Latest news with #CLARITY
The South African
4 days ago
- Business
- The South African
US House set to vote on 'game-changing' crypto bills
US lawmakers are on the verge of passing landmark legislation that will give the much-maligned crypto world much-wanted legitimacy, riding on President Donald Trump's recent embrace of the industry. The US House of Representatives is set to vote on three pieces of legislation this week, including one on the use of stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to safe assets like the dollar – that if passed would immediately go to Trump for his signature. The raft of legislation comes after years of suspicion against the crypto industry amid the belief in the Biden administration that the sector, born out of the success of bitcoin, should be kept on a tight leash and away from mainstream investors. But after crypto investors poured millions of dollars into his presidential campaign last year, Trump reversed his own doubts about the industry, even launching a Trump meme coin and other ventures as he prepared for his return to the White House. According to federal financial disclosure forms released last month, Trump pocketed more than $57 million from the crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, that he launched with his sons last year. Trump has, among other moves, appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He has also established a federal 'Strategic Bitcoin Reserve' aimed at auditing the government's bitcoin holdings, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures. And thanks to his backing, Trump could soon be signing the stablecoin bill — dubbed the GENIUS Act — that the US Senate passed last month and that sets rules such as requiring issuers to have reserves of assets equal in value to that of their outstanding cryptocurrency. Stablecoins are considered the safest and least volatile of digital currencies because their value is tied to traditional currency or secure assets such as gold. Another provision of the bill empowers banking regulators to oversee stablecoin issuers in the United States. The legislation could extend the US dollar's influence in the world of cryptocurrency, with dollar-backed stablecoins seen as financial havens from local currencies prone to big fluctuations. The US House is also considering the CLARITY Act that would establish a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets – including cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based assets. If passed the bill would require passage in the Senate. The act would clarify and divide regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Gerald Gallagher, General Counsel at Sei Labs, a digital asset firm, said the bills could be a game changer for the industry. 'GENIUS and CLARITY provide security and certainty for investors that previously were not available, either intentionally or unintentionally,' he told AFP. 'This has been a long time coming.' The Republican-led House is also considering a bill it calls the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act that aims to block the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) – a digital dollar issued by the US Federal Reserve. Republicans argue that a CBDC could enable the federal government to monitor, track, and potentially control the financial transactions of private citizens, undermining privacy and civil liberties. It also would require passage in the Senate before going to Trump for his signature. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news. By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse
Int'l Business Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
US House Set To Vote On Landmark Crypto Bills This Week
US lawmakers are on the verge of passing landmark legislation that will give the much-maligned crypto world much-wanted legitimacy, riding on President Donald Trump's recent embrace of the industry. The US House of Representatives is set to vote on three pieces of legislation this week, including one on the use of stablecoins -- cryptocurrencies pegged to safe assets like the dollar -- that if passed would immediately go to Trump for his signature. The raft of legislation comes after years of suspicion against the crypto industry amid the belief in the Biden administration that the sector, born out of the success of bitcoin, should be kept on a tight leash and away from mainstream investors. But after crypto investors poured millions of dollars into his presidential campaign last year, Trump reversed his own doubts about the industry, even launching a Trump meme coin and other ventures as he prepared for his return to the White House. According to federal financial disclosure forms released last month, Trump pocketed more than $57 million from the crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, that he launched with his sons last year. Trump has, among other moves, appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He has also established a federal "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" aimed at auditing the government's bitcoin holdings, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures. And thanks to his backing, Trump could soon be signing the stablecoin bill -- dubbed the GENIUS Act -- that the US Senate passed last month and that sets rules such as requiring issuers to have reserves of assets equal in value to that of their outstanding cryptocurrency. Stablecoins are considered the safest and least volatile of digital currencies because their value is tied to traditional currency or secure assets such as gold. Another provision of the bill empowers banking regulators to oversee stablecoin issuers in the United States. The legislation could extend the US dollar's influence in the world of cryptocurrency, with dollar-backed stablecoins seen as financial havens from local currencies prone to big fluctuations. The US House is also considering the CLARITY Act that would establish a clearer regulatory framework for digital assets -- including cryptocurrencies and other blockchain-based assets. If passed the bill would require passage in the Senate. The act would clarify and divide regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Gerald Gallagher, General Counsel at Sei Labs, a digital asset firm, said the bills could be a game changer for the industry. "GENIUS and CLARITY provide security and certainty for investors that previously were not available, either intentionally or unintentionally," he told AFP. "This has been a long time coming." The Republican-led House is also considering a bill it calls the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act that aims to block the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) - a digital dollar issued by the US Federal Reserve. Republicans argue that a CBDC could enable the federal government to monitor, track, and potentially control the financial transactions of private citizens, undermining privacy and civil liberties. It also would require passage in the Senate before going to Trump for his signature.
