In a groundbreaking move, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted conditional approval for World Liberty Trust Co., a crypto business owned 38% by an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and his family, to establish a bank charter. This marks the first time in U.S. history that a sitting president's family has been granted bank status, raising significant concerns about conflicts of interest.

**Key Developments:**

- **Stablecoin Issuance:** The approval allows World Liberty Trust to issue its own stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar, cutting out third-party providers like BitGo. Stablecoins offer stability compared to volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, making them attractive for large transactions.
- **Direct Profits:** Clients will exchange dollars for the stablecoin, with profits flowing directly to the Trump family's business. The venture has already secured around $5 billion in its first days, with Trump himself making over $1.4 billion from crypto ventures.
- **Political Backlash:** Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have condemned the decision as "the most brazen act of self-dealing our financial system has ever seen." Warren is introducing a bill to stop such corruption.
- **OCC's Defense:** The OCC maintains that staff acted consistently with statutory duties and ethical obligations, and the charter is conditional on meeting capital requirements.

**Conflicts of Interest:** White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly insists there are no conflicts, citing that Trump's assets are in a blind trust managed by his children. However, critics note that a typical blind trust operates with an independent trustee, not family members.

**International Ties:** The approval follows a $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi's MGX, which plans to use the Trump family's stablecoin in transactions with Binance. This deal has raised eyebrows, especially after the Trump administration agreed to supply the UAE with AI chips, despite prior concerns about China.

This unprecedented move blurs the lines between private business and public office, setting a new precedent for presidential financial entanglements.

A national bank regulator granted a wing of the Trump family's crypto business conditional approval to establish a bank charter, opening the door for larger clients.

Trump Family's Crypto Venture Makes History: First Presidential Bank Charter Approved

Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host who has previously voiced support for President Trump, is now **blasting the POTUS and his family** over what he characterizes as "billions" made in crypto while Trump is in office. 

During his Thursday podcast, Rogan didn't hold back: 

> "This government has done some s--- that no government has ever done before. And one of them is the crypto stuff. The crypto stuff's nuts. Trump has made billions in crypto. And then you got his sons, and his sons are involved in all of these weird business deals ... and then the sons are involved in these businesses. There's a lot of money flowing around, that you could dig in and start arresting people. The thing about the crypto is, it's shady as f---, but it's legal. I don't know if it should be."

## The Context: Trump's Crypto Empire

Rogan's comments come as Trump touts his role in making the US a hub for cryptocurrency, while facing questions about his own meme coin and other digital-asset ventures. Records show these ventures have generated **about $1.4 billion in profits**. The White House and Trump campaign insist there are no conflicts of interest, stating that all Trump assets are in third-party-managed accounts and that his crypto policies are crafted "in the best interest of the American people."

## More Controversies: Truth Social and the Decoy Plane

Rogan also questioned a new Truth Social offering that reportedly charges up to **$100,000 a month** for early access to Trump's posts, calling it "literally crazy." 

Additionally, Rogan addressed Trump's decoy plane incident, noting that if it's true Iran was possibly targeting Air Force One and the president secretly hopped on a different plane while leaving staffers and press aboard the presidential plane, "that is so wild that he didn't even tell them. Holy s---. Those press people were signing up for something they didn't know."

## Potential Impact on Trump's Base

A political scientist told *Newsweek* that Rogan's criticism could **resonate with younger male Trump backers** who already follow Rogan, even if it doesn't rupture the broader conservative base. Rogan's massive audience and his previous support for Trump make this a significant moment in the intersection of politics and cryptocurrency.

Joe Rogan, who has previously voiced support for President Trump, is now blasting the POTUS and his family over what he characterizes as "billions" made in crypto while...

Joe Rogan Slams Trump Family Over Crypto Billions: 'Shady as F---'

In a significant regulatory move, **Russia has banned cryptocurrency mining in Moscow**, the surrounding Moscow Region, and parts of Kursk, effective until **December 31, 2032**. The government decree No. 936, signed on July 25 and published on July 31, also prohibits participation in crypto mining pools in these areas.

This decision comes as Russia's Energy Ministry seeks to **mitigate power-capacity shortages** caused by energy-intensive mining facilities straining regional grids. Currently, mining consumes approximately **1 gigawatt** in the Moscow power system, and data-center capacity could reach **3.6 GW**, or 17% of peak demand, by 2032.

## Russia's Role in Global Bitcoin Mining

Russia is the **world's second-largest Bitcoin mining power**, accounting for an estimated **175 exahashes per second**, or **16.4% of Bitcoin's global computing power** in Q1, according to Luxor's Hashrate Index. The U.S. leads with a larger share, but Russia's position is significant.

The ban in Moscow and surrounding areas raises questions about the impact on Russia's overall hashrate, though it's unclear how much capacity is located in the newly restricted regions.

## Mining, Sanctions, and Crypto Payments

Russia's mining industry is intertwined with its response to **Western sanctions**. Russian companies have been using **domestically mined bitcoin** for international payments, as legal changes in December 2024 allowed this to counter sanctions. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned BitRiver and its subsidiaries in 2022, alleging that Russian mining helped monetize energy resources and offset sanctions' impact.

