirate, resists any meaningful transfer of authority, and deploys changes unilaterally whenever he chooses, without process and without consensus. The individuals involved serve as legal shields, people who can be held accountable and sued while he remains insulated.”

Dare’s comments triggered an immediate sell-off, compounded by reports that Covenant AI had itself offloaded around 37,000 TAO tokens, worth more than $10 million, prompting accusations of a coordinated exit at retail investors’ expense. 

How badly did the drama damage TAO and Bittensor’s institutional standing?

The market has not reacted favorably to TAO, which dropped from the $337 range to a low of $254 within 12 hours, a decline of over 25%. The token has since come up a bit, trading around $261 as of the time of writing.

The episode arrived at a particularly delicate moment for Bittensor’s institutional narrative. Just days before the crisis broke, asset manager Grayscale had filed an amendment to its S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, advancing its effort to convert its over-the-counter Bittensor Trust (GTAO) into a listed spot exchange-traded fund. 

However, with the latest development, that institutional momentum now faces a more skeptical audience.

GTAO is currently trading at $9.20, a decline of over 12.5% as of the close of trading on April 10.

Can a proposal built by the man who just left save the network?

Steeves’ recovery plan is based on a feature called Locked Stake. The mechanism would introduce a time dimension to token ownership on Bittensor. 

Subnet owners would be able to lock their holdings for a defined period, making the combination of stake size and remaining lock duration a new, publicly legible measure of commitment. 

In his statement, Steeves wrote that Locked Stake was among the last pieces of work Dare completed before departing the Opentensor Foundation, adding that his failure to implement it sooner was his “real error,” suggesting that the mechanism might have prevented this 25% value drop.

On the network’s operational continuity, Steeves said members of the mining community, and potentially former Covenant team members, are already organizing to sustain work on subnets 3, 39 and 81. 

Steeves added that the governance proposal will be put to the community at Bittensor’s next open Thursday call on its Discord server.

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TRON founder, Justin Sun, has accused Trump’s World Liberty Financial of embedding a trap in its code that permits the arbitrary freezing, restricting or confiscating the property rights of any token holder. 

Sun claims he has been a victim of the trap, alleging that his wallet was frozen back in 2025. Sun’s comments pile on as lawmakers investigate Trump’s upcoming gala, sharing concerns about political access being bought. 

What is Justin Sun criticizing WLFI’s code?

Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON blockchain (TRX), has publicly turned against World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi project associated with the Trump family. 

In a series of posts on X, Sun alleged that WLFI’s smart contract contains a hidden “backdoor blacklist function” that gives the WLFI team unilateral power. He claims they can freeze, restrict, or confiscate the property rights of any token holder “without notice, without reason, and without any avenue for recourse.”

The investor stated that this feature was never disclosed to him or other backers when he invested. He emphasized that this mechanism turns the platform into a trap for retail investors and claims he is the “first and largest victim” of this practice. 

He alleges that his personal WLFI token wallet was illegally blacklisted by the project as early as 2025. According to a previous Cryptopolitan report, Sun’s assets were blacklisted in September after he transferred roughly $9 million in WLFI tokens.

Furthermore, Sun accused the “bad actors” running the project of holding fake community votes where outcomes have already been decided, and key information is withheld from voters. He stated that the project’s leaders only represent “the will of those who designed them,” not the community.

“The WLFI team’s actions are eroding the community’s trust in the project. Unlock the tokens. Uphold transparency to the community.” Sun wrote.

Trump token prices crash

Amid these allegations, Trump-associated crypto assets are facing severe declines. The WLFI token, for instance, has plummeted nearly 65% from its peak in September 2025. The token is currently trading near $0.079. 

Cryptopolitan reported that the Official Trump memecoin (TRUMP) is in an even worse position, facing a steep decline from its January 2025 peak of around $49 to a current price of approximately $2.83. 

The latest World Liberty Financial price crash is linked to controversy surrounding how WLFI manages its treasury. On-chain data revealed that the project borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins using its own WLFI tokens as collateral on the Dolomite lending protocol. Critics call this “circular financing.” 

WLFI’s actions have raised concerns that if the token’s price drops further, it could potentially collapse the protocol’s stablecoin pools. Data shows that WLFI’s activity currently makes up 55% of Dolomite’s total value locked, creating a massive concentration risk. 

Democratic lawmakers like Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Adam Schiff are also investigating Trump, but rather than his finances, they have sent letters demanding information regarding his upcoming “Gala” for token holders scheduled for April 25 at Mar-a-Lago. 

The lawmakers are concerned that the event, which offers exclusive access to the President for top-tier token holders, is simply a way for wealthy crypto investors to buy political access and influence certain decisions. 

Following its decline and Sun’s damning allegations, the WLFI team has announced plans to organize a vote next week. The team is proposing a phased token unlock in an attempt to appease early buyers who are currently locked out of their funds. 

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Intel ripped higher this week, but Wall Street still is not fully buying the idea that the company is fixed. The INTL stock surged by 51% in eight trading days and nearly 25% for the week by Friday midday, putting it among the market’s most overbought names.

The rally came as traders rushed into chip stocks while the broader market climbed on hopes that the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran would hold. The Nasdaq Composite rose 4.7% for the week. The S&P 500 gained 3.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 3%.

Intel finished last week with an RSI of 75, meaning deep overbought territory.

Traders still keep buying though, specifically thanks to two partnership updates gave the stock new boost just as software names were plunging, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF down 7% for the week.

Google expands its Intel work as Lip-Bu Tan ties the chipmaker to Musk’s Texas factory

The first boost came from Google, which said it will use multiple generations of Intel central processing units in its artificial intelligence data centers. That was an expansion of an existing relationship.

The second boost came from Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan. In a LinkedIn post this week, Tan said Intel was helping design, manufacture, and package custom chips for SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla at Elon Musk’s Terafab project, a chip factory in Texas.

The harder question is whether the business can support the stock rally over time. The case for Intel is no longer about its past. It is about whether future products, factory control, and execution can produce better results later. That is where the company’s buyout of Apollo’s 49% stake in the Ireland Fab 34 joint venture comes in.

Intel agreed to pay $14.2 billion, using cash and a $6.5 billion bridge loan until refinancing happens later. Once that deal closes, all manufacturing in Ireland will sit directly under Intel’s control.

