“I hate the idea of having a Tesla-Kraken token and a Tesla-Robinhood token,” he said. “Instead of actually moving forward and creating a better financial system, we’re splitting [up] liquidity.”
Robinhood’s initiative highlights stark differences between major crypto trading platforms as they use tokenization to break from traditional methods of record keeping and create more efficient systems for investors.
In developing its own Ethereum-compatible network, based on Arbitrum’s design, Kerbrat said that Robinhood is trying to cast as large a net as possible, as it looks to expand on tokenized assets and connect with other entities within the cryptosphere.
“We’re launching [tokenized stocks and ETFs] first in the EU, but in the future, [we] want to open it up as soon as we get clarity on regulations,” he said. “We want the maximum participation there. We want to be compatible with other players.”
So, this leaves us with a few questions. What were the Big Beautiful Bill’s positions on AI? Why did the Senate overwhelmingly reject them? Can we expect the AI token market to continue showing reduced trade volumes and market capitalization?
The bill’s plan, essentially, was to impose a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation for all US states. This may have taken the form of an outright ban or a more roundabout method.
It would have proposed a $500 million fund on AI infrastructure development, but only states with zero AI regulations could access this money. Google and OpenAI supported this plan.
Such a vision would’ve created a lot of problems, and pro-crypto Senators even turned on it. If the bill banned AI regulation for 10 years, states would be powerless to prevent future AI-related crimes.
But crypto exchanges Kraken and Bybit have rolled out tokenized stock trading through Backed Finance’s xStocks. The assets, which trade on Solana, underscore how companies are leveraging competing networks and standards in trying to give the financial system a facelift.
As Kraken pushes forward with tokenized stock trading on Solana, Kerbrat noted that Ink, an Ethereum layer-2 network released by Kraken last year, has gone untapped.
“It’s interesting to see that they decided to not use that chain,” he said. “Some companies are about launching as many things as possible to get as many headlines as possible. On our side, we actually want people to use a product.”
A Kraken spokesperson told Decrypt that it joined the xStocks Alliance, a group of exchanges, networks, and decentralized finance protocols setting standards for on-chain assets, to avoid fragmenting liquidity across multiple token standards and chains.
Obvious offenses include fraud or copyright infringement, but people might even use AI tools to simulate depictions of child abuse, as some Senators warned. This possibility caused prominent Republicans like Marsha Blackburn to disavow the effort.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say how the bill will impact the AI token market in the long term. So far, the Big Beautiful Bill has been very unpredictable already.
For example, Elon Musk’s opposition to the bill caused several Musk-related meme coins to flourish, but Dogecoin fell by over 5%. This chaos could create new opportunities, but it’s uncertain where they’ll appear.
Additionally, the AI token sector was already in a slump before the bill passed. These 5% drops are concerning, but AI asset trade volumes fell over 38% in the last 30 days.
“We’re working to make xStocks the global standard for tokenized equities,” the spokesperson said. “This isn’t about promoting any single brand—it’s about unlocking access and shifting power back to the people.”
Solana was a natural place to launch xStocks to “accelerate mass adoption,” but Kraken is already working with a “broad network of partners” to expand xStocks to additional blockchains, the spokesperson said. Ink is a key part of the company’s roadmap, they added.
As Kraken leans into xStocks, Robinhood is preparing to debut its own Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, with the intent of appealing to as many developers as possible, too.
Grayscale logo on smart phone in dark room. Source: Shutterstock
In Cannes, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said during an event on Monday that the firm is working with regulators to “bring the entire Robinhood ecosystem on-chain,” eventually leveraging its own blockchain for trading and settlement and supporting financial applications.
During a fireside with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Offchain Labs CSO A.J. Warner, Kerbrat later highlighted Arbitrum Stylus. As an engineer, he noted how difficult it can be to find “great engineers” that are adept in Ethereum’s programming language.
Arbitrum Stylus, which debuted in September, allows developers to write smart contracts in a variety of languages, including Rust, the primary language from programs on Solana.
“You can pull in specific libraries or specific components of your application using the Stylus stack and still take the benefits of the battle-hardened EVM code,” Warner said, noting that languages like c++ may appeal more to game developers or traditional finance firms.
Despite the technological milestone, Tesla shares fell about 1% in early trading Monday. The company's stock has declined more than 15% since the start of the year, as Tesla grapples with declining demand and increasing pressure from competitors.
The company has faced mounting challenges, particularly in key markets such as China and Europe, where such as China's BYD have taken the lead in the EV sector. Investors have also raised concerns about Tesla's aging vehicle lineup and its brand image, which has been affected by Musk's much-debated involvement with President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.
The driverless delivery came shortly after Tesla initiated its Robotaxi program in Austin on a limited basis. While some influencers and analysts praised the program after participating in controlled test runs, others noted that the autonomous vehicles occasionally disobeyed local traffic laws.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has previously scrutinized Tesla's self-driving efforts, confirmed it has requested more information about the Robotaxi pilot program.
