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CNBC

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  • Trump inaugural impersonators scammed donors out of crypto, feds say Scammers impersonating the President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance Inaugural Committee fraudulently stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency, according to a new complaint filed by federal prosecutors. The perpetrators used phony email addresses made to look like they belonged to the inaugural committee to ” trick or coerce victims into providing them money,” according to the civil complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Using email addresses that end in ”@t47lnaugural.com” with a lowercase “l” as opposed to ”@t47inaugural.com” with a lowercase “i,” the scammers duped victims into sending them more than 250,300 in USDT stablecoin, or about $250,300. Court Watch first reported the filing Thursday. The emails sent in December claimed to be from Steve Witkoff, then the co-chair of the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee. “The victim believed they were contributing a donation to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee through a false email address,” the filing reads. Of the stolen funds, the U.S. government is seeking to permanently seize nearly 40,400 USDT “to punish and deter criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used in or acquired through illegal activities” and “to recover assets that may be used to compensate victims.” About half of the USDT was recovered from a Binance account in the name of Ehiremen Aigbokhan, with an address in Nigeria, per the complaint. Within 24 hours of the victim transferring the cryptocurrency, 215,000 in USDT was transferred “to numerous other cryptocurrency addresses,” according to the filing. Binance provided records and voluntarily complied with a freeze request, according to the filing.
  • Like Google, China's biggest search player Baidu is beefing up its product with AI to fight rivals Chinese tech giant Baidu has bolstered its core search platform with artificial intelligence in the biggest overhaul of the product in 10 years. Analysts told CNBC the move was a bid to keep ahead of fast-moving rivals like DeepSeek, rather than traditional search players. "There has been some small pressure on the search business but the focus on AI and Ernie Bot is a key move ahead," Dan Ives, global head of tech research at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC by email. Ernie Bot is Baidu's AI chatbot. "Baidu is not waiting around to watch the paint dry, full steam ahead on AI," he added. Baidu AI overhaul Baidu is China's biggest search engine, but — as is also being seen by Google — the search market is being disrupted. Users are flocking instead to AI services such as ChatGPT or DeepSeek, which shocked the world this year with its advanced model it claimed was created at a fraction of the cost of rivals. But Kai Wang, Asia equity market strategist at Morningstar, also noted that short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou are also getting into AI search and piling pressure on Baidu. To counter this, Baidu made some major changes to its core search product: Users can now enter more than a thousand characters in the search box, versus 28 previously; Questions can be asked in a more direct and conversational manner, mirroring how people now use chatbots; Users can ask questions through voice but also prompt the seach engine with pictures and files; Baidu has integrated its AI chatbot features, which enable users to generate photos, text and videos, into the product. "This is more aligned with how people use ChatGPT and DeepSeek in terms of how they look for answers," Wang said. Outside of China, Google has also been looking to enhance its core search product with AI, highlighting how search has been under pressure from the burgeoning technology. Baidu on the offense Baidu was one of China's first movers when it came to AI, releasing its first models and ChatGPT-style product Ernie Bot to the public in 2023. Since then, it has aggressively launched updated AI models. However, the Beijing-headquartered company has also faced intense competition from fellow tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, as well as upstarts such as DeepSeek. These companies have also been launching new models and infusing AI into their products and Baidu's stock has fallen behind as a result. Baidu shares have risen around 2.5% this year, versus a 30.5% surge for Alibaba and a 20% rise for Tencent. "This is a defensive and offensive move ... Baidu needs to be aggressive and perception-wise show they are not the little brother to Tencent on the AI front," Wedbush Securities' Ives added.
