Zeros

The Billion-Dollar Side Hustle A 927-page disclosure form, one very generous royalty arrangement, and the quiet dread of doing the math . So here's a number to consider: $1.4 billion . That's roughly what landed in Donald Trump's pocket from digital-currency ventures in 2025 alone, according to the annual financial disclosure his own ethics office released this week . For comparison, Joe Biden's final disclosure ran eleven pages. Trump's ran 927. I don't know what to do with that information except to state it repeatedly. The bulk of it traces back to two places. First, the meme token launched three days before his inauguration, spiked to over $74 within a day, and now trades around $1.67 — a fact that should haunt everyone who bought at the top. Trump himself doesn't profit from that price collapse; he profits from royalties on every sale, regardless of whether the buyer wins or loses . That royalty stream alone brought in over $635 million ...

UFC Freedom 250 Paid Fighter Bonuses in USD1 When UFC Freedom 250 wrapped up on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, the post-fight bonus structure drew attention for reasons that had nothing to do with the scorecards. Fighters at the event received a total of $250,000 in performance bonuses paid in USD1 , the stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial (WLFI) . [ Yahoo Finance ] For the digital currency community, the mechanics of that payout are worth a closer look . What Is USD1? USD1 is a dollar-to-dollar stablecoin — meaning each token is designed to hold a one-to-one value with the U.S. dollar. Its circulating supply has grown to approximately $4.6 billion as World Liberty Financial pursues a federal banking license . [ CoinDesk ] As stablecoins go, USD1 has had an eventful few months . Earlier this year, WLFI borrowed more than $75 million in stablecoins from Dolomite, a DeFi lending protocol, using 3 billion of its own WLFI governance tokens as collater...

There's a question quietly circulating near digital currency water coolers that deserves more attention than it's getting: is Bitcoin — by design or by drift — positioning itself to slip through the back door of the American banking system, using underutilized national bank charters as the key? It sounds like a conspiracy theory. It might not be. In just 83 days, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under Trump -appointed Comptroller Jonathan Gould granted conditional national bank charters to eleven digital asset and fintech firms — including Ripple, Crypto.com, Circle, BitGo, Paxos, and Fidelity Digital Assets. That's a stunning pace, and it raises a reasonable question: what exactly does a national bank charter give a digital assets company that it couldn't already get on its own? The short answer is legitimacy. And access. Bitcoin, as a decentralized asset, has long existed in a regulatory gray zone. It doesn't technically require state-by...

Digital Currency & Pop Culture —  The Pot Calls the Kettle Blacklisted Justin Sun , TRON's famously embattled founder, has picked a very public fight with the Trump family's World Liberty Financial — and the irony is almost too rich to audit. If you have spent any time in the digital currency hobbyist space, the name Justin Sun has a way of appearing at the center of almost every headline that makes you quietly close a browser tab . This week is no different. Sun — founder of the TRON blockchain and its native TRX token — took to X on Sunday to accuse World Liberty Financial (WLFI) , the Trump family's digital finance venture, of hiding a, "backdoor blacklisting function," buried inside its smart contract. According to Sun, that function grants WLFI's team the unilateral power to freeze, restrict, or outright confiscate any token holder's assets without notice, explanation, or appeal. He called it, "a trap masquerading as a door,...

Trump Pardons Binance Founder CZ : The Rules Just Changed Overnight The digital currency world just experienced its Iraq War "shock and awe" moment—and the regulatory landscape may never be the same. In a move that sent shockwaves through financial markets Thursday morning, President Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng CZ Zhao , the billionaire founder of Binance who pleaded guilty to criminal money laundering charges less than two years ago. Let that sink in for a moment. This isn't some low-level cryptocurrency entrepreneur. CZ ran the world's largest digital currency exchange—a platform that federal prosecutors said enabled money laundering connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking, and terrorism . He served four months in prison after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act . Binance itself paid a record-shattering $4.3 billion fine to the Department of Justice . And now? Clean slate . The Political Calculus Is Stunning The...

The USDD Paradox : A US Dollar Stablecoin That Americans Can't Access In the ever-strange world of cryptocurrency, few situations are as bewildering as the current state of USDD , Tron's algorithmic stablecoin supposedly tethered to the US dollar. Picture this : a digital currency designed to mirror the value of American greenbacks, created by a blockchain network with headquarters in Florida , yet Americans can't even visit its official website! If that doesn't make you scratch your head, nothing will. The irony reached peak absurdity recently when Justin Sun , Tron's controversial founder, found himself at the center of yet another trading drama. World Liberty Financial , the Trump -affiliated DeFi project, blacklisted Sun's address after he transferred $9 million worth of WLFI tokens. This move came amid broader tensions in the cryptocurrency space, but it highlights the increasingly convoluted relationship between American regulatory sentime...