Coin Geek
08-07-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Congress preps July crypto push; crypto bank charters all rage
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... U.S. legislators are gearing up for a frenzied push to pass digital asset legislation this month, while crypto firms race to secure national banking charters. On Wednesday, July 9, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold its latest hearing on digital asset market structure regulation. The hearing, titled 'From Wall Street to Web3: Building Tomorrow's Digital Asset Markets,' will feature testimony from Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, Paradigm partner Dan Robinson, and Jonathan Levin from blockchain analysts Chainalysis. The Senate has yet to introduce its market structure legislation, having released only a set of 'principles' detailing its priorities. However, a discussion draft is expected to arrive shortly before the hearing and is expected to resemble the Responsible Financial Innovation Act introduced in 2022 by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). That bill, like the companion legislation in the House of Representatives (CLARITY Act), would hand primary responsibility for regulating digital assets to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with a lesser role for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The CFTC reports to the Senate Agriculture Committee, which will require its hearings and input into the legislative sausage-making. CLARITY has successfully completed two House committee markup sessions, but the bill will get renewed attention starting July 14, kicking off what the House has christened 'Crypto Week.' This will involve House consideration of CLARITY as well as the Senate's recently approved stablecoin legislation (GENIUS Act) and Rep. Tom Emmer's revived Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) expressed optimism that all three bills will make it to the floor for a vote by the full House next week. Assuming the vote is in the affirmative, GENIUS would head to President Trump's desk to be signed into law. Successful votes on CLARITY and CBDCs would send both of those bills to the Senate, and GENIUS sponsor Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said he looked forward to 'working with my colleagues to move the CLARITY act through the Senate in short order.' The House appears to have folded on its previously stated plan to harmonize GENIUS with its own stablecoin bill (STABLE), choosing instead to fast-track GENIUS in keeping with Trump's stated wishes. Whether that means the Senate is prepared to return the favor and accept CLARITY with minimal revisions remains to be seen. Hot tax break summer Meanwhile, Lummis isn't finished convincing her colleagues to pass crypto-specific tax reform. Despite watching her tax amendments fail to attach themselves to Trump's 'big, beautiful' spending bill, Lummis has now introduced a standalone bill to 'amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reform the treatment of digital assets.' The bill would eliminate taxes on capital gains resulting from individual crypto sales, exchanges, or dispositions totaling less than $300, with a cumulative cap of $5,000 per year, after which no more free rides are allowed. The bill would also classify digital asset lending agreements as 'generally not taxable events,' effectively lumping tokens with existing securities lending rules. Block reward miners would no longer have to recognize mining income until the tokens generated by their activities are sold or disposed of. Similar policies would apply to digital asset staking, based on the belief that assets shouldn't be taxed until their owner enjoys the actual realization of economic benefit. There are other aspects, but it's unclear whether Lummis has the juice to push her bill through the Senate Finance Committee. Lummis appears to be treating her 'fully paid-for' bill as a discussion draft, stating at the time of its release that she welcomes public comments on its language. Back to the top ↑ Trump crypto ventures shaking things up On America's birthday, the Trump family's decentralized finance (DeFi) project World Liberty Financial (WLF) announced that it had opened voting on a proposal to make its 'governance' token WLFI tradable for the first time. The plan was first disclosed at last month's Permissionless conference by WLF Co-Founder Zak Folkman. As of now, WLFI holders lack the ability to do anything with their tokens other than vote on WLF proposals. But that prohibition appears about to end, given the current state of the voting. The proposal notes that some WLFI supply (30%, according to the WLFI' gold paper') was allocated to 'early supporters,' and 'a portion of these tokens will be eligible to be unlocked upon launch of tradability.' There will be a 'second vote … to determine the unlock and release schedule' of the remaining tokens. Timing and 'any eligibility requirements for unlock' are TBD. However, 'founders, team, and advisor tokens will not be unlocked initially … to demonstrate long-term commitment to the project and alignment with the success of the protocol.' Said advisors include Justin Sun, founder of the TRON