  • Ether and related stocks gain amid the latest crypto craze: Tokenization background of header A representation of cryptocurrency Ethereum is placed on a PC motherboard in this illustration taken on June 16, 2023. Dado Ruvic | Reuters Stocks tied to the price of ether, better known as ETH, were higher on Wednesday, reflecting renewed enthusiasm for the crypto asset amid a surge of interest in stablecoins and tokenization. BitMine Immersion Technologies, a bitcoin miner that announced plans this week to make ETH its primary treasury reserve asset, jumped about 20%. It's gained more than 1,000% since the announcement. Betting platform SharpLink Gaming, which has also initiated an ETH treasury strategy, added more than 11%. Bit Digital, which last week exited bitcoin mining to focus on its ETH treasury and staking plans, jumped more than 6%. "We're finally at the point where real use cases are emerging, and stablecoins have been the first version of that at scale but they're going to open the door to a much bigger story around tokenizing other assets and using digital assets in new ways," Devin Ryan, head of financial technology research at Citizens. On Tuesday, as bitcoin ETFs snapped a 15-day streak of inflows, ether ETFs saw $40 million in inflows led by BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust. ETH ETFs came back to life in June after much concern that they were becoming zombie funds. The price of the coin itself was last higher by 5%, according to Coin Metrics, though it's still down 24% this year. Ethereum has been struggling with an identity crisis fueled by uncertainty about the network's value proposition, weaker revenue since its last big technical upgrade and increasing competition from Solana. Market volatility, driven by geopolitical uncertainty this year, has not helped. The Ethereum network's smart contracts capability makes it a prominent platform for the tokenization of traditional assets, which includes U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins. Fundstrat's Tom Lee this week called Ethereum "the backbone and architecture" of stablecoins. Both Tether (USDT) and Circle's USD Coin (USDC) are issued on the network. Fundstrat's Tom Lee on being named chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies BlackRock's tokenized money market fund (known as BUIDL, which stands for USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund) also launched on Ethereum last year before expanding to other blockchain networks. Tokenization is the process of issuing digital representations on a blockchain network of publicly traded securities, real world assets or any other form of value. Holders of tokenized assets don't have outright ownership of the assets themselves. The latest wave of interest in ETH-related assets follows an announcement by Robinhood this week that it will enable trading of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs across Europe, after a groundswell of interest in stablecoins throughout June following Circle's IPO and the Senate passage of its proposed stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act. Ether, which turns 10 years old at the end of July, is sitting about 75% off its all-time high.
  • As nations build 'sovereign AI,' open-source models and cloud computing can help, experts say Dylan Butts Digital illustration of a glowing world map with "AI" text across multiple continents, representing the global presence and integration of artificial intelligence. As artificial intelligence becomes more democratized, it is important for emerging economies to build their own "sovereign AI," panelists told CNBC's East Tech West conference in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday. In general, sovereign AI refers to a nation's ability to control its own AI technologies, data and related infrastructure, ensuring strategic autonomy while meeting its unique priorities and security needs. However, this sovereignty has been lacking, according to panelist Kasima Tharnpipitchai, head of AI strategy at SCB 10X, the technology investment arm of Thailand-based SCBX Group. He noted that many of the world's most prominent large language models, operated by companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI, are based on the English language. "The way you think, the way you interact with the world, the way you are when you speak another language can be very different," Tharnpipitchai said. It is, therefore, important for countries to take ownership of their AI systems, developing technology for specific languages, cultures, and countries, rather than just translating over English-based models. Panelists agreed that the digitally savvy ASEAN region, with a total population of nearly 700 million people, is particularly well positioned to build its sovereign AI. People under the age of 35 make up around 61% of the population, and about 125,000 new users gain access to the internet daily. Given this context, Jeff Johnson, managing director of ASEAN at Amazon Web Services, said, "I think it's really important, and we're really focused on how we can really democratize access to cloud and AI." Open-source models According to panelists, one key way that countries can build up their sovereign AI environments is through the use of open-source AI models. "There is plenty of amazing talent here in Southeast Asia and in Thailand, especially. To have that captured in a way that isn't publicly accessible or ecosystem developing would feel like a shame," said SCB 10X's Tharnpipitchai. Doing open-source is a way to create a "collective energy" to help Thailand better compete in AI and push sovereignty in a way that is beneficial for the entire country, he added. Open-source generally refers to software in which the source code is made freely available, allowing anyone to view, modify and redistribute it. LLM players, such as China's DeepSeek and Meta's Llama, advertise their models as open-source, albeit with some restrictions. The emergence of more open-source models offers companies and governments more options compared to relying on a few closed models, according to Cecily Ng, vice president and general manager of ASEAN & Greater China at software vendor Databricks. AI experts have previously told CNBC that open-source AI has helped China boost AI adoption, better develop its AI ecosystem and compete with the U.S. Access to computing Prem Pavan, vice president and general manager of Southeast Asia and Korea at Red Hat, said that the localization of AI had been focused on language until recently. Having sovereign access to AI models powered by local hardware and computing is more important today, he added. Panelists said that for emerging countries like Thailand, AI localization can be offered by cloud computing companies with domestic operations. These include global hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Tencent Cloud, and sovereign players like AIS Cloud and True IDC. "We're here in Thailand and across Southeast Asia to support all industries, all businesses of all shapes and sizes, from the smallest startup to the largest enterprise," said AWS's Johnson. He added that the economic model of the company's cloud services makes it easy to "pay for what you use," thus lowering the barriers to entry and making it very easy to build models and applications. In April, the U.N. Trade and Development Agency said in a report that AI was projected to reach $4.8 trillion in market value by 2033. However, it warned that the technology's benefits remain highly concentrated, with nations at risk of lagging behind. Among UNCTAD's recommendations to the international community for driving inclusive growth was shared AI infrastructure, the use of open-source AI models and initiatives to share AI knowledge and resources.