Intel tries to rebuild its server lineup as funds cut stakes and other firms step in

Meanwhile, TD Cowen estimates that in Q4 2025, only about 20% of Intel’s x86 server CPU sales will come from its third generation performance chips. That means older tenth and seventh generation x86 server products are still expected to lead unit sales for now.

The company has also said it expects some improvement from Diamond Rapids in the second half of 2025, with some progress expected in Q2. Those chips are tied to the second generation of the Platinum Line, though the family setup is different from what is being sold now.

After that, Coral Rapids is expected to arrive in the second half of 2026 or later. That line could reset competition in x86 server CPUs, but likely at lower price points than today’s products.

Over on Wall Street, Guardian Investment Management cut its stake in Intel by 34.8% in the fourth quarter just this Friday. The company sold 16,300 shares and ended with 30,550 shares worth $1.127 million, and Intel had made up 0.9% of Guardian’s portfolio and ranked as its 29th largest holding.

Other companies opened or increased positions. Corundum Trust Company started a stake worth about $29,000 in the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management opened a position worth about $29,000 in the fourth quarter. Provenance Wealth Advisors increased its position by 89.2%, adding 446 shares to reach 946 shares worth $32,000.

Strengthening Families & Communities opened a stake worth about $33,000, and GoalVest Advisory opened one worth about $34,000. Overall, 64.53% of Intel shares are held by institutional investors.

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DeepSeek is hiring workers in Inner Mongolia for its late April launch, its first big release built to run on Huawei processors instead of American ones.

The firm also posted openings for server maintenance engineers and delivery managers in Ulanqab, a city in Inner Mongolia. The Hangzhou company hasn’t advertised on-site jobs for its computing infrastructure before.

The V4 set for late April uses a Mixture-of-Experts design with about 1 trillion parameters total, though just 32 to 37 billion work on any task. That keeps costs down as the model gets bigger.

“If they have successfully trained V4 entirely on Huawei silicon, it signals a material shift in the geopolitical tech landscape,” said Stephen Wu from Carthage Capital.

The release has been pushed back twice from February.

Silicon Valley rivals unite against Chinese firms

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google said April 6 they’d share intelligence to stop Chinese companies from copying their models. The three competitors are working together through the Frontier Model Forum, an industry group from 2023.

Anthropic tracked 16 million exchanges from three Chinese firms across about 24,000 fake accounts. The companies allegedly used adversarial distillation, flooding ChatGPT and Claude with queries, then training their models on the responses.

OpenAI accused DeepSeek of copying its models “through new, obfuscated methods” in a February 12 memo to the House Select Committee on China.

The restrictions that started in 2022 to slow China’s AI development first led to chip output dropping 9.8% in 2022. However, those export controls on advanced chips seem to now be backfiring.

Domestic chips projected to reach 50% market share

Things are shifting. TrendForce projects domestic chips will reach 50% of China’s AI chip market in 2026. Chinese semiconductor equipment went from 25% to 35% of the home market between 2024 and 2025, beating the Made in China 2025 target of 30%.

China has put about $150 billion into chip development. The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act authorized $52.7 billion.

The switch to Huawei chips has not been without delays. As reported by Cryptopolitan previously, DeepSeek was expected to use banned Nvidia chips without revealing any technical signs.

Moving away from Nvidia takes “substantial re-engineering,” according to Wei Sun, principal AI analyst at Counterpoint Research. “That transition can slow development cycles and introduce performance trade-offs, especially for V4, a model expected to be state-of-the-art,” he said.

DeepSeek first gained prominence in January 2024 with R1, a reasoning model President Trump called a “wake-up call” for American companies. The company’s cheap tools are used widely in China and places like Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

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XRP investors are increasingly targeting annual passive returns of up to 10% as new financial infrastructure and decentralized finance (DeFi) tools expand yield-generating opportunities.

XRP advocate Kevin Cage suggested that upcoming financial frameworks could yield returns of 5% to 10% over time. He acknowledged that, at the moment, there aren’t many ways to earn interest on the token, so most people are just sitting on their bags. However, he is convinced things are about to change with the rollout of new DeFi platforms, institutional setups, and cross-chain tech.

He shared on X: “In the next few years, we’ll likely be able to earn 5-10% on our crypto in multiple ways. We know that XRP isn’t a Proof-of-Stake coin. But yield is coming through the new infrastructure being built.”

A growing ecosystem of third-party platforms is bridging this gap by offering “staking-like” services, including lending, liquidity provision, and yield farming.

Crypto lending platforms could bring in between 3% and 8% in returns, according to Cage

Cage noted that XRP holders will soon have multiple ways to generate passive income on their tokens. He estimated that standard crypto lending platforms could yield between 3% and 8%, while more structured institutional products could push annual returns to 5% to 12%.

He also noted that tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are playing a larger role and could deliver returns between 4% and 10%. Cage added that cross-chain strategies will soon help XRP holders to gain yield across multiple blockchains.

He also envisioned a future where financial apps, exchanges, and wallets offer built-in, automated yield accounts. Cage noted that this development will make it incredibly easy for XRP holders to start earning passive income.

In response to Cage’s insights, one commenter remarked in support, “Definitely excited for Collateral. That’s the new financial system. Within institutional custody, holders can likely earn an average of 5%, as institutions holding the asset also seek yield from collateral holdings. They want yield, not your token.”

However, one user on X, though agreeing with Cage’s direction, cautioned that future gains from the token will depend on its utility rather than the asset itself, stressing that every yield comes with risk. He contended, “Yield will come. Just not without trade-offs.”

XRP is already increasing its utility and application

Chief Strategy Officer at Ēnosys Global, Darren Williams, also in response to Cage’s post, noted that XRP is already being used as FXRP in a CDP on Enosys Loans via Flare Network, backing roughly $9 million in debt. 

The Flare blockchain unlocked active lending and borrowing markets for XRP-linked assets through an integration with Morpho. The development team announced that this update allows users to lend and borrow FXRP, Flare’s native, asset-backed version of XRP. Holders of FXRP can now deposit their tokens to earn interest or use them as collateral to secure loans in other digital assets, including stablecoins.