network, who became a WLF advisor after buying $75 million worth of WLFI shortly after the token's launch. WLF describes the tradable vote as 'a defining moment,' noting that a 'yes' vote means 'WLFI's governance framework will enable more token holders to participate directly in protocol decisions. This includes voting on emissions, ecosystem incentives, and future treasury actions.' While WLFI was WLF's first baby, its website was recently designed to focus almost solely on USD1, the dollar-denominated stablecoin WLF launched this spring. On July 7, Justin Sun announced the launch of USD1 trading pairs on his DeFi platform. The first three pairs are USDT (Tether), TRON's native token TRX, and NFT, the APENFT Foundation token, which is the primary token for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on TRON. Meanwhile, the $TRUMP memecoin, the president launched exclusively on the Solana network a couple of days before his inauguration in January, is now coming to TRON. On July 7, the company behind $TRUMP (GetTrumpMemes) teased the token's arrival, a move that was swiftly echoed by Sun, although neither party offered details on an expected timeline for the TRON debut. Back to the top ↑ Survey says… whatever you want it to say Despite the brazen profit-taking of some of Trump's ventures, the general public doesn't appear to care. At least, according to a survey commissioned by Cedar Innovation Fund, a pro-crypto' dark money' Group whose backers are uneager to declare themselves publicly. The survey, involving 1,000 voters in mid-June, found that 57% had heard 'nothing or not that much' about Trump making big bank off his $TRUMP memecoin. An even larger slice (60%) was largely unfamiliar with the fact that Trump is making millions from other crypto ventures like WLF. Cedar, which helped defeat crypto critic Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the 2024 election, is no shrinking violet, having recently issued a pointed statement to Senate leaders urging them to 'avoid political games' and pass GENIUS post-haste. Cedar claims the results of its survey show Democrats 'aren't breaking through' with the American public in their efforts to paint Trump as a crypto grifter. However, a different survey from around the same period by the progressive group Data for Progress found very different results. In this poll, 62% of respondents wanted Congress to amend GENIUS to include language preventing Trump and his family from 'personally benefiting' from crypto projects. Back to the top ↑ Secret Service crypto wallet filled to bursting The list of Trump-linked crypto ventures has grown so extensive that individuals could be forgiven for not knowing which of his crypto pitches are legit. On July 2, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia filed a civil complaint seeking to seize nearly 40,400 USDT it claims are part of over $250,000 fraudulently obtained by scammers posing as Steve Witkoff, a longtime friend of the president, WLF co-founder, and co-chair of Trump's inaugural committee. By changing one letter in an email address, the government says the perpetrators imitated a legitimate address to solicit donations to the bogus inaugural fund. This scam worked to perfection on December 26, 2025, obtaining a total of $250,300 in USDT from a single donor. While the bulk of these funds was immediately transferred to 'numerous' other digital wallets, Tether was able to freeze 20,336 USDT in a wallet flagged by the government, while the Binance digital asset exchange was able to freeze another 20,024 USDT that the apparently Nigerian-based perp transferred to their account. Presumably, the U.S. government intends to return the seized tokens to their rightful owner, which isn't always a given. On July 5, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Secret Service's Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) has amassed a haul of nearly $400 million worth of tokens seized as the proceeds of crime over the past decade. That nine-figure sum apparently includes the $225.3 million the Secret Service and FBI recovered in June from a money laundering network linked to crypto investment fraud schemes. 'Much' of the GIOC's nine-figure sum reportedly resides in a single cold-storage wallet, a perhaps risky gambit should an absent-minded purge suddenly leave GIOC staff sifting through a landfill like that sad sack Brit. Speaking of the government's digital wallets, July 22 will mark 180 days since Trump issued an executive order establishing the President's Working Group on Digital Assets (aka 'crypto council'). The Group, chaired by Trump's 'AI & Crypto Czar' David Sacks, was given 180 days in which to recommend regulatory and legislative proposals, including details on the president's Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, which Trump announced in March. It's unclear whether this report will ever be made public. The administration previously directed the Treasury Department to submit a report on all the digital assets currently held by government agencies—the tokens that will make up the Reserve/Stockpile—but later hedged that the government was under no obligation to share this report with the public. Back to the top ↑ Ripple seeks bank