  • Stablecoins go mainstream: Why banks and credit card firms are issuing their own crypto tokens background of header A $44 billion IPO. A Senate bill with bipartisan momentum. And now, a wave of Fortune 500 firms launching crypto tokens of their own. Stablecoins — once a niche corner of the cryptocurrency world — are entering the corporate and policy mainstream, potentially reshaping how money moves in the United States and around the world. "Many of the users out there today are not aware of stablecoins, or not interested in stablecoins, and they should not be," said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal's SVP of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies. "It should just be a way in which you move value, and in many cases, is going to be an infrastructure layer." For corporations, stablecoins are an opportunity to slash millions in transaction fees and turbocharge payment infrastructure with instantaneous settlement. Stablecoins 'mature' USDC issuer Circle's long-awaited public debut exposed a wave of pent-up demand for digital dollars as investors sent the stock soaring as much as 750% in June. Partnerships, and competition, quickly followed. Coinbase announced a deal with e-commerce platform Shopify to bring USDC payments to merchants. Payments firm Fiserv announced a stablecoin to pair with the 90 billion transactions it processes every year. "We're entering the utility phase right now, where the technology has matured. It's gotten fast, it's gotten cheap," said Jesse Pollak, head of base and wallet at Coinbase. "It's gotten easy to use, and that's leading to real-world adoption across businesses and consumers." Base is Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network, designed to make blockchain applications faster, cheaper, and more accessible to developers and users. Merchants are a particular focus for stablecoins, as payment processing fees for these businesses totaled a record $187.2 billion in 2024, according to the Nilson Report. Payment companies are looking to fend off potential disruption by stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins in payments Mastercard this week announced support for four stablecoins on its Multi-Token Network. The private blockchain is targeted toward institutions and promises 24-hour settlement. Visa's CEO told CNBC the payment processor is modernizing its infrastructure with the help of stablecoins. "Visa and MasterCard are leaning into the disruption," said Nic Carter, founding partner at Castle Island Ventures. "They're trying to disrupt themselves, so they seem to be ahead of the curve." JPMorgan took a slightly different approach to the crypto token boom on Wall Street. The financial giant launched a token backed by commercial bank deposits rather than U.S. dollars. JPMorgan's Naveen Mallela, global co-head of Kinexys, the bank's blockchain unit, told CNBC the JPMD token would allow for round-the-clock settlement for institutional clients looking for faster, cheaper transactions while staying connected to the traditional banking system. Stablecoins in D.C. The boom in crypto adoption on Wall Street is bolstered by growing support in Washington. The Senate passed its framework of rules for stablecoins, called the GENIUS Act. The bill includes guidelines for consumer protections, reserve requirements for issuers, and anti-money laundering guidance. Stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies have faced criticism for their use in illicit activity, and some Democrats argue the bill doesn't do enough to address those concerns. Those lawmakers also argue the bill doesn't curtail conflicts of interest, including the recent launch of a stablecoin tied to President Donald Trump through World Liberty Financial. The crypto-focused firm run by his family is behind the dollar-pegged token USD1. When asked about Trump's ties to crypto projects in his name, the White House told CNBC there are no conflicts of interest and the president's assets are in a trust managed by his children. "I think it was a mistake for Trump to have a Trump-affiliated DeFi project issue a stablecoin. I think that really set back his stablecoin legislative agenda," Carter said. "I think we could do it a lot more in terms of tackling these conflicts of interest. And I completely understand the Democrats when they try and weed this out."