Musk has long touted self-driving technology as a potential game-changer for Tesla's valuation, estimating that autonomous vehicles could add between $5 trillion and $10 trillion to the company's market cap by turning idle cars into active, income-generating assets.
Tesla is competing with other major players in the self-driving market, including Waymo, a company owned by Google. With this latest delivery, Tesla aims to demonstrate it can deliver real-world, fully autonomous performance, without a driver or remote assistance.
“They looked eerily similar to humans and are honestly very creepy,” one traveler said in a shared video. “This is freaky,” another said.
The guest’s discomfort reflects a trend in human-robot interaction, known as the “uncanny valley,” the eerie feeling that arises when machines look and behave almost like people, but not quite enough.
As UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering Professor Ken Goldberg once told Decrypt, “I want a robot to look like a robot—it can maybe do some things, but I don't want to confuse it with a real person.”
From Tokyo to Las Vegas, hotels are experimenting with machines to greet guests, answer questions, serve food, and trim labor costs.
In Japan, the Henn-na Hotel, also known as the “Strange Hotel,” has led the charge in adopting robotic staff. Opened in Nagasaki in 2015, it once boasted more than 240 robots and a minimal staff of humans.
Today, guests can still find humanoid androids behind check-in counters at the chain’s locations in Ginza, Hamamatsucho, Asakusabashi, Akasaka, and Haneda.
While the Henn-na Hotel drew headlines when it opened, problems soon emerged. By 2019, the hotel had retired more than half of its robotic staff due to technical glitches and guest complaints.
Based on traveler reviews, people love it—they describe interacting with the ‘staff’ as fun and rate the hotel overall highly," a spokesperson for Hotels.com told Decrypt. "The hotel has found a memorable way to add a little novelty and delight to the check-in experience, which seems to go over well with guests."
Despite mixed reactions, the rollout of robots in the hospitality industry is accelerating.
A recent report from Research and Markets projects the global hospitality robot market, including check-in, delivery, and cleaning bots, to grow from $648.2 million in 2024 to $2.2 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 21.5%.
The surge is driven by post-COVID demand for contactless services, rising labor costs, and greater consumer acceptance of robotic staff.
Other major hotel chains that feature robot servers include Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Wyndham, Aloft, Crowne Plaza, and Renaissance, with robots delivering room service, amenities, and food to guest rooms.
In 2017, a 4-foot-tall robot named Pepper was introduced at the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas as a “technical ambassador.”
After the hotel was sold and rebranded as the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas, Pepper stuck around—greeting guests in the lobby, answering questions, and occasionally dancing.
“She was good,” a Waldorf Astoria representative told Decrypt. “She helped with lines at our front desk and entertained guests.” But Pepper was eventually retired, possibly after being damaged by visitors. “Someone got rough with it,” the employee said, noting that parts had gone missing.
However, it remains to be seen how much humans will accept robots taking over the travel industry and removing the “human touch” the industry has been known for.
While humanoid robots grab attention with their lifelike appearances, experts say the real transformation is more subtle.
Bitcoin’s role on company balance sheets is growing fast. According to a report, 199 entities now hold 3 million BTC, worth about $315 billion.
That total has more than doubled since the start of 2024. It marks a clear shift in how big firms view crypto, not just as a trading asset but as a long‑term treasury play.
Among those 199 entities, 147 public and private companies account for 1.1 million BTC (around $115 billion). Strategy, the pioneer in this space, holds 580,250 BTC—about $60 billion—and trades at a market cap of $104 billion.
That gives it a Multiple on Net Asset Value (MNAV) of 1.7× today. Investors once paid up to 2× NAV for Strategy’s shares, reflecting confidence in its ability to grow BTC‑per‑share faster than anyone else.
When a firm’s main business is holding Bitcoin, its shares need to outperform Bitcoin itself. That premium, known as MNAV, depends on faith in management and clear execution plans.
Strategy has used three main tools since 2020: issuing convertible debt, running an At‑the‑Market stock program, and plowing free cash flow into spot Bitcoin.
New rivals are copying and tweaking this playbook—letting holders swap coins for stock, buying underpriced firms to turn cash into BTC, and even adding private deals to raise funds.
“When people talk about humanoid robot receptionists, they usually picture the physical kind, like androids at the front desk,” Wyatt Mayham, CEO of Northwest AI Consulting, said. “But the real shift in hospitality AI is happening behind the scenes. Most hotels aren't betting on robots to check you in. They're putting their money into automation that actually solves day-to-day problems.”
As Mayham explained, behind-the-scenes investment reflects a deeper trend reshaping the hospitality industry from within.
An extended bear market could test these models. If Bitcoin falls and shares trade at or below NAV, debt‑heavy firms might struggle to refinance when notes come due.
That could force them to sell Bitcoin into a downtrend, pushing prices lower. Smaller companies without Strategy’s scale will face higher borrowing costs and tougher terms.
During a recession, margin calls and forced sales may cascade throughout the market, although most of these companies use equity financing mainly.
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.