charter On July 2, Ripple became the latest digital asset firm to announce plans to pursue a U.S. national bank charter from the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). From his X account, CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the plan was intended to boost trust in RLUSD, the stablecoin Ripple issued last December. Garlinghouse said Ripple had also applied for a Federal Reserve master account (via Ripple's Standard Custody & Trust Company subsidiary). Garlinghouse said a master account 'would allow us to hold $RLUSD reserves directly with the Fed and provide an additional layer of security to future proof trust in RLUSD.' Just days before Ripple's announcement, another stablecoin issuer, Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL), announced its bank charter application. Circle said part of the appeal of a charter would be the ability to self-custody the fiat reserves backing the $62 billion in USDC tokens. Pure stablecoin issuers have limited revenue-generating capacity, relying on interest on the Treasury bills and other fiat assets backing their circulating stablecoins. Any opportunity to cut costs—including by settling payments directly and thus cutting out the banking middlemen—needs to be taken. At present, only one digital asset firm, Anchorage Digital, has been approved for a national bank charter. Back to the top ↑ Backward, it spells a phonetic 'robbery' Also in the banking charter hunt is Erebor, a proposed tech-focused bank backed by some major Silicon Valley luminaries. The Financial Times first reported on the venture, which is backed by Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Anduril, another high-tech military contractor. Erebor's backers reportedly want the bank to fill the role formerly played by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which collapsed in March 2023. The idea is that Erebor would cater to tech companies focused on digital assets, AI, defense, and manufacturing, while also banking the individuals who work at or invest in these firms. Erebor's filing states it intends to become 'the most regulated entity conducting and facilitating stablecoin transactions.' Jacob Hirshman, a former Circle adviser, has been tipped as Erebor's co-CEO alongside Owen Rapaport, co-founder/CEO of Aer Compliance, a crypto trading pre-clearance and post-trade monitoring solutions company. The irony here is high, as SVB's failure is believed to have been sparked by a run on its deposits led by Thiel's Founders Fund. Thiel claimed innocence at the time, noting that he'd left $50 million of his own funds at SVB. However, it's worth noting that Thiel's net worth is over $20 billion, making that sacrifice a lot easier to take. At any rate, Thiel got his $50 million back when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rode to SVB's rescue. USDC issuer Circle was the biggest beneficiary of this bailout, having left $3.3 billion in a single SVB account that was insured only up to $250,000. Not everyone is convinced that granting tech/crypto firms access to national bank charters and Fed master accounts is a good thing. Bloomberg's Paul Davies issued an op-ed on Monday warning that the 2023 failures of SVB and similar banks (Silvergate, Signature) were in part due to their focus on 'economically sensitive industries that are highly correlated to each other, and they lacked diversification of funding.' Davies goes on to describe that narrow focus as 'a bad business model' that is 'much more significant in explaining the 2023 failures than depositor fears about unrealized losses on bonds, or the role of social media in transmitting panic … Circle, Erebor and the rest look like they're running straight back toward this bad business model trap.' Back to the top ↑ Watch: Teranode is the digital backbone of Bitcoin title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Coin Geek
30-05-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
US bill elevates CFTC, but no one works there anymore
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... America's plan for a digital asset market structure regulatory framework envisions a major role for a regulator that's having serious trouble staffing its upper echelons. On Wednesday, United States Vice-President J.D. Vance gave the keynote address on day two of the BTC 2025 conference in Las Vegas. Vance addressed a number of subjects, including his belief that Congress needs to pass digital asset market structure legislation and get a finished bill on President Trump's desk for signing into law ASAP. The following day, the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee (FSC) issued their new digital asset market structure bill, which they've christened the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act. (Section-by-section summary here.) The bill is an updated version of the FIT21 bill that the House passed last year but wasn't addressed by the Senate before Congress adjourned for the 2024 federal election. In announcing the bill, FSC chair French Hill (R-AR) offered the necessary homilies to consumer protection, regulatory clarity, and 'American innovation.' CLARITY is billed as having bipartisan support, citing Democrat co-sponsors Warren