MANTRA DAO Initiates Survey Vote to Solicit Feedback on Team Token Burn Execution

Beating AI News Brief: NVIDIA has established a federal political action committee (PAC) named NVPAC, which is authorized to make donations to U.S. federal candidates and party committees. Funds will not come directly from NVIDIA’s corporate accounts; instead, eligible employees will contribute voluntarily, with an annual maximum of $5,000 per person. The PAC can support both the Democratic and Republican parties, and all donation recipients and amounts must be disclosed to the U.S. Federal Election Commission. This is not a Super PAC—an entity that can raise and spend unlimited funds—but rather an employee PAC, a common structure for large U.S. corporations. Tech firms including Google and Meta already operate similar groups, and Anthropic launched AnthroPAC in April this year. As of the end of July, AnthroPAC had raised roughly $350,000. NVIDIA has recently significantly ramped up its efforts in Washington. The company’s federal lobbying spending this year has exceeded $2.5 million, higher than the same period last year. In June, NVIDIA hired Bruce Andrews—who previously served as U.S. Commerce Department Deputy Secretary under the Obama administration—as its Chief External Affairs Officer, and also engaged multiple external lobbying firms. In an email to employees, NVIDIA explained that policies drafted by Congress in the coming years will directly impact the AI industry and whether customers can access and use NVIDIA’s technology. As policies such as AI regulation and chip exports increasingly directly affect its business, NVIDIA is expanding its political influence from lobbying to election donations.

The U.S. dollar held near a one-week high against major currencies on Friday, with investors staying on the sidelines ahead of remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Walsh at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. With U.S. inflation remaining above the 2% target, traders are now pricing in at least one 25-basis-point rate hike from the Fed this year, a development that has supported the dollar’s performance in recent sessions. Markets widely hope to glean more details on monetary policy and the U.S. Treasury’s efforts to lower long-term borrowing costs from Walsh’s remarks, given recent volatility in the bond market. However, analysts note that given Walsh’s reluctance to provide clear forward guidance, he is more likely to update on the progress of five special task forces on Fed operations he established early in his tenure. Commerzbank FX and commodities analyst Volkmar Baur said in a report that Walsh has repeatedly stressed in recent weeks that the Fed’s 2% inflation target is non-negotiable, but he has never explicitly referenced the PCE price index in this context. He added that the Fed may at least be considering adopting a different inflation gauge. If Walsh signals as much, it could undermine market expectations for further rate hikes and be interpreted as a dovish signal, putting pressure on the U.S. dollar.

According to Bitget's market data, the spot palladium price rose nearly 5% to $1,417.75 per ounce.

UK police recently announced that its financial investigation unit has recovered 20.21 Bitcoin, plus additional crypto assets and bank account funds, totaling $1.4 million (equivalent to ￡1,032,487.86). The suspect in the case had prior money laundering convictions and has since died. With assistance from the police’s cyber team, investigators traced the assets to darknet markets operating between 2016 and 2019. The police said the now-shuttered websites facilitated crimes such as drug trafficking and human trafficking, but did not disclose their specific names.

According to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, a consortium formed by private equity firm Advent and payment processor Stripe has decided to abandon its acquisition of fintech pioneer PayPal Holdings Inc. The potential deal was set to be one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. The sources said the group is no longer moving forward with the PayPal acquisition. Earlier, those familiar with the matter stated the consortium had offered more than $500 billion. The relevant parties requested anonymity because the information has not been made public.

Barclays stated that despite the ongoing sell-off in global bonds, the assets remain too expensive to attract investor purchases. Stubborn inflation and governments' unwillingness to cut spending continue to weigh on the bond market. The bank added that while current bond trading levels are closer to fair value than at any time in recent years, "the forces pushing yields higher have not yet been exhausted".