Governor Katie Hobbs issues a third veto on a pro-Bitcoin law in Arizona.
Bill HB 2324 proposed to create a state Bitcoin reserve from seized cryptos.
Hobbs cites volatility risks and the impact on local law enforcement.
Katie Hobbs stays on course. The Governor of Arizona has just issued a veto on bill HB 2324, which proposed establishing a Bitcoin reserve managed by the state.
This legislative initiative, adopted by 34 votes to 22 in the House of Representatives, would have allowed the creation of strategic reserves from cryptos confiscated during criminal investigations.
In her letter addressed to House Speaker Steve Montenegro, Hobbs justifies her decision with operational concerns.
She argues that this measure “disincentives local law enforcement from working with the state on digital asset forfeiture“. According to her, removing seized assets from local jurisdictions would harm inter-agency cooperation.
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.
To that end, Robinhood has started quietly building its own blockchain, using Ethereum scaling tech to support 24/5 trading. It also launched tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX — companies not publicly listed — to European users, marking a shift in how and where retail investors can gain exposure to top tech names.
"We thought we would just deliver," Tenev said. "We don't want to do much talking. We want to just put product in customers' hands."
Robinhood Crypto general manager Johann Kerbrat echoed that sentiment, saying the company is just getting started.
"In the future, we think we can expand this to thousands of tokens that represent different types of financial instruments — from U.S. stocks and international equities to private equity," he said. "What we showed today with SpaceX and OpenAI is just a glimpse of what we're planning — there's much more to come."
Robinhood's revenue rose 50% year-over-year in Q1, and the company just this week launched staking in the U.S. — a feature that had previously been blocked by regulators.
"To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft's lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness," Phil Spencer, Microsoft's CEO of gaming, wrote in a Wednesday memo to employees in that division.
Microsoft reported nearly $26 billion in net income on $70 billion in revenue for the March quarter. The numbers were well ahead of Wall Street's consensus, keeping Microsoft ranked as one of the most profitable companies in the S&P 500 index, according to data compiled by FactSet.
Executives called for about 14% year-over-year revenue growth in the June quarter, thanks to expected expansion in Azure cloud services and corporate productivity software subscriptions
Microsoft stock closed at a record high of $497.45 per share on June 26. At the start of Wednesday's trading session, the shares were down about 0.6%, while the S&P 500 was roughly flat.
Autodesk, Chegg and CrowdStrike are among the other software providers that have slimmed down in 2025. Earlier on Wednesday, payroll processing company ADP said the U.S. private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June. Economists polled by Dow Jones had predicted an increase of 100,000.
Foldables represented less than 2% of the overall smartphone market in 2024, according to International Data Corporation. Samsung was the biggest player with 34% market share followed by Huawei with just under 24%, IDC added. Honor took the fourth spot with a nearly 11% share.
Honor is looking to get a head start on Samsung, which has its own foldable launch next week on July 9.
Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president at the International Data Corporation, said the Magic V5 is a strong offering from Honor.
"This is the dream foldable smartphone that any user who is interested in this category will think of," Jeronimo told CNBC, pointing to features such as the battery.
"This phone continues to push the bar forward, and it will challenge Samsung as they are about to launch their seventh generation of foldable phones," he added.
The thinness of a foldable phone has become a battleground for smartphone makers to appeal to consumers who want the large screen size the device has to offer without extra weight.
At its event next week, Samsung is expected to release a foldable that is thinner than its predecessor and could come close to challenging Honor's offering by way of size, analysts said. If that happens, then Honor will be facing more competition, especially against Samsung, which has a bigger global footprint.
"The biggest challenge for Honor is the brand equity and distribution reach vs Samsung, where the Korean vendor has the edge," Neil Shah, co-founder of Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.
Honor's push into international markets beyond China is still fairly young, with the company looking to build up its brand.
"Further, if Samsung catches up with a thinner form-factor in upcoming iterations, as it has been the real pioneer in foldables with its vertical integration expertise from displays to batteries, the differentiating factor might narrow for Honor," Shah added.
Since Trump's first term, Washington has been trying to onshore more of the advanced semiconductor supply chain from Asia, support its domestic players and limit China's capabilities.
Although tax provisions in Trump's sweeping policy bill expand on those in the Biden administration's CHIPS Act, his overall approach to the semiconductor industry has been different.
Earlier this year, the president even called for a repeal of the CHIPS Act, though Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to act on that front. Still, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month that the administration was renegotiating some of the Biden administration's grants.
Trump has previously stated that tariffs, as opposed to the CHIPS Act grants, would be the best method of onshoring semiconductor production. The Trump administration is currently conducting an investigation into imports of semiconductor technology, which could result in new duties on the industry.
In recent months, a number of chipmakers with projects in the U.S. have ramped up planned investments there. That includes the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, as well as American chip companies such as Nvidia, Micron and GlobalFoundries.
According to Daniel Newman, CEO at tech advisory firm Futurum Group, the threat of Trump's tariffs has created more urgency for semiconductor companies to expand U.S. capacity. If the increased investment tax credits come into law, those onshoring efforts are only expected to accelerate, he told CNBC.