Flare Network also partnered with Xaman Wallet to simplify access, enabling XRP holders to tap into DeFi directly from their wallets. With the integration, holders can earn yield via self-custody, aligning it with capabilities already seen on Ethereum and Solana.

The setup also allows investors to deposit XRP into Upshift’s earnXRP vault directly from the Xaman wallet interface. The system proceeds to mint FXRP on Flare and channel it into curated yield strategies managed by Clearstar, routing the profits back to the user. Remarkably, holders can access this without downloading new software, buying native gas tokens, or managing a separate set of private keys.

Additionally, entities such as Axelar and Hex Trust have deployed decentralized finance frameworks engineered specifically for XRP market participants, thereby expanding the operational utility of their holdings.

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Scientists at Life Biosciences are preparing to begin testing partial reprogramming in people. It will mark the first time such therapy, which can reset the biological age of cells, is being introduced in humans. 

Life Biosciences’ approach is partly based on the Yamanaka factors, a set of four transcription factors, namely Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, which can reprogram an adult cell into an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell that can virtually become any cell type in the body.

The Yamanaka factors worked well in mice, but there were concerns about their unknown potential in the body, especially with the c-Myc factor, which is particularly powerful and can trigger cancer. 

Life Biosciences to begin trial for cellular reprogramming on humans

In the quest to experiment with safer ways to apply the Yamanka factors, Yuancheng Ryan Lu, a student of Harvard’s Dr. David Sinclair, the founder of Life Biosciences, successfully regenerated eye cells in mice by introducing just three of the factors, excluding the c-Myc factor. 

Story @nature about the challenge of discovering safe epigenetic reprogramming to reverse biological age, by my student Yuancheng Lu and now in clinical trials🤞Here’s that moment: https://t.co/NFXUtXDfYB pic.twitter.com/ssYTkffGvl

— David Sinclair (@davidasinclair) April 11, 2026

Lu’s positive study in the mice forms the basis for Life Biosciences’ clinical trial targeting people with eye conditions due to aging. It will be the world’s first human trial, according to a recent report by Nature. 

The trial begins later this year and would treat up to 12 people with glaucoma. According to the report, the scientists will use a virus to introduce the three Yamanaka factors into one eye in patients whose retinal nerve has been damaged due to glaucoma. 

The team also plans to treat another 6 with NAION, which is reportedly the most common cause of sudden optic nerve-related vision loss in people over age 50. The patients will be followed up for five years, says Life Biosciences chief scientific officer, Sharon Rosenzweig-Lipson. 

Are we on the cusp of reversing aging?

The method of introducing three Yamanka factors, without c-Myc, is already proven to work well in animal studies. Sharon mentioned that similar studies in monkeys were successful, with no sign of cancer or other harmful effects. Other scientists have been able to replicate the procedure with similar positive results. 

However, the procedure is still not without some concerns. The c-Myc factor, which is being removed for a safer rejuvenation effect, is a well-known oncogene that can promote rapid cell division, which may be needed for some partially reprogrammed cells, said Vittorio Sebastiano, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine

Nevertheless, the clinical trial could mark a big breakthrough in rejuvenating old cells and potentially reversing human aging.

Many tech founders, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, are pro-longevity. In March, Brian, whose biotech firm NewLimit is also focused on epigenetic reprogramming, believes that getting old will soon become optional, Cryptopolitan reported.

Getting old shouldn't be viewed as inevitable, just because it happens to everyone. It's a disease that kills over 100,000 people a day, and hopefully it will be optional in the future.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) March 17, 2026

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A steep sell-off in Trump-linked crypto assets is raising fresh scrutiny across the digital asset space, especially after the TRUMP token suffered a staggering 90% collapse.

The concern intensified after data from CoinGecko showed that the Official Trump ($TRUMP) token, a Solana-based meme cryptocurrency backed by the US President, fell to a record low of approximately $2.73 last month and is currently trading at $2.83, down 0.75% in the past 24 hours.

Moreover, as earlier reported by Cryptopolitan, the Trump-backed WLFI token has decreased by more than 19% this week, primarily due to complications arising from its multi-million-dollar self-collateralized loans on the Dolomite platform. 

The WLFI token dropped nearly 75% from its September 2025 peak of about $0.31, while the TRUMP meme coin has plunged by roughly 90% since hitting a high of more than $73 in January 2025.

Trump’s involvement in the crypto ecosystem significantly heightens public anxiety

Concerning the recent token price declines, Professor Tonya Evans, the Founder and CEO of Advantage Evans Global Regulatory Strategies, stated that, “We thought Sam Bankman-Fried or Gary Gensler were the worst things for the crypto industry, and they were terrible. But it turns out it was someone who surrounds himself with yes-men, takes every bit of value for himself, and quickly bankrupts companies and casinos without facing any consequences.” 

Democratic lawmakers serving in the United States Senate, including Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Adam Schiff, also expressed concerns about Trump’s involvement in the crypto ecosystem.

Their concerns intensified after he released a public statement about an upcoming gala for token holders scheduled for April 25. According to them, the president misused his influence by providing token holders with exclusive access to him.

In an attempt to discover the truth, the three senators wrote a letter to Bill Zanker, the individual behind the introduction of the Trump meme coin, requesting further clarification concerning the objective of the upcoming gala.

In the meantime, Ross Gerber, the co-founder, President, and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, earlier issued a statement expressing his belief that introducing these coins around the inauguration period, followed by a sharp rise in meme tokens, diminished investor engagement in the sector.

Gerber explained that, “celebrity-backed meme coins often turn out to be scams or appear like one; either way, regular investors end up losing money while celebrities profit.” According to him, people, deceived by these scams, ultimately suffer losses, as their funds are stolen rather than merely lost. 

Gerber deemed this situation a critical challenge in the sector. He noted that losing money on meme coins often drives people away from crypto for good. Additionally, he stressed that the Trump administration’s lenient regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies diminishes their appeal to everyday investors. 

Upcoming gala for token holders sparks heated debate  

Earlier, analysts observed a rapid price increase in $TRUMP Coin following the announcement of a new project event featuring a keynote address from Trump. This gathering, a Conference & Gala Luncheon, is scheduled to take place at Mar-a-Lago on April 25 this year.

