Hassett: Trump Sees No Reason for Interest Rate Hikes, Stressing Importance of Maintaining Status Quo Ahead of Midterm Elections

U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations top Democratic member Richard Blumenthal is probing multi-million dollar payments from Tether to Nxum Group, a consulting firm founded by former White House crypto advisor Bo Hines, and has sent letters to Tether and Nxum demanding disclosure of the relevant business arrangements. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Nxum received large consulting fees from Tether while Hines was still serving as a White House crypto policy advisor. Blumenthal argues Hines was directly involved in stablecoin policy development affecting Tether’s business at the time, and the payments may raise legal and ethical concerns. Hines currently heads Tether’s U.S. operations, and Tether has not yet responded to the investigation. (CoinDesk)

According to The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. President Donald Trump called Elon Musk on Wednesday, demanding the removal of speed limits on Starlink services for Ukrainian military use. U.S. and Ukrainian officials said that after the call, Starlink service returned to more normal operation on Thursday. However, Ukrainian officials’ accounts of the recovery are not entirely consistent: some said the system’s speed had improved significantly, while others noted that some military units were still affected by the original speed limits. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, announced Thursday that he will launch an investigation into Starlink’s unannounced reduction of Ukraine’s communications capabilities, while also reviewing the implications of the Pentagon’s reliance on SpaceX’s critical satellite communications services.

U.S. tech stocks plunged as investors grew increasingly concerned that surging spending in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector is unsustainable. The Nasdaq fell 2.6% on Thursday, marking its largest single-day decline since June. Meanwhile, the blue-chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.02%. Multiple major AI-related stocks declined amid market jitters over tech firms' massive AI investments. Meta (META.O) dropped 7% after the company disclosed it will take on large additional spending commitments going forward. Despite Meta's robust revenue growth, its profit missed Wall Street expectations. Investor and analyst Navellier noted: "It all traces back to Meta. The issue now is that the market is selling off indiscriminately, throwing the baby out with the bathwater." Adding to AI spending concerns, NVIDIA’s CEO said the sector lacks sufficient capital to support the growth of so-called "Neoclouds"—new cloud service providers that primarily deliver digital infrastructure to large AI cloud computing firms like Meta and Amazon. Stocks of SpaceX, NVIDIA, and CoreWeave all fell, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plummeted 6.7%. Against the backdrop of persistent volatility in the AI sector this week, U.S. investors are flocking to the bond market for safety to avoid high-risk assets such as tech stocks. As capital pours into bonds, U.S. Treasury yields have declined sharply.

Beating AI Insight News: According to CNBC, artificial intelligence giant OpenAI is nearing the completion of a new funding round, paving the way for a potential initial public offering (IPO). Per people familiar with the matter, OpenAI is seeking to raise up to $30 billion at a pre-money valuation of $1.25 trillion. UAE-based investors are co-leading the round with investment firm Coatue, the sources said. OpenAI told investors on Thursday that it plans to finalize the signing of relevant agreements by the end of next week. However, the final size of the funding round is still being determined. OpenAI is positioning this round as an "opportunistic bridge financing" ahead of a potential IPO, per insiders. OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar previously told employees that the company could go public in 2027. Meanwhile, another source revealed that OpenAI is also negotiating a commercial agreement to secure more computing power resources from the UAE. (Source: Golden Ten Data APP)

According to Coinglass data, if Bitcoin falls below $80,000, the total long liquidation intensity on major centralized exchanges (CEXs) will reach $692 million. Conversely, if Bitcoin breaks through $83,000, the total short liquidation intensity on major CEXs will hit $1.025 billion. BlockBeats Note: Liquidation charts do not display the exact number of pending liquidations or the exact value of liquidated contracts. The bars on these charts actually represent the relative importance (intensity) of each liquidation cluster compared to adjacent clusters. Therefore, the liquidation chart shows the degree of impact when the underlying asset’s price reaches a specific level. A higher "liquidation bar" indicates that once the price hits that level, it will trigger a stronger reaction due to liquidity waves.

According to HTX market data, Bitcoin fell below $81,000, with a 4.3% decline in the past 24 hours.