"Given the risk of tariffs, increasing manufacturing in the U.S. remains a key consideration for these large semiconductor companies," Newman said, adding that the tax credits could be seen as an opportunity to offset certain costs related to U.S.-based projects.
XRP LEDGER EVM-SIDECHAIN MAINNET LAUNCHES: Ripple officially introduced the XRP Ledger's Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain to the mainnet in an bid to improve the ecosystem's interoperability and allow developers to deploy their Ethereum-based decentralized applications (dapps) with the XRPL. The development adds EVM-compatible smart contracts while maintaining a connection to the XRPL, giving developers access to the ecosystem at a low cost, Ripple said in a blog post. It is designed to eliminate the trade-off between EVM compatibility and XRPL’s own advantages, opening the door for dapps to lean into XRP’s payments infrastructure. The sidechain operates as a separate blockchain that is parallel and connected to the XRP Ledger over the Axelar bridge, an interoperability protocol. XRPL’s native token, XRP, will serve as the native gas token for the sidechain.
“Hotels are moving away from patchwork tools and toward integrated systems powered by AI,” he said. “The goal isn’t to replace people at the front desk, it’s to tighten operations and run leaner without losing service quality.”
For now, the robot receptionists are still employed at the Henn-na Hotel, but according to a recent report by travel website The Travel, the hotel’s staff is mostly human.
“We used a specialized AI program to analyze and match text fragments based on combinations of cuneiform signs,” Professor Enrique Jiménez, Professor of Ancient Oriental Languages at LMU, told Decrypt.
Jiménez and his colleagues use approaches based around natural language processing to indicate that fragments belong to a single text, as detailed in a methodology paper from last year.
Working from the Electronic Babylonian Library Platform, which contains 1,402 manuscripts, the researchers use n-gram matching as their primary method of reconstruction, although other methods include vocabulary overlapping and searching for longest common strings (of text).
According to Jiménez, the rediscovered poem was important enough to be taught as part of Babylon’s curriculum.
Los Angeles is Broke – City Declares Fiscal Emergency
The city of Los Angeles declared a state of fiscal emergency amid a $1 billion deficit. The council approved of the emergency declaration unanimously in a 14-0 vote. This comes after Mayor Karen Bass approved a $14 billion budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1. The city is a prime example of what happens when socialist policies are allowed to run rampant at the expense of the people.
Bass approved of raising the budget from $12.9 billion in FY2024-25 to $14 billion in 2025-26 despite the looming $1 billion deficit. Unsurprisingly, overspending is the main culprit for the deficit, and yet, lawmakers have every intention of spending more. Over 600 public sector workers will be let go as a result of fiscal mismanagement, and although small government is usually applaudable, the city plans to fire 248 LAPD employees, 44 sanitation workers, and 41 firefighters. LA is experiencing a significant uptick in crime, but plans to defund the police to appease the mobs.
California Governor Gavin Newsom boasts of California’s robust economy but fails to acknowledge that it’s a state basically living “paycheck-to-paycheck,” with the payee being the taxpayer. Read the state’s plan to cover its budget deficits – endless taxes. Spending growth from 2025-26 to 2028-29 is 5.8%, above the average of 3.5%. Growth over the same period is just above 4%, “lower than its historical average, largely due to policy choices that end during the forecast window. Taken together, we view it as unlikely that revenue growth will be fast enough to catch up to ongoing spending.” Even residents who choose or are forced to leave the state will incur taxes to cover government thievery. Los Angeles is one of countless examples of how the public sector will virtue signal to rob Peter, not to pay Paul, but to pay themselves, as they are not hiding the corruption.
Liability costs totaled $546 million in the past years, as there have been numerous lawsuits, mainly involving the Los Angeles Police Department, which is forbidden by law to enforce order. The city refused to budget for these growing legal battles. Not only does the city plan to fire officers, but they also reduced hiring by 50% last year, recruiting 240 new officers instead of the 480 needed to patrol the city.
I’ve reported numerous times how California uses the homeless epidemic to fund NGOs that merely steal from the taxpayers. Mayor Bass stated she plans to cut 10% of funding to the “Inside Safe” program. The city has spent millions on combating homelessness, and the numbers continue to rise.
Crime is more expensive than funding the LAPD. Criminals have cost the city of Los Angeles an estimated $7.6 billion annually. Gang violence alone costs the city around $1 billion per year, according to the Vera Institute of Justice, which is half of the annual budget of the LAPD. The California Department of Justice has acknowledged that property crime has risen in recent years and accounts for 60–70% of total losses. Yet, violent demonstrations are permitted to occur whenever Washington enacts a policy that displeases the Democrats.
Blue policies such as the net-zero climate initiative have caused businesses to flee Los Angeles and California as a whole. From 2020 to the present day, over 164 companies have left California. In the last year, 12 major companies like SpaceX, Chevron, X, and KFC have fled CA for TX. Los Angeles shed 106 corporate headquarters between 2018 and 2024, the second-highest number of losses in US metros behind San Francisco/San Jose.