The event is aimed at top TRUMP token holders and will follow the same approach as the private dinner the project hosted last year. Moreover, the organizers behind this occasion hinted that invitations to the luncheon are limited to the top 297 qualifying token holders.

In addition to the main attendees, the event will feature 18 high-profile participants, dubbed “Superstars,” including Donald Trump, who is expected to attend. The development drew inquiries from reporters seeking further details from the organizers.

In response, organizers said the event is designed to deliver exclusive, curated experiences to a select group of participants. As part of these perks, 29 chosen attendees will receive VIP access, including a private tour of the Mar-a-Lago estate.

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World Liberty Financial has come under heavy scrutiny, with many throwing the word “scam” on Crypto Twitter, over its recent WLFI Markets lending position and the sudden disappearance of the Trump family from the WLF team member page.

Speculations are that the Trump family is attempting to distance itself from World Liberty Financial. But the team is claiming otherwise.

The crypto project was launched in the fall of 2024, with the U.S. President and his sons, Eric, Trump Jr., and Barron, displayed on the team member page as co-founders, including Chase Herro, Zak Folkman, and the Witkoff family.

World Liberty was touted as a financial platform that would bridge the gap between traditional banking and decentralized finance. In March 2025, the team completed a third phase of WLFI token sale, raising a total of $550 million, according to reports. WLFI, which only became tradable in September 2025, doubles as the governance token of the platform. 

After the presale, however, it was observed that the positions of the Trump family were reduced to “Web3 Ambassador.” And now? The team member page on the website has been removed, with some speculating that the Trumps are trying to distance themselves from the project. 

Just at the bottom of the page, there is now a disclosure that Trump and his sons do not hold any formal operational role in World Liberty Financial, despite their known affiliation with the crypto project. 

“None of Donald J. Trump, his family members or any director, officer or employee of Trump Organization or of DT Marks LLC is an officer, director or employee of, WLF Holdco LLC or World Liberty Financial LLC,” it reads.

To add weight to these claims, speculators also pointed to Eric Trump deleting several WLFI-related posts on Twitter earlier this year, as Cryptopolitan reported.

Eric Trump, co-founder of WLFI, deleted several WLFI-related posts on X. Following the move, WLFI briefly fell more than 8%, while the USD stablecoin USD1 temporarily depegged to 0.9802 USDT. https://t.co/5W4apuqsb3 pic.twitter.com/7dUMJPApEh

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) February 23, 2026

“This is clearly FUD,” says Zach Witkoff

World Liberty Financial CEO Zach Witkoff dismissed these observations as FUD, saying both Donald and Eric Trump are still engaged with the project, and even tweet about the project weekly. Regarding the missing team page, Zach mentioned that the website was redesigned months ago. “This is clearly FUD,” he said.

Hey @Eljaboom we redesigned the website months ago. Don and Eric tweet about the project weekly and even have @worldlibertyfi in their twitter bios. This is clearly FUD.

— Zach Witkoff (@ZachWitkoff) April 11, 2026

Eric Trump’s Twitter bio says he’s an advocate for World Liberty Financial, while Donald Trump Jr.’s still says he’s a co-founder. 

Although the Trump family is not directly involved in the management of World Liberty, according to the webpage, they own a significant 38% stake in the WLF Holdco LLC, through DT Marks DEFI LLC. WLF Holdco LLC holds all of the rights to net protocol revenues from the WLF protocol. Previously, in March 2025, the stake was as high as 60%, according to Reuters. 

DT Marks DEFI LLC also holds 22.5 billion WLFI tokens, and is entitled to receive 75% of the net revenue from the WLFI token sale, including interest earned on the reserve assets backing USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial.

WLF loan deal sparks fresh controversy

Another point of controversy on World Liberty Financial stems from its recent stablecoin loan deal on DeFi protocol Dolomite, whose co-founder advises WLF, which saw WLFI token decline by 10%, Cryptopolitan reported on Friday.

The WLF team deposited 5 billion WLFI tokens, worth $440 million, to borrow $75 million worth of USD1, although Arkham reports it was $150 million USDC. Part of the concern was that the World Liberty Financial team used its own tokens as collateral to drain Dolomite’s lending pool, so much so that many depositors were not able to withdraw. 

To defuse concerns, the team said being an anchor borrower allows them to generate yield that makes WLFI Markets compelling for everyone else. “No, we are nowhere near liquidation — and frankly, even if markets moved dramatically against us, we’d simply supply more collateral,” they wrote. 

The last line was particularly concerning for many people, who argued that deploying more volatile governance tokens as collateral could have more detrimental consequences, with some recalling past incidents with Terraforms Lab and FTX. 

Even more retarded, instead of repaying stablecoin debt, they would deposit more WLFI as collateral.

Sure, liquidation price decreases but it makes the problem worse, not better in the longer termhttps://t.co/h3YdBMY2ha

— Ignas | DeFi (@DefiIgnas) April 10, 2026

WLFI currently trades at $0.07989, a 1.4% decline in the last 24 hours. The token is down over 44% YTD. 

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Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent used a Wall Street Journal op-ed to press Congress to pass the Clarity Act, saying the United States cannot keep dragging its feet while the crypto market keeps getting bigger.

Scott warned Congress that this position is not guaranteed to last. “Over the past year, the global market capitalization of digital assets fluctuated between $2 trillion and $3 trillion. Nearly 1 in 6 Americans owns some form of digital asset. Major financial institutions have launched or sought approval for crypto-related products,” said Scott.

Bessent says Congress must end the confusion around crypto rules

Scott said the government has made one major step already; the Genius Act which Trump signed last year.

Still, he said the general crypto market remains stuck in a legal gray area. Outside stablecoins, Scott said there is still no clear framework for crypto markets in the United States.

Then he took a jab at the Biden administration’s SEC, which was led by crypto public enemy #1, Gary Gensler, who Scott said made overlapping and sometimes conflicting claims.

That left developers, exchanges, and investors without solid guidance on what rules applied, who had authority, and how companies were supposed to operate.

Scott said all of that uncertainty was what led to a huge share of crypto development going overseas, like Abu Dhabi and Singapore, which offered clearer rules, helping companies know how to register, what standards they had to meet, and what path they needed to follow to stay compliant. In the United States, he said, the legal risk often outweighed the benefit of staying.