Despite the ban in certain regions, Russia's parliament passed legislation in July maintaining the ban on domestic crypto payments but preserving exceptions for foreign-trade settlements and mined cryptocurrency transactions.

## Broader Regulatory Context

Russia legalized registered crypto mining in 2024, but has since imposed restrictions in multiple regions citing electricity demand. Earlier bans covered 10 regions through March 2031, with year-round restrictions later extended to southern Irkutsk, most of Buryatia, and Zabaykalsky Krai.

This latest ban in Moscow marks a significant tightening, reflecting the tension between fostering a crypto mining industry and managing energy resources.

## What's Next?

The ban could push miners to relocate to other regions or countries, potentially impacting Russia's hashrate and global mining distribution. It also highlights the **complex interplay between energy policy, sanctions, and cryptocurrency adoption**.

The Energy Ministry enacted the year-round restriction to mitigate power-capacity shortages as energy-intensive mining facilities continue to strain regional grids.

Russia's Capital Bans Bitcoin Mining: What It Means for the Global Hashrate

This past week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word open letter titled "The Future is for Everyone." To some, it's an expression of hope in AI's promise. To others, it's little more than a verbose public relations exercise.

Zuckerberg's manifesto is the latest example of a tech boss opining on why AI is the next big thing. His vision echoes what AI leaders have expressed in various forms: the product they are building is among the "most important technologies in history."

Marc Andreessen, co-founder of early web titan Netscape, perhaps started this trend in 2023 with a 5,000-word essay he called "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto," which argued innovation was the way to solve life's problems. "So they're writing manifestos now?," I remember thinking to myself.

Andreessen's writing began with him recounting lies he claimed people were spreading, and called for readers to push back against this. "We believe growth is progress – leading to vitality, expansion of life, increasing knowledge, higher well being," he wrote.

Zuckerberg's recent essay doesn't name names - but the Meta boss mimics Andreessen by questioning those who have warned about the negatives of future tech. "It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom," he writes.

As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns AI could affect nearly 40% of jobs and worsen global financial inequality, Zuckerberg says he believes there will be an abundance of jobs in the future. "I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity's relevance would rush to build that future." Never mind that Zuckerberg's Meta has cut 10% of its global workforce - about 8,000 jobs - as the company reorganizes to focus on AI.

Zuckerberg's manifesto is the latest to land in our social media feeds in an effort to put a positive spin on AI. In 2024, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI boss Sam Altman released a manifesto called "The Intelligence Age," a sweeping expression of optimism about the tech's potential. Human progress was poised to accelerate in dramatic fashion, he promised. "We need to act wisely but with conviction," he said.

That same year, in a manifesto titled "Machines of Loving Grace," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei touted the potential of AI to transform everything from healthcare to politics. He framed it as an attempt to share the potential upsides of AI - and he didn't want to be seen as a doomer.

Zuckerberg is no stranger to the long-winded essay format. During US President Donald Trump's first administration, he even wrote about thorny topics such as the spread of misinformation on his platforms. He later put pen to paper to explain the company's ill-fated pivot to the metaverse in 2021.

But the stakes are higher in the AI era, argues economics blogger Noah Smith, and the commentary from executives reflects that. "I think they all feel like it's such an important moment that it's incumbent upon them to do whatever they can to shape the direction that this technology is going," Smith said.

Zuckerberg's new manifesto announced plans to share its artificial intelligence tools more openly, meaning that the design or code behind the tech will be made public, allowing anyone to view, use and change it. Decisions about whether these tools should be open source carry significant weight given their potential to do harm.

In recent weeks, several highly powerful AI models hacked into websites, or as some put it, "went rogue". These were the most powerful models, not the ones being made open source - but as the technology develops, it has raised a serious question for Smith. "Should we open-source something that has the ability to kill humanity?" he asked. "If you don't take that seriously, you're just a fool."

It's why he thinks these manifestos are important, even if some online poke fun at them. And they're gaining additional interest at a time when the open source market is dominated by Chinese AI models like Qwen, DeepSeek and GLM.

But the frequency of these corporate manifestos also serves as a way for executives to position themselves and their companies in the marketplace of ideas. "It's a way of showing how smart you are," said Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University. Executives have long used the corporate blog "to expound on ideas in a way where they're sort of this businessman-philosopher, in a sense." "They're trying to argue for optimism as a way of looking at the future," he said.

Lalka said the timing of Zuckerberg's manifesto coincides with rising anger over AI's impact on everything from jobs to the environment. And while tech journalists and academics might pore over them trying to glean nuggets of meaning, these executive manifestos are not necessarily landing with the general public. "They're trying to make the case that the positives will far outweigh some of those negatives that the public backlash is pointing out," he said. "But I think a lot of the reasons for optimism are still yet to be seen."

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg is the latest Big Tech name to pen a letter thousands of words long about AI.

Bitcoin Articles Published Today

Bitcoin Articles Published Yesterday