Taxpayers are fleeing the state en masse. State and local taxes are among the highest in the nation and disproportionately harm the middle and upper classes to fund the growing public sector. Energy costs have skyrocketed, with major refiners abandoning California. Gas is expected to rise 75% by 2026, and residents are already paying the highest price for gas in the nation. The cost of living is exorbitant. Those who can have already fled as the government must continue to leech of the taxpayers to fund their failures.
There should be checks and balances against these elected officials who recklessly spend with no end in sight. Downsizing the police force is a political move that will only cause crime and the costs associated with crime to rise. Los Angeles is becoming a failed city as a direct result of socialist policies that have historically NEVER worked.
“I hate the idea of having a Tesla-Kraken token and a Tesla-Robinhood token,” he said. “Instead of actually moving forward and creating a better financial system, we’re splitting [up] liquidity.”
Robinhood’s initiative highlights stark differences between major crypto trading platforms as they use tokenization to break from traditional methods of record keeping and create more efficient systems for investors.
In developing its own Ethereum-compatible network, based on Arbitrum’s design, Kerbrat said that Robinhood is trying to cast as large a net as possible, as it looks to expand on tokenized assets and connect with other entities within the cryptosphere.
“We’re launching [tokenized stocks and ETFs] first in the EU, but in the future, [we] want to open it up as soon as we get clarity on regulations,” he said. “We want the maximum participation there. We want to be compatible with other players.”
So, this leaves us with a few questions. What were the Big Beautiful Bill’s positions on AI? Why did the Senate overwhelmingly reject them? Can we expect the AI token market to continue showing reduced trade volumes and market capitalization?
The bill’s plan, essentially, was to impose a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation for all US states. This may have taken the form of an outright ban or a more roundabout method.
It would have proposed a $500 million fund on AI infrastructure development, but only states with zero AI regulations could access this money. Google and OpenAI supported this plan.
Such a vision would’ve created a lot of problems, and pro-crypto Senators even turned on it. If the bill banned AI regulation for 10 years, states would be powerless to prevent future AI-related crimes.
But crypto exchanges Kraken and Bybit have rolled out tokenized stock trading through Backed Finance’s xStocks. The assets, which trade on Solana, underscore how companies are leveraging competing networks and standards in trying to give the financial system a facelift.
As Kraken pushes forward with tokenized stock trading on Solana, Kerbrat noted that Ink, an Ethereum layer-2 network released by Kraken last year, has gone untapped.
“It’s interesting to see that they decided to not use that chain,” he said. “Some companies are about launching as many things as possible to get as many headlines as possible. On our side, we actually want people to use a product.”
A Kraken spokesperson told Decrypt that it joined the xStocks Alliance, a group of exchanges, networks, and decentralized finance protocols setting standards for on-chain assets, to avoid fragmenting liquidity across multiple token standards and chains.
Obvious offenses include fraud or copyright infringement, but people might even use AI tools to simulate depictions of child abuse, as some Senators warned. This possibility caused prominent Republicans like Marsha Blackburn to disavow the effort.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say how the bill will impact the AI token market in the long term. So far, the Big Beautiful Bill has been very unpredictable already.
For example, Elon Musk’s opposition to the bill caused several Musk-related meme coins to flourish, but Dogecoin fell by over 5%. This chaos could create new opportunities, but it’s uncertain where they’ll appear.
Additionally, the AI token sector was already in a slump before the bill passed. These 5% drops are concerning, but AI asset trade volumes fell over 38% in the last 30 days.
“We’re working to make xStocks the global standard for tokenized equities,” the spokesperson said. “This isn’t about promoting any single brand—it’s about unlocking access and shifting power back to the people.”
Solana was a natural place to launch xStocks to “accelerate mass adoption,” but Kraken is already working with a “broad network of partners” to expand xStocks to additional blockchains, the spokesperson said. Ink is a key part of the company’s roadmap, they added.
As Kraken leans into xStocks, Robinhood is preparing to debut its own Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, with the intent of appealing to as many developers as possible, too.
Grayscale logo on smart phone in dark room. Source: Shutterstock
In Cannes, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said during an event on Monday that the firm is working with regulators to “bring the entire Robinhood ecosystem on-chain,” eventually leveraging its own blockchain for trading and settlement and supporting financial applications.
During a fireside with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Offchain Labs CSO A.J. Warner, Kerbrat later highlighted Arbitrum Stylus. As an engineer, he noted how difficult it can be to find “great engineers” that are adept in Ethereum’s programming language.
Arbitrum Stylus, which debuted in September, allows developers to write smart contracts in a variety of languages, including Rust, the primary language from programs on Solana.
“You can pull in specific libraries or specific components of your application using the Stylus stack and still take the benefits of the battle-hardened EVM code,” Warner said, noting that languages like c++ may appeal more to game developers or traditional finance firms.