In a post on X, Scott had also said, “Senate time is precious, and now is the time to act.”

Bessent lays out how the Clarity Act would pull crypto business back home

Scott said the answer is durable law, not more confusion, and the Clarity Act would split regulatory authority more clearly, create registration paths for trading platforms and intermediaries, and spell out when a crypto counts as a security and when it does not.

He also said the GENIUS Act cannot do the full job on its own, what with stablecoins now getting a legal footing. Scott said the next fight is over the infrastructure they support, which is tokenized assets, decentralized exchanges, and new ways for businesses to raise money.

He said the question is whether that activity, along with the jobs and tax revenue tied to it, gets built inside the United States or somewhere else.

To close out his Op-ed, Scott said the bill would also protect software developers so the technology behind digital finance stays open, secure, and built in the United States. He added that: “Congress will ensure that the next generation of financial innovation is built on American rails, backed by American institutions, and denominated in American dollars.”

In the past, Scott had told crypto entrepreneurs on X to “start your companies here. Launch your protocols here. And hire your workers here.”

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Europe’s stablecoin market seems to be now controlled by Circle, and not everyone is comfortable with that. The issuer of USDC is quietly becoming the dominant player in euro-denominated stablecoins through EURC. This shift triggered criticism from parts of the crypto community. Some of them see it less as a product win and more as a policy-driven outcome.

DeFi analyst Ignas called it out bluntly. He looks at Circle’s dominance as “a European fail.” In his view, Europe has repeatedly missed key technology waves. This includes Big Tech, cloud, and AI. However, it is now falling behind in the stablecoin sector.

The global crypto market witnessed a minor recovery rally. Its cumulative cap now stands around $2.47 trillion. Bitcoin price has jumped by more than 8% over the last 7 days. The stablecoin market is picking up and hovers around a $320 billion cap. Circle is the second biggest stablecoin in the race, with a cap of more than $78 billion.

Circle captures Europe? 

Ignas is a post highlighted that EURC is not even a core focus for Circle. ECB plans a digital EUR by 2029, but it will be proposing a 3,000 EUR holding limit per wallet. He sees this plan designed to fail. By then, Circle’s network effects get locked in. It seems that the euro stablecoin remains a much smaller piece of the business.

The USDC issuer has managed to capture a good share of the European market. There are several native stablecoin projects that exist in the region. The tally includes Qivalis, EURe, EURI, EURA, and more. They are still small in comparison to the major players. This is mainly due to a lack of funding and incentives for adoption.

He compared EURC, which holds a market cap of $460 million, with USDC. He called it a side project for an American company. Ignas claimed the Circle didn’t win on its product. They lobbied for the rules that gave them the market, he added. Dante Disparte (Circle policy chief) was lobbying for MiCA as “GDPR for crypto” since 2022.

3/ And Circle is now running the exact same playbook in the UK.

Dante Disparte just addressed the House of Lords pushing for a UK law that combines MiCA + the US GENIUS Act.

I was just reading his FT opinion letter and it finally clicked with me.

They lobby for the rules that… pic.twitter.com/t4ezKWieD9

— Ignas | DeFi (@DefiIgnas) April 10, 2026

DeFi analysts stated that Circle hosted “Navigating MiCA” sessions with Stefan Berger. When MiCA came into law, Circle was the only top 10 stablecoin issuer ready with a license. Meanwhile, Tether’s EURT was out and reportedly delisted from CEXs.

He mentioned that ‘Luckily’ Circle had a French EMI license to get all the European market share. They grew from 17% to 60% share in 12 months without competing. Ignas believes that Circle is now running the exact same playbook in the UK.

Circle under fire over hacks

The European Central Bank has been exploring a digital euro, but proposals under discussion include limits on wallet holdings and transfers. Ignas argued that such constraints could hinder adoption, especially if private-sector alternatives continue to build network effects in the meantime.

The company has called on EU authorities to loosen aspects of the bloc’s distributed ledger framework. It is particularly around settlement rules. They currently restrict how stablecoins can be used in capital markets. However, the USDC issuer insists that existing requirements are slowing adoption.

Circle landed under scrutiny over security and its incident response. This comes after the recent exploit of Solana-based Drift Protocol. It got looted of $285 million in a massive hack. Attackers moved $71 million in USDC as part of the exploit. 

On-chain investigator ZachXBT questioned whether Circle could have acted more quickly. He pointed out that the company could have frozen addresses linked to suspicious activity. It mentioned that the damages have receahed $420 million over the last few years across 15 different cases.

PeckShield reported that the hackers converted most of the rest of the stolen assets to USDC. The hacker used Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol, CCTP. They bridge about $232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum after the Drift hack.

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The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission revealed the first lineup of its Innovation Task Force (ITF), now headed by Michael Pascualaqua, a senior adviser to Acting Chairman Mike Selig.

The team now features blockchain lawyers who worked at leading law firms, a prediction markets consultant, and seasoned legal professionals from within the CFTC.

The move comes amid escalating jurisdictional battles over platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which allow users to trade contracts on real-world outcomes ranging from elections to sports. The CFTC has argued that such products fall under federal derivatives law, not state gambling statutes, a position that has gained traction in recent court rulings.

As recently reported by Cryptopolitan, a federal judge temporarily blocked Arizona from pursuing a criminal case against prediction market operator Kalshi, siding with arguments that federal law preempts state enforcement actions in the sector. The ruling effectively paused state-level prosecution while reinforcing the CFTC’s authority over federally registered event contracts.

The CFTC welcomes five members to its Innovation Task Force

The CFTC innovation task force now includes Hank Balaban, a former Latham & Watkins crypto attorney; Eugene Gonzalez IV, a former Sidley blockchain lawyer; prediction market expert Sam Canavos; and the agency’s own Mark Fajfar and Dina Moussa. Fajfar is currently a legal veteran, while Moussa is special counsel in the Market Participants Division at the CFTC.

According to the commission, the task force will now assist it in drafting clear compliance guidelines tailored specifically for innovators working with smart contracts, AI, and prediction markets. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig remarked, “The Innovation Task Force brings together a leading team that exhibits deep expertise and an enthusiastic commitment to deliver clear rules of the road for American innovators.” 