Davidson (R-OH), Angie Craig (D-MN), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), and Don Davis (D-NC). CoinGeek's intrepid James Field will be along any moment now with a deeper dive into CLARITY's nuts and bolts, but as with FIT21, CLARITY establishes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as the primary regulator of digital assets that aren't considered securities. So, basically all digital assets, given the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) doesn't believe any digital assets are securities. To underscore that systematic disengagement, the SEC announced on May 29 that it wasn't interested in regulating 'protocol staking activities,' because someone somewhere will presumably ensure these activities are conducted fairly. (The sole remaining Democrat commissioner at the SEC believes the regulator is doing 'more harm than good by purporting to carve out broad categories of crypto products without analyzing the realities of how they really work.') CLARITY does envision the SEC having anti-fraud authority over stablecoins that are allowed to operate under the new rules proposed by bills in the Senate (GENIUS) and House (STABLE). The SEC will also take point on digital asset activity by 'SEC-registered broker-dealers and national securities exchanges where such registrants are exempt from registration with the CFTC.' However, the SEC is not allowed to touch 'certain decentralized finance activities related to the operation and maintenance of blockchain networks.' These activities include 'validating or providing incidental services with respect to a digital asset, providing user-interfaces for a blockchain network, publishing and updating software, or developing wallets for blockchain networks.' That will likely come as a relief to the SEC, as it will spare staff from having to craft a separate press release denying any responsibility for overseeing DeFi activities. If you want to get ahead of next week's disavowal, a lobby group just asked the SEC to ignore decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), so 5…4…3…2…1… CFTC exodus leaves no one manning the gates Looking to the CFTC to shoulder the regulatory burden is complicated by the fact that nobody seems to want to serve as a CFTC commissioner anymore. Incoming Chairman Brian Quintenz has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, but when he finally takes his seat in the corner office, he'll find himself staring at a lot of empty chairs where commissioners usually sit. This will be the last week on the job for commissioners Summer Mersinger and Christy Goldsmith Romero, while Caroline Pham has announced her plan to depart once Quintenz is confirmed. Kristin Johnson is also headed for the exits, although she promised to stay until 'later this year,' likely just long enough for her replacement to be nominated and confirmed. With former Chair Rostin Behnam having resigned on January 20, Quintenz will have the CFTC all to himself, at least, until Trump gets around to nominating new commissioners. It's a good thing that CLARITY gives the CFTC/SEC a 360-day window following passage in which to figure out who's looking after what. (In the interim? Crypto Thunderdome, apparently.) Despite having pulled her own ripcord, Romero appeared a little uneasy over the mass exodus at a Brookings Institution event this week. 'What happens if the CFTC gets down to one and gets new authority for crypto? It's going to be really, really hard, right? You're not going to have the same push and pull … I worry about that at the CFTC, and I worry about that at other agencies as well.' As befitting America's public-private revolving door, Mersinger is leaving to become CEO of the Blockchain Association industry lobbying group. Pham is also returning to the private sector, although she said didn't 'have any specific plans' to announce. Back to the top ↑ Will Trump's crypto ventures thwart legislative progress? Vance's Vegas speech expressed optimism that the Senate could 'move quickly on passing a clean GENIUS Act and for the House to follow-up and do the same.' The 'clean' reference reflects the hope that when the Senate brings GENIUS to the floor for debate (likely next week), it will largely ignore the 53 proposed amendments to its text. As for Vance's urging of Congress to act with similar haste to bring a finished market structure bill to Trump's desk, concerns are mounting that the president's seemingly endless list of self-interested crypto ventures could discourage support for legislatively blessing these money-making moves after the fact. While the crypto sector and pro-crypto pols previously suggested that both stablecoin and market structure legislation could be on Trump's desk by Labor Day, the rising outrage over Trump's increasingly brazen crypto cash grabs could complicate that timeline. One unnamed 'crypto executive' told Politico this week that these concerns could mean market structure legislation 'won't move forward until after the midterm elections next year.' Speaking of, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) announced Wednesday that he'd launched a probe into Trump's recent dinner at his Virginia golf club for the top 220 holders of his $TRUMP memecoin. The