  • Bigger bitcoin HODL: Time for 10% to 40% of portfolio in crypto, says financial advisor Ric Edelman Four years ago, financial advisor Ric Edelman went out on a limb in saying everyone should hold cryptocurrencies. But how much? Low single digits was his recommendation. In his "The Truth about Crypto" book in 2021, Edelman said as low as a 1% allocation was reasonable. A lot has changed. This week, Edelman said financial advisors should be recommending anywhere from 10% to 40% allocations to cryptocurrencies, and he is aware it's quite a shift in his own thinking. "Today I am saying 40%, that's astonishing," he told CNBC's Crypto World in an interview. "No one has ever said such a thing." But the "why" is the more important thing. For one, it's because of the massive change seen in the industry, what he called "the evolution of crypto in the past four years," he said. Four years ago, Edelman said, we didn't know if governments would ban bitcoin, or if the technology would be obsolete, and if consumers and institutions would adopt it. "Today, all those questions have been resolved," said Edelman, who heads the Digital Assets Council of Financial Advisors. "It's radically changed and is now a mainstream asset," he added. For sure, the more mainstream crypto becomes, the more it will feature across investment portfolios. Bitcoin ETFs have been taking in billions this year, among the top asset classes in ETF inflows this year, one sign of crypto's arrival on the radar of more financial advisors and long-term investors. The other big shift Edelman sees longer-term, and just as important to his view of crypto allocations, is the end of the traditional 60/40 model of long-term investing, with 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds, which Edelman says is obsolete due to increased longevity — life expectancy in the U.S. has risen from 47 in the 1900s to 85 today, and is projected to potentially reach as high as 100 over the next 30 years if technological advances related to medicine proceed. "If you're a financial advisor and you had a 30-year-old client who was saving for their long-term future, you would tell them to put 100% of their money in stocks, because they have 50 years to go," said Edelman. "Today's 60-year-old is kind of like yesterday's 30-year-old," he added. "You need to get better returns than you can get from bonds and you need to hold equities longer than ever before," Edelman said. And as that allocation model shifts away from the classic 40% bond allocation, he said crypto needs to play a much bigger role in investing. "Bitcoin prices don't move in sync with stocks or bonds or gold or oil or commodities," Edelman said. He added that investors are starting to recognize it as a "wonderful way to improve modern portfolio theory statistics." "The crypto asset class offers the opportunity for higher returns than you're likely to get in virtually any other asset class," Edelman said. Some analysts predict bitcoin will hit $150,000-$250,000 by the end of this year and $500,000 by the end of this decade. Edelman said, "That's a conservative estimate compared to what others are saying." Ric Edelman calls on financial advisors to allocate up to 40% to crypto in portfolios In other crypto news of note on Friday: Crypto hacks hit a new record in the first half of the year. According to TRM Labs, bad actors raked in over $2.1 billion in at least 75 different hacks and exploits, setting a new record. Attacks on crypto infrastructure, like stealing private keys and seed phrases or compromises of front-end software, accounted for over 80% of the funds stolen in 2025's first half. Trump housing advisor tells CNBC about crypto mortgage plan. Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, joined CNBC's "Money Movers" on Friday to discuss the plan he released this week to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac figure out how to count crypto as a federal mortgage asset. Senate targets end of September for crypto bill. Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said at an event on Thursday that legislation to establish rules for U.S. crypto markets will be finished by the end of September.
  • Germany tells Apple, Google to block DeepSeek as the Chinese AI app faces rising pressure in Europe In this photo illustration, the DeepSeek logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen and in the background, the flag of the European Union. Thomas Fuller | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images One of Germany's data protection watchdogs on Friday said DeepSeek's app illegally sends user data to China and asked Google and Apple to consider blocking the artificial intelligence service. Berlin's data protection commissioner Meike Kamp said in a statement that DeepSeek's transfer of German user data to China is "unlawful." There is not a readily available way to get in touch with DeepSeek. CNBC has reached out to DeepSeek's privacy team. Chinese firm DeepSeek made waves this year when it launched an AI model that it claimed was created at a fraction of the cost of competitors, using less advanced Nvidia chips. The company also has its own global chatbot AI app, which has been downloaded millions of times, garnering scrutiny. If the German case against DeepSeek progresses, it could lead to a European Union-wide ban for the app, some experts say. "It is certainly possible that this incident could lead to an EU-wide ban because the rules that apply in Germany are the same elsewhere in the EU and also in the UK," Matt Holman, specialist AI and data lawyer at Cripps, told CNBC by email. There are a few steps before this would become reality, however. What is Germany's issue with DeepSeek? "DeepSeek has not been able to convincingly demonstrate to my authority that the data of German users is protected in China at a level equivalent to that of the European Union," Germany's Kamp said, according to a CNBC translation. "Chinese authorities have extensive access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies." Under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation — the bloc's huge data protection law — companies are prohibited from sending data outside the region unless specific safeguards are in place at the countries of arrival. Those safeguards must meet GDPR requirements in Europe. In short, the Berlin data protection commissioner is concerned that Chinese authorities could access German user data sent by DeepSeek to China. What are the next steps? The Berlin data watchdog on Friday said it had informed Apple and Google of DeepSeek's alleged violations and expects the U.S. tech giants to carry out a "timely review" about whether to ban the app or not from their respective app stores. It's unclear if Google and Apple will comply. CNBC has reached out to both companies for comment. Cripps' Holman said that while and EU-wide ban is possible, there needs to be consensus among the bloc's regulators first that this would be an appropriate step. If Apple and Google remove DeepSeek from their app stores, this would effectively amount to an EU-wide ban, Holman said. "The implications for Deepseek could be, unsurprisingly, quite stark. Access to German citizens' data will be curtailed. In short order this could expand to the remainder of the EU if other national regulators follow suits meaning EU — and potentially UK — markets will be curtailed if Apple and Google disables the app," Holman said. This is not DeepSeek's first run-in with regulators in Europe. Italian data protection authorities in February ordered DeepSeek to block its app in the country. Meanwhile, Irish authorities in January asked DeepSeek for information on its data processing.