Pascualaqua also expressed enthusiasm about leading a team that perfectly bridges seasoned regulatory know-how with outside corporate experience from massive law firms.

So far, the US SEC and CFTC have been working together to actively co-manage crypto oversight. In March, their efforts culminated in a joint release that explicitly outlines how digital tokens and transactions fit into federal securities laws. Recently, SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that the two agencies are prepared to implement the CLARITY Act together and urged lawmakers to approve the legislation. 

Meanwhile, the CFTC also unveiled a new dedicated tracker that catalogs the agency’s milestones in promoting regulatory clarity and tech adoption. The agency’s website names three central innovation areas it is targeting: crypto and blockchain, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and contracts and prediction markets.

Judge Liburdi blocked the Arizona-Kalshi case at the CFTC’s request

The CFTC earned a victory in the Arizona case against prediction platforms. Federal Judge Michael Liburdi ruled in favor of the commission and issued a temporary restraining order. 

State prosecutors had formally charged Kalshi with 20 counts of unlawful wagering and election betting in a major crackdown last month. They contended that Kalshi is running an unlicensed betting site and requires a gambling license to operate.

However, the CFTC later went on the offensive, filing lawsuits against Arizona and two other states to stop them from enforcing local gambling laws against prediction markets.

Nonetheless, Arizona pushed back, arguing that prediction markets are just disguised sportsbooks that shouldn’t be federally protected, but the judge’s order successfully put the brakes on Monday’s criminal hearing.

In a public reaction on X, Kalshi’s legal counsel Robert J. DeNault welcomed Judge Liburdi’s order, calling the pause on the case “a step in the right direction.”

Selig also noted, “Arizona’s decision to weaponize state criminal law against companies that comply with federal law sets a dangerous precedent, and the court’s order today sends a clear message that intimidation is not an acceptable tactic to circumvent federal law.” 

Nevertheless, aside from Arizona, states like Nevada and New Jersey have actively claimed that political and sports wagers on prediction platforms are illegal. At the same time, federal lawmakers have begun drafting bills to place hard boundaries around the industry.

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US Senator Cynthia Lummis is warning that the long-anticipated CLARITY Act could be delayed for years if the Senate fails to act before the 2026 election cycle, raising pressure on lawmakers to finalize a landmark crypto market structure bill.

Lummis, a leading Republican voice on digital asset policy, has cautioned that failure to advance the legislation during the current congressional window could push comprehensive crypto regulation into a prolonged stall lasting up to four years, effectively freezing reform efforts until the next political cycle.

Over the past few weeks, several officials have also advocated for a similar urgency in the bill’s deliberations and passing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal arguing that establishing federal regulations for digital assets is key to attracting and retaining crypto investors in the US.

The Senator’s warning comes as negotiations over the bill continue to intensify in Washington, with key disagreements still centered on regulatory jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as well as provisions governing stablecoin rewards and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity.

Senator Lummis’ post elicited multiple reactions

On X, Senator Lummis wrote, “This is our last chance to pass the Clarity Act until at least 2030. We can’t afford to surrender America’s financial future.”

Her post naturally provoked different reactions from the crypto community. Some X users were confused about why things might be frozen for four years, others questioned what the actual holdup on the bill is, while others resorted to blaming banks and their lobbyists for pushing back negotiations.

One commenter even expressed disappointment with the bill’s approval delay, saying, “The whole world is adopting crypto, digital currencies, we are behind on this one big time.”

Another supporter of the legislation noted, “When the US sets the rules, the whole world adjusts. Clarity Act isn’t just an American story; it’s the global crypto framework in disguise.”

Ideally, Lummis’ warning feels even more urgent, given that she admitted a few months ago that she isn’t running for reelection. She noted that another demanding six-year stint is just too much to take on physically and mentally.

Previously, some analysts had also warned that if Congress doesn’t act soon, the bill could easily be dead in the water until at least 2027, as everyone’s focus shifts to the upcoming midterm elections. Nonetheless, bettors on prediction markets think there is a 56% chance that Trump will sign the CLARITY Act into law by the end of this year.

Before Lummis raised her concerns, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and several of President Donald Trump’s close advisors were already making the case that Congress needs to act right away. According to Bessent, the lack of clear regulations in the US has already pushed much of the crypto innovation overseas to business-friendly hubs like Singapore and Abu Dhabi. 

The White House CEA says the CLARITY Act may not be that harmful to banks as they claim

The major dispute over the CLARITY Act is over its provisions on stablecoin rewards.  The bill aims to ban passive yield or interest paid solely for holding stablecoins, but permits activity-based rewards.

Traditional financial institutions still contend that offering yield on stablecoins will drain bank deposits and hurt lending capacity, a claim the crypto industry refutes, pointing to a distinct lack of supporting evidence. A recent report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, however, suggested that a ban on stablecoins yields would do very little to curb deposit flight, suggesting that the banking industry’s alarm may be exaggerated.

The report showed that eliminating the yield would boost bank lending by only $2.1 billion, or just 0.02% of all loans. On top of that, it would cause about an $800 million net loss, meaning regular consumers would end up paying more than the banking system actually gains. It noted that even community bank lending would only increase by $129 billion, a 6.7% increase. 

As earlier reported by Cryptopolitan, Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad, also argued that stablecoin yield could open the door for big and small banks to use this tech for processing payments and offering new services.

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Taiwan’s robotics industry has gotten a makeover with the official opening of a National Center and a $629 million funding plan to spin up more local robot companies on the island. 

President Lai Ching-te on Friday formally launched the National Center for AI Robotics (NCAIR), as part of its “Ten AI Initiatives Promotion Plan” to promote AI use and provide the country with the momentum needed to compete globally. The National Center will operate under Taiwan’s National Institutes of Applied Research (NIAR), according to reports. 

Taiwan wants to more robotics startups

At the opening ceremony, President Lai said that robots are a primary focus for the center. NCAIR is specifically tasked with overseeing the development, testing, and training of domestic robots and talents. 

The Taiwanese government also plans to launch a NT$20 billion (US$629 million) funding program later this year. The fund will go toward the creation of at least three new robotics startups from 2026 to 2029, according to National Applied Research Laboratories President Tsai Hung-yin. 