Washington Post reported that Raskin's probe is focused on who paid big bucks to breathe the same air as Trump, even though reports suggest that nobody in attendance got much in the way of Trump facetime. Raskin believes that publicly releasing the list of Trump's deep-pocketed dinner guests will 'let the American people know who is putting tens of millions of dollars into our President's pocket so we can start to figure out what—beyond virtually worthless memecoins—they are getting in exchange for all this money.' As with similar Democrat-led probes by the likes of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dems lack the votes to progress these probes beyond the press release stage. Until their Republican colleagues relocate their lost capacity for outrage, these efforts are purely performative. Back to the top ↑ Tokenized retirement? Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to expunge any and all Biden-era rules and regs that might impede 'number go up.' On May 28, the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration formally rescinded Biden-era guidance that has deterred employers from including digital assets in their employees' 401(k) retirement plans. The guidance in question was issued in March 2022 and urged 401(k) plan sponsors to exercise 'extreme care' before including digital assets alongside more traditional financial investment options. The new guidance neither endorses nor disapproves of tokens in 401(k) plans, just reaffirms the department's 'neutral stance.' Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the Biden administration 'made a choice to put their thumb on the scale,' but the new sheriffs in town are 'rolling back this overreach and making it clear that investment decisions should be made by fiduciaries, not D.C. bureaucrats.' There was nearly $9 trillion dollars held in 401(k) accounts at the end of 2024, with over one-third of Americans contributing to the plans. The ongoing upheaval in the stock market due to Trump's on-again/off-again tariffs has many contributors looking at alternative investment options, although prominent tokens like BTC haven't been spared this volatility. For what it's worth, the fact that BTC has fallen 5% this week—during the year's biggest pro-BTC event, and despite announcements by multiple new entrants launching BTC 'treasury' strategies that will see them spending billions of dollars acquiring tokens—should give any 401(k) manager pause regarding the wisdom of injecting additional volatility into workers' retirement schemes. Back to the top ↑ Saylor told Trumps to mortgage Mar-a-Lago and buy BTC Among the entities announcing new BTC treasury strategies this week was Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of the Truth Social platform. TMTG is raising $2.5 billion to buy BTC, swiftly elevating itself to the upper tier of companies that have gone down this road. Day 2 of the BTC Vegas shindig saw the president's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump take the stage to discuss TMTG's BTC buying plans, including the revelation that they were both egged on and inspired by Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) (NASDAQ: MSTR). Strategy bought another 4,020 BTC on Monday, boosting its treasury to 580,250 tokens, and almost immediately announced plans to raise even more debt to buy even more BTC. Strategy's strategy has been mimicked by a growing number of firms, including former meme-stock GameStop (NASDAQ: GME), which announced Wednesday that it had spent $512 million buying 4,710 BTC as the first step in launching its own BTC treasury. Eric Trump told the Vegas audience that Saylor had long been urging the Trump family to 'do what I'm doing,' going as far as to suggest they mortgage Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. (To be fair, Saylor has been telling everyone to mortgage their homes to buy BTC since 2021.) Trump opted instead to use TMTG to make his BTC bet, but so far, the market's reaction has been anything but positive. TMTG's DJT stock briefly spiked in the wake of its BTC announcement but has since fallen below $21, a low it hasn't touched since early April. This is by no means an isolated incident. GameStop's shares surged to nearly $37 in the wake of its BTC announcement but closed Thursday below $30. Like Strategy and its clones MetaPlanet, Twenty-One Capital, and others, there's little in the way of fundamentals behind these companies, rendering them slaves to BTC's random surges and plunges. In TMTG's case, the company's high profile belies a nonexistent business model, with revenue in the first three months of 2025 failing to surpass $1 million. The company's share price values the company at a multiple of 1,800x its annual revenue, meaning if it wasn't attached to the President of the United States, it would have been taken out behind the barn and put out of its misery ages ago. But that was yesterday, and Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Back to the top ↑ Watch: Teranode is the digital backbone of Bitcoin title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Aclarion Announces Texas Back Institute as New CLARITY Trial Site