Despite the technological milestone, Tesla shares fell about 1% in early trading Monday. The company's stock has declined more than 15% since the start of the year, as Tesla grapples with declining demand and increasing pressure from competitors.
The company has faced mounting challenges, particularly in key markets such as China and Europe, where such as China's BYD have taken the lead in the EV sector. Investors have also raised concerns about Tesla's aging vehicle lineup and its brand image, which has been affected by Musk's much-debated involvement with President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency.
The driverless delivery came shortly after Tesla initiated its Robotaxi program in Austin on a limited basis. While some influencers and analysts praised the program after participating in controlled test runs, others noted that the autonomous vehicles occasionally disobeyed local traffic laws.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has previously scrutinized Tesla's self-driving efforts, confirmed it has requested more information about the Robotaxi pilot program.
Musk has long touted self-driving technology as a potential game-changer for Tesla's valuation, estimating that autonomous vehicles could add between $5 trillion and $10 trillion to the company's market cap by turning idle cars into active, income-generating assets.
Tesla is competing with other major players in the self-driving market, including Waymo, a company owned by Google. With this latest delivery, Tesla aims to demonstrate it can deliver real-world, fully autonomous performance, without a driver or remote assistance.
“They looked eerily similar to humans and are honestly very creepy,” one traveler said in a shared video. “This is freaky,” another said.
The guest’s discomfort reflects a trend in human-robot interaction, known as the “uncanny valley,” the eerie feeling that arises when machines look and behave almost like people, but not quite enough.
As UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering Professor Ken Goldberg once told Decrypt, “I want a robot to look like a robot—it can maybe do some things, but I don't want to confuse it with a real person.”
From Tokyo to Las Vegas, hotels are experimenting with machines to greet guests, answer questions, serve food, and trim labor costs.
In Japan, the Henn-na Hotel, also known as the “Strange Hotel,” has led the charge in adopting robotic staff. Opened in Nagasaki in 2015, it once boasted more than 240 robots and a minimal staff of humans.
Today, guests can still find humanoid androids behind check-in counters at the chain’s locations in Ginza, Hamamatsucho, Asakusabashi, Akasaka, and Haneda.
While the Henn-na Hotel drew headlines when it opened, problems soon emerged. By 2019, the hotel had retired more than half of its robotic staff due to technical glitches and guest complaints.
Based on traveler reviews, people love it—they describe interacting with the ‘staff’ as fun and rate the hotel overall highly," a spokesperson for Hotels.com told Decrypt. "The hotel has found a memorable way to add a little novelty and delight to the check-in experience, which seems to go over well with guests."
Despite mixed reactions, the rollout of robots in the hospitality industry is accelerating.
A recent report from Research and Markets projects the global hospitality robot market, including check-in, delivery, and cleaning bots, to grow from $648.2 million in 2024 to $2.2 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 21.5%.
The surge is driven by post-COVID demand for contactless services, rising labor costs, and greater consumer acceptance of robotic staff.
Other major hotel chains that feature robot servers include Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Wyndham, Aloft, Crowne Plaza, and Renaissance, with robots delivering room service, amenities, and food to guest rooms.
In 2017, a 4-foot-tall robot named Pepper was introduced at the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas as a “technical ambassador.”
After the hotel was sold and rebranded as the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas, Pepper stuck around—greeting guests in the lobby, answering questions, and occasionally dancing.
“She was good,” a Waldorf Astoria representative told Decrypt. “She helped with lines at our front desk and entertained guests.” But Pepper was eventually retired, possibly after being damaged by visitors. “Someone got rough with it,” the employee said, noting that parts had gone missing.
However, it remains to be seen how much humans will accept robots taking over the travel industry and removing the “human touch” the industry has been known for.
While humanoid robots grab attention with their lifelike appearances, experts say the real transformation is more subtle.
Bitcoin’s role on company balance sheets is growing fast. According to a report, 199 entities now hold 3 million BTC, worth about $315 billion.
That total has more than doubled since the start of 2024. It marks a clear shift in how big firms view crypto, not just as a trading asset but as a long‑term treasury play.
Among those 199 entities, 147 public and private companies account for 1.1 million BTC (around $115 billion). Strategy, the pioneer in this space, holds 580,250 BTC—about $60 billion—and trades at a market cap of $104 billion.
That gives it a Multiple on Net Asset Value (MNAV) of 1.7× today. Investors once paid up to 2× NAV for Strategy’s shares, reflecting confidence in its ability to grow BTC‑per‑share faster than anyone else.
When a firm’s main business is holding Bitcoin, its shares need to outperform Bitcoin itself. That premium, known as MNAV, depends on faith in management and clear execution plans.
Strategy has used three main tools since 2020: issuing convertible debt, running an At‑the‑Market stock program, and plowing free cash flow into spot Bitcoin.
New rivals are copying and tweaking this playbook—letting holders swap coins for stock, buying underpriced firms to turn cash into BTC, and even adding private deals to raise funds.