Taiwan recently began efforts to jump-start its robotics industry. Last year, the government announced a similar funding program, where it intended to provide NT$10 billion (US$331.25 million) of subsidies to Taiwanese robotics companies over four years. 

However, the program was mostly part of a five-year initiative to stimulate robotics development in a bid to address impending labor woes. 

Like China, Taiwan is faced with a declining and aging population, which officials fear could drag the country’s economy and its ability to care for elderly people. The government looks to robots as a promising option to shore up its workforce demand in the near future.

The priority then was to make robots for the healthcare, restaurant, and hospitality sectors within two years, according to NSTC Minister Wu Cheng-wen. With the newly launched National Center, however, home care robots are the main focus. But the center will also seek to make robots that can take up high-risk jobs, said NCAIR Director Su Wen-yu. 

Taiwan ranks among the top 10 automated economies

Taiwan already ranks among the top 10 countries by robot density, or the “number of robots used in a country to its economic size, as measured by its workforce,” according to a 2024 insight recently released by IFR. 

Also referred to as Chinese Taipei, Taiwan has a record 302 robots per 10,000 employees, the fourth-largest in Asia and ninth globally. 

Robot density graph. Source: IFR.

The Republic of Korea leads the robot density count globally with a reported 1,220 robots per 10,000 employees. Singapore follows with 818 units, Germany with 449, and Japan with 446. The United States has 307 robots per 10,000 employees, the eighth-largest in the world. 

China didn’t make the list. Despite having 2 million operational units of robots, the largest around the world, the country ranks 22nd in global robot density, with only 166 units. That’s due to its large population. “As a large country with a huge manufacturing workforce, China requires a significant operational stock […] in order to achieve high robot density,” IFR explained.

However, it’s worth noting that China’s 166 robot density represents a 17% increase YoY, the biggest growth amongst the countries. 

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Michael Burry is still standing against Palantir, even after Trump stepped in and gave the stock a public boost. The fight got louder on Friday when Michael said he still holds long-dated put options on Palantir and is not closing the trade.

He said he first started betting against Palantir in the fall of 2025 and has kept rolling the position forward. His latest post showed he now holds June 17, 2027 $50 puts and December 19, 2026 $100 puts. 

Michael wrote, “I now own the June 17 2027 Strike Price 50 Puts and the December 19, 2026 Strike Price 100 Puts. I am not selling these today.”

That post landed after Trump praised Palantir on Truth Social and helped the stock bounce from its low point during the day. Trump wrote, “Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment. Just ask our enemies!!! President DJT”

The post gave Palantir some relief, but it did not erase the damage. The stock still ended the week down 13.7%. It is also down about 28% so far in 2026. Michael answered Trump’s post with a jab at Alex Karp, saying, “Karp calling his panic attack hotline.”

Burry keeps the Palantir short alive while Trump tries to stop the slide

Michael pointed out that Palantir’s stock has been getting weaker since it reached a high near $200 last year. He also said Palantir is still “wildly overvalued.” He thinks the business is worth less than half of where the shares trade now. On Friday, Palantir closed at $128.06.

“Trump’s post rallied the stock after the stock had fallen 18% the last three days. The stock may catch a wind here. It has been selling off with software stocks. As mentioned, I continue to hold the puts, as I believe the fundamental value of this company is well under $50/share,” said Michael.

Some traders think Palantir could benefit from Trump’s war in Iran because the company does so much work with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.

At the same time, Alex Karp has kept regular contact with the administration, even though there had been tension before.

Alex has spent years speaking loudly in support of the U.S. military and the idea of giving warfighters better tools. That part is not new. What changed is his relationship with Trump’s administration.

Alex had criticized Trump in the past and had donated to Joe Biden’s campaign before. Now he has backed the new administration and its policies, and Palantir has picked up new government contracts and has gone deeper into Pentagon work.

Wall Street pushes back as Palantir faces Anthropic, Pentagon, and political heat

Meanwhile, Wall Street is making it clear that it disagrees with Michael. Dan Ives at Wedbush pushed back hard and said the idea that Anthropic is taking Palantir’s place is wrong. 

“We believe the take that Anthropic is eating PLTR’s lunch, (amplified by Michael Burry’s now-deleted post on X earlier today), is the wrong take and fictional narrative (in our view) as Palantir is at the epicenter of leaders in the AI Revolution. Core AI winner and tech leader.”

Dan also said in an interview, “And I think that’s it’s this ghost narrative that you’re fighting. Some will be disintermediated, but the reality is that I think it’s the most disconnected trade that I’ve seen in tech since covering it in the late 90s.”

Alex has strongly backed Israel post-Oct. 7. He previously told CNBC that some employees left over his decision to become pro-Israel.

Then there was the episode with Lisa Gordon, the company’s communications chief. In October last year, Lisa said Palantir’s political turn toward the Trump administration was “concerning” during an interview at an event hosted by The Information. The video was then quickly removed from The Information’s YouTube and social media pages, which is certainly interesting to say the least.

There is also the Anthropic issue. Palantir uses Anthropic models, along with models from other AI labs, on its platform. But Anthropic was blacklisted by the Department of Defense after concerns were raised about autonomous weapons and government surveillance. Alex said last month that Palantir would “phase out” Anthropic’s models, but that has still not happened.

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The US government has decided to transfer Bitcoin funds to a Coinbase Prime address following the seizure of funds from Glenn Olivio. This move has consequently increased the government’s total holding to around 328,000 BTC, which is worth more than $22 billion, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

Regarding this report, sources familiar with the situation disclosed that the US government moved approximately 2.438 BTC, valued at $177,000, confiscated from Olivio, in two separate transfers sent to a similar Coinbase account starting with 3EMqu. 

Similar movements have been recorded in past cases, including funds associated with Ross Ulbricht, the creator of Silk Road.

The US expresses a strong commitment to boost its Bitcoin stockpile

Last month, the US government successfully made its first on-chain transaction in 2026, transferring approximately 0.33 BTC, valued at around $23,000, linked to a wallet titled “Miguel Villanueva Seized Funds.” 

Following the three separate transfers, reliable sources noted that the first transaction consisted of about 0.05678428 BTC, the Second around 0.24020319 BTC, and the third approximately 0.03782683 BTC, bringing the total to 0.3348143 BTC, valued at around $22,876.55 at today’s price.