  • A new trend is driving Southeast Asian tourists to China’s Chongqing city, viral social media clips of monorails running through a residential building, buildings perched atop hilly terrain, and a pedestrian bridge on the 13th floor.
  • Apple reveals complex system of App Store fees to avoid EU fine of 500 million euro Kif Leswing POLAND - 2024/03/23: In this photo illustration an Apple logo is displayed on a smartphone with an EU flag on the background. Apple, Meta, Google to face EU Digital Markets Act probes. (Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Omar Marques | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Apple Thursday made changes to its App Store European policies, saying it believes the new rules will help the company avoid a fine of 500 million euro ($585 million) from the EU for violating the Digital Markets Act. The new policies are a complicated system of fees and programs for app makers, with some developers now paying three separate fees for one download. Apple also is going to introduce a new set of rules for all app developers in Europe, which includes a fee called the “core technology commission” of 5% on all digital purchases made outside the App Store. The changes Apple announced are not a complete departure from the company’s previous policy that drew the European Commission’s attention in the first place. Apple said it did not want to make the changes but was forced to by the European Commission’s regulations, which threatened fines of up to 50 million euros per day. Apple said it believed its plan is in compliance with the DMA and that it will avoid fines. “The European Commission is requiring Apple to make a series of additional changes to the App Store,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. “We disagree with this outcome and plan to appeal.” A spokesperson for the European Commission did not say that Apple was no longer subject to the fine. He said in a statement that the EC is looking at Apple’s new terms to see if the company is in compliance. “As part of this assessment the Commission considers it particularly important to obtain the views of market operators and interested third parties before deciding on next steps,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The saga in Brussels is the latest example of Apple fiercely defending its App Store policies, a key source of profit for the iPhone maker through fees of between 15% and 30% on downloads through its App Store. It also shows that Apple is continuing to claim it is owed a commission when iPhone apps link to websites for digital purchases overseas despite a recent court ruling that barred the practice in the U.S. Steering rules no longer in effect in U.S. Under the Digital Markets Act, Apple was required to allow app developers more choices for how they distribute and promote their apps. In particular, developers are no longer prohibited from telling their users about cheaper alternatives to Apple’s App Store, a practice called “steering” by regulators. In early 2024, Apple announced its changes, including a 50 cent fee on off-platform app downloads. Critics, including Sweden’s Spotify, pushed back on Apple’s proposed changes, saying that the tech firm chose an approach that violated the spirit of the rules, and that its fees and commissions challenge the viability of the alternative billing system. The European Commission investigated for a year, and it said on Thursday that it would again seek feedback from Apple’s critics. “From the beginning, Apple has been clear that they didn’t like the idea of abiding by the DMA,” Spotify said last year. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company successfully changed Apple’s steering rules in the U.S. earlier this year, accused Apple last year of “malicious compliance” in its approach to the DMA. Sweeney said Apple was looking to comply with the letter of the law but make it difficult for developers to benefit from the changes. The European Commission announced the 500 million euro fine in April. The commission at the time said that the tech company might still be able to make changes to avoid the fine. Apple’s restrictions on steering in the United States were tossed earlier this year, following a court order in the long-running Epic Games case. A judge in California found that Apple had purposely misled the court about its steering concessions in the United States and instructed it to immediately stop asking charging a fee or commission on for external downloads. The order is currently in effect in the United States as it is being appealed and has already shifted the economics of app development. As a result, companies like Amazon and Spotify in the U.S. can direct customers to their own websites and avoid Apple’s 15% to 30% commission.
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