“When people talk about humanoid robot receptionists, they usually picture the physical kind, like androids at the front desk,” Wyatt Mayham, CEO of Northwest AI Consulting, said. “But the real shift in hospitality AI is happening behind the scenes. Most hotels aren't betting on robots to check you in. They're putting their money into automation that actually solves day-to-day problems.”
As Mayham explained, behind-the-scenes investment reflects a deeper trend reshaping the hospitality industry from within.
An extended bear market could test these models. If Bitcoin falls and shares trade at or below NAV, debt‑heavy firms might struggle to refinance when notes come due.
That could force them to sell Bitcoin into a downtrend, pushing prices lower. Smaller companies without Strategy’s scale will face higher borrowing costs and tougher terms.
During a recession, margin calls and forced sales may cascade throughout the market, although most of these companies use equity financing mainly.
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.
Governor Katie Hobbs issues a third veto on a pro-Bitcoin law in Arizona.
Bill HB 2324 proposed to create a state Bitcoin reserve from seized cryptos.
Hobbs cites volatility risks and the impact on local law enforcement.
Katie Hobbs stays on course. The Governor of Arizona has just issued a veto on bill HB 2324, which proposed establishing a Bitcoin reserve managed by the state.
This legislative initiative, adopted by 34 votes to 22 in the House of Representatives, would have allowed the creation of strategic reserves from cryptos confiscated during criminal investigations.
In her letter addressed to House Speaker Steve Montenegro, Hobbs justifies her decision with operational concerns.
She argues that this measure “disincentives local law enforcement from working with the state on digital asset forfeiture“. According to her, removing seized assets from local jurisdictions would harm inter-agency cooperation.
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.
To that end, Robinhood has started quietly building its own blockchain, using Ethereum scaling tech to support 24/5 trading. It also launched tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX — companies not publicly listed — to European users, marking a shift in how and where retail investors can gain exposure to top tech names.
"We thought we would just deliver," Tenev said. "We don't want to do much talking. We want to just put product in customers' hands."
Robinhood Crypto general manager Johann Kerbrat echoed that sentiment, saying the company is just getting started.
"In the future, we think we can expand this to thousands of tokens that represent different types of financial instruments — from U.S. stocks and international equities to private equity," he said. "What we showed today with SpaceX and OpenAI is just a glimpse of what we're planning — there's much more to come."
Robinhood's revenue rose 50% year-over-year in Q1, and the company just this week launched staking in the U.S. — a feature that had previously been blocked by regulators.
"To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft's lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness," Phil Spencer, Microsoft's CEO of gaming, wrote in a Wednesday memo to employees in that division.
Microsoft reported nearly $26 billion in net income on $70 billion in revenue for the March quarter. The numbers were well ahead of Wall Street's consensus, keeping Microsoft ranked as one of the most profitable companies in the S&P 500 index, according to data compiled by FactSet.
Executives called for about 14% year-over-year revenue growth in the June quarter, thanks to expected expansion in Azure cloud services and corporate productivity software subscriptions
Microsoft stock closed at a record high of $497.45 per share on June 26. At the start of Wednesday's trading session, the shares were down about 0.6%, while the S&P 500 was roughly flat.
Autodesk, Chegg and CrowdStrike are among the other software providers that have slimmed down in 2025. Earlier on Wednesday, payroll processing company ADP said the U.S. private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June. Economists polled by Dow Jones had predicted an increase of 100,000.
Foldables represented less than 2% of the overall smartphone market in 2024, according to International Data Corporation. Samsung was the biggest player with 34% market share followed by Huawei with just under 24%, IDC added. Honor took the fourth spot with a nearly 11% share.
Honor is looking to get a head start on Samsung, which has its own foldable launch next week on July 9.
Francisco Jeronimo, a vice president at the International Data Corporation, said the Magic V5 is a strong offering from Honor.
"This is the dream foldable smartphone that any user who is interested in this category will think of," Jeronimo told CNBC, pointing to features such as the battery.
"This phone continues to push the bar forward, and it will challenge Samsung as they are about to launch their seventh generation of foldable phones," he added.
The thinness of a foldable phone has become a battleground for smartphone makers to appeal to consumers who want the large screen size the device has to offer without extra weight.
At its event next week, Samsung is expected to release a foldable that is thinner than its predecessor and could come close to challenging Honor's offering by way of size, analysts said. If that happens, then Honor will be facing more competition, especially against Samsung, which has a bigger global footprint.
"The biggest challenge for Honor is the brand equity and distribution reach vs Samsung, where the Korean vendor has the edge," Neil Shah, co-founder of Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.
Honor's push into international markets beyond China is still fairly young, with the company looking to build up its brand.
"Further, if Samsung catches up with a thinner form-factor in upcoming iterations, as it has been the real pioneer in foldables with its vertical integration expertise from displays to batteries, the differentiating factor might narrow for Honor," Shah added.
Since Trump's first term, Washington has been trying to onshore more of the advanced semiconductor supply chain from Asia, support its domestic players and limit China's capabilities.