Nonetheless, reports highlighted that publicly available government statements and court documents failed to disclose further information about Villanueva or the main reason for the seizure.

This report was made public shortly after blockchain investigator ZachXBT, popular for his independent forensic investigations into cryptocurrency fraud, scams, and thefts, alleged that $40 million in cryptocurrency was removed from government-controlled seizure wallets. According to his findings, a manager of government digital forfeitures was connected to the person responsible.

At this moment, the US government had roughly 328,371.99 BTC, worth $22.45 billion, in its Bitcoin stockpile, according to Arkham data. Notably, the government had previously moved about 57.55 BTC to Coinbase Prime on November 3, 2025, before initiating this Villanueva Bitcoin transfer.

Interestingly, a larger transfer was executed on October 14 of last year, resulting in the seizure of 1,320.24 BTC linked to the “Potapenko/Turogin Forfeited Funds” wallets. 

This discovery prompted several analysts to weigh in on the topic. They stressed that the recent Bitcoin transfer conducted by the US government represented US President Donald Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR), which he established through an executive order in 2025, that served as a pledge that federal authorities would never sell bitcoin.

In the meantime, reports noted a high likelihood that Glenn Olivio’s Bitcoin was linked to Glenn Bradford Olivio, who was arrested alongside co-conspirator Dana Rene Light in May 2025.

Both individuals face charges for plotting to possess and distribute a substance or mixture containing a detectable amount of anabolic steroids. This comprises synthetic testosterone and various anabolic-androgenic steroids such as Trenbolone and Nandrolone, based on information retrieved from court documents. 

As a result, the two are facing five charges, including conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, money laundering conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and two counts of drug possession. For the time being, their personal details remain private.

The last update on this case was made in June last year. The government included a forfeiture notice in the indictment, a common step in seizing cryptocurrencies allegedly tied to criminal activity.

The US seeks to solidify its position as a leader in the crypto ecosystem 

Regarding the current situation concerning the US government’s regulatory approach to Bitcoin and the recent Bitcoin seizure reports, the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, emphasized that the administration would halt all sales of seized Bitcoin, opting instead to add it to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

He made these remarks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he told journalist Christine Lee that this plan represents a broader initiative to drive digital asset innovation in the United States while ensuring proper federal custody and control over forfeited cryptocurrencies.

Notably, the statement reflects concerns about the government’s handling of Bitcoin seized from both the New York-based Tornado Cash developers and the Samourai Wallet developers.

Afterward, Bessent clarified that seized BTC would be retained by the federal government following legal proceedings, rather than auctioned off as in the past, without commenting on ongoing legal issues.

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A powerful artificial intelligence video creator that appeared without warning on international testing platforms has turned out to be the work of Chinese technology company Alibaba, giving the firm a major boost in the competitive AI race.

The tool, called HappyHorse-1.0, showed up on the Artificial Analysis benchmarking website around April 7 without any company name attached. It quickly rose to first place in rankings for creating videos from text descriptions and turning still images into moving clips.

On Friday, the people behind HappyHorse set up a new account on X and said the project came from Alibaba’s ATH AI Innovation Unit. They added that work on the system continues. Alibaba confirmed the annoucement after reposting from its main account.

Alibaba shares rise after ownership reveal

Alibaba’s shares in Hong Kong went up 2.12 percent on Friday after the news came out. Earlier in the week on Wednesday, the stock had jumped 6.75 percent when technology shares broadly gained ground after tensions between the United States and Iran cooled down. Some market watchers had already been wondering if Alibaba was connected to the unnamed model.

The company has been working hard to grow its AI products as Chinese firms compete fiercely in this space. It already has the Qwen large language model and a chatbot application.

While Alibaba released other AI systems before that could make videos, none created as much excitement or scored as well as HappyHorse did in just a few days.

This new tool could make Alibaba stronger in video creation, especially since other companies have hit problems. OpenAI recently shut down its Sora video app, saying it wanted to concentrate on coding tools, business customers, and general artificial intelligence work because computing costs were too high.

OpenAI stepping back might help Chinese competitors, but ByteDance had to stop rolling out its popular Seedance 2.0 after Hollywood studios and streaming services accused it of copyright violations.

Alibaba’s chief executive Eddie Wu has made AI development the top goal for the company’s many different businesses, which also cover computer chip design and data centers.

The company has already built its AI models into online shopping, advertising, and entertainment products, and might plan to do the same with HappyHorse.

HappyHorse-1.0 launched in an odd way

There was no big event, no technical explanation, and no company backing. It just appeared anonymously on the Artificial Analysis Video Arena rankings and climbed to the top.

HappyHorse, topped the rankings in text to video, image to video, and text to video with audio categories. It ranked second only in one category: image to video with audio, where Seedance 2.0 holds the lead.

Artificial Analysis uses blind tests where real people worldwide compare videos without knowing which model made them. Results get combined using an Elo rating system like chess rankings. This method is seen as more honest than when companies report their own scores, though new models’ scores can bounce around more because fewer people have tested them. A difference of about 60 points usually means one model wins consistently.

On X, people disagree about HappyHorse. Some doubt it, saying it falls short of Seedance 2.0 in showing character details and smooth movement. Others see promise, hoping it can fix the problem of keeping quality steady across multiple video shots.

Alibaba’s earlier Wan video creator ranked only around 20th on Artificial Analysis, so HappyHorse reaching the top shows a big jump in Alibaba’s video AI abilities. The company says 2026 is important for speeding up AI work.

Video creation is one of the toughest areas where AI developers compete and one of the few that makes money. With OpenAI leaving last month, Chinese companies have more room to grow. Most top products on Artificial Analysis now come from Chinese firms.

Alibaba ATH says HappyHorse is part of exploring new ways to interact in the AI age and more products will come. Opening the programming interface will let outside developers use the model and test how well it works commercially.

China is also pushing hard towards AI chip independance. As reported by Cryptopolitan on Tuesday, Alibaba and China Telecom said they are building a computing center in southern China using chips Alibaba designed. The facility will have 10,000 Zhenwu semiconductors made for AI work that can run systems with hundreds of billions of parameters. China Telecom will own and run the location.

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