BROOMFIELD, Colo., May 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aclarion, Inc., ('Aclarion' or the 'Company') (Nasdaq: ACON, ACONW), a healthcare technology company that is leveraging biomarkers and proprietary augmented intelligence (AI) algorithms to help physicians identify the location of chronic low back pain, today announced the addition of the Texas Back Institute (TBI) as a CLARITY (Chronic Low bAck pain Randomized Independent Trial studY) trial site. The pivotal CLARITY study is designed to demonstrate Nociscan's clinical and economic value in spine surgery. 'Texas Back Institute has a rich tradition of excellence in research. We remain focused on the relationship between diagnostic evaluations and treatment outcomes,' said Alexander Satin, MD, board certified orthopedic spine surgeon, Texas Back Institute. 'We have participated in numerous studies involving discography, MRI, minimally invasive procedures, and total disc replacement. The CLARITY trial is exciting, in part, because it builds on previously published evidence and aligns well with our patient population at Texas Back Institute. Our physicians and research leaders are pleased to participate in this important trial.' Texas Back Institute joins the growing roster of previously announced CLARITY trial sites, which includes Johns Hopkins Medicine, Northwestern Medicine and Advocate Aurora Research Institute. The principal investigator for the trial is Dr. Nicholas Theodore of Johns Hopkins Medicine. The CLARITY trial is a prospective, randomized multi-center study evaluating patients who are scheduled to undergo surgical treatment of 1- or 2- level discogenic low back pain. The study will enroll 300 patients at multiple high-volume sites across the US and all patients will receive a Nociscan prior to surgery. The study will be randomized at a 1:1 ratio of surgeons blinded-to-Nociscan and unblinded-to-Nociscan to guide the surgical treatment (Fusion / TDR). The primary endpoint is change in back pain as measured on a 100mm VAS Back at 12 months compared to baseline, with several secondary endpoints collected. 'The Texas Back Institute's reputation for excellence in patient care, innovation and research is renowned,' said Ryan Bond, Chief Strategy Officer at Aclarion. 'It is common, at spine society meetings, that TBI physicians and research leaders are not only in attendance but actively presenting their extensive research to advance the spine industry. We are grateful to have this expert group of physicians and researchers participating in the CLARITY trial.' Chronic low back pain is a global healthcare problem with approximately 266 million people worldwide suffering from degenerative spine disease and low back pain. Aclarion's Nociscan solution is the first evidence-supported SaaS platform to noninvasively help physicians distinguish between painful and nonpainful discs in the lumbar spine. Nociscan objectively quantifies chemical biomarkers demonstrated to be associated with disc pain and has the potential to drive better surgical outcomes. For more information about CLARITY, please visit: CLARITY Trial To find a Nociscan center, view our site map here. For more information on Nociscan, please email: info@ All organizations cited and/or quotes from individuals not part of Aclarion have reviewed and approved the contents herein. About Aclarion, Inc. Aclarion is a healthcare technology company that leverages Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ('MRS'), proprietary signal processing techniques, biomarkers, and augmented intelligence algorithms to optimize clinical treatments. The Company is first addressing the chronic low back pain market with Nociscan, the first, evidence-supported, SaaS platform to noninvasively help physicians distinguish between painful and nonpainful discs in the lumbar spine. Through a cloud connection, Nociscan receives magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data from an MRI machine for each lumbar disc being evaluated. In the cloud, proprietary signal processing techniques extract and quantify chemical biomarkers demonstrated to be associated with disc pain. Biomarker data is entered into proprietary algorithms to indicate if a disc may be a source of pain. When used with other diagnostic tools, Nociscan provides critical insights into the location of a patient's low back pain, giving physicians clarity to optimize treatment strategies. For more information, please visit Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 about the Company's current expectations about future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. Statements that are not historical facts, such as 'anticipates,' 'believes' and 'expects' or similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. These and other risks and uncertainties are discussed more fully in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are encouraged to review the section titled 'Risk Factors' in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, as well as other disclosures contained in the Prospectus and subsequent filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investor Contacts: Kirin M. Smith PCG Advisory, Inc. ksmith@ Media Contacts: Jennie Kim SPRIG Consulting jennie@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