Although tax provisions in Trump's sweeping policy bill expand on those in the Biden administration's CHIPS Act, his overall approach to the semiconductor industry has been different.
Earlier this year, the president even called for a repeal of the CHIPS Act, though Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to act on that front. Still, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month that the administration was renegotiating some of the Biden administration's grants.
Trump has previously stated that tariffs, as opposed to the CHIPS Act grants, would be the best method of onshoring semiconductor production. The Trump administration is currently conducting an investigation into imports of semiconductor technology, which could result in new duties on the industry.
In recent months, a number of chipmakers with projects in the U.S. have ramped up planned investments there. That includes the world's largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, as well as American chip companies such as Nvidia, Micron and GlobalFoundries.
According to Daniel Newman, CEO at tech advisory firm Futurum Group, the threat of Trump's tariffs has created more urgency for semiconductor companies to expand U.S. capacity. If the increased investment tax credits come into law, those onshoring efforts are only expected to accelerate, he told CNBC.
"Given the risk of tariffs, increasing manufacturing in the U.S. remains a key consideration for these large semiconductor companies," Newman said, adding that the tax credits could be seen as an opportunity to offset certain costs related to U.S.-based projects.
XRP LEDGER EVM-SIDECHAIN MAINNET LAUNCHES: Ripple officially introduced the XRP Ledger's Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain to the mainnet in an bid to improve the ecosystem's interoperability and allow developers to deploy their Ethereum-based decentralized applications (dapps) with the XRPL. The development adds EVM-compatible smart contracts while maintaining a connection to the XRPL, giving developers access to the ecosystem at a low cost, Ripple said in a blog post. It is designed to eliminate the trade-off between EVM compatibility and XRPL’s own advantages, opening the door for dapps to lean into XRP’s payments infrastructure. The sidechain operates as a separate blockchain that is parallel and connected to the XRP Ledger over the Axelar bridge, an interoperability protocol. XRPL’s native token, XRP, will serve as the native gas token for the sidechain.
“Hotels are moving away from patchwork tools and toward integrated systems powered by AI,” he said. “The goal isn’t to replace people at the front desk, it’s to tighten operations and run leaner without losing service quality.”
For now, the robot receptionists are still employed at the Henn-na Hotel, but according to a recent report by travel website The Travel, the hotel’s staff is mostly human.
“We used a specialized AI program to analyze and match text fragments based on combinations of cuneiform signs,” Professor Enrique Jiménez, Professor of Ancient Oriental Languages at LMU, told Decrypt.
Jiménez and his colleagues use approaches based around natural language processing to indicate that fragments belong to a single text, as detailed in a methodology paper from last year.
Working from the Electronic Babylonian Library Platform, which contains 1,402 manuscripts, the researchers use n-gram matching as their primary method of reconstruction, although other methods include vocabulary overlapping and searching for longest common strings (of text).
According to Jiménez, the rediscovered poem was important enough to be taught as part of Babylon’s curriculum.
Los Angeles is Broke – City Declares Fiscal Emergency
The city of Los Angeles declared a state of fiscal emergency amid a $1 billion deficit. The council approved of the emergency declaration unanimously in a 14-0 vote. This comes after Mayor Karen Bass approved a $14 billion budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1. The city is a prime example of what happens when socialist policies are allowed to run rampant at the expense of the people.
Bass approved of raising the budget from $12.9 billion in FY2024-25 to $14 billion in 2025-26 despite the looming $1 billion deficit. Unsurprisingly, overspending is the main culprit for the deficit, and yet, lawmakers have every intention of spending more. Over 600 public sector workers will be let go as a result of fiscal mismanagement, and although small government is usually applaudable, the city plans to fire 248 LAPD employees, 44 sanitation workers, and 41 firefighters. LA is experiencing a significant uptick in crime, but plans to defund the police to appease the mobs.
California Governor Gavin Newsom boasts of California’s robust economy but fails to acknowledge that it’s a state basically living “paycheck-to-paycheck,” with the payee being the taxpayer. Read the state’s plan to cover its budget deficits – endless taxes. Spending growth from 2025-26 to 2028-29 is 5.8%, above the average of 3.5%. Growth over the same period is just above 4%, “lower than its historical average, largely due to policy choices that end during the forecast window. Taken together, we view it as unlikely that revenue growth will be fast enough to catch up to ongoing spending.” Even residents who choose or are forced to leave the state will incur taxes to cover government thievery. Los Angeles is one of countless examples of how the public sector will virtue signal to rob Peter, not to pay Paul, but to pay themselves, as they are not hiding the corruption.
Liability costs totaled $546 million in the past years, as there have been numerous lawsuits, mainly involving the Los Angeles Police Department, which is forbidden by law to enforce order. The city refused to budget for these growing legal battles. Not only does the city plan to fire officers, but they also reduced hiring by 50% last year, recruiting 240 new officers instead of the 480 needed to patrol the city.
I’ve reported numerous times how California uses the homeless epidemic to fund NGOs that merely steal from the taxpayers. Mayor Bass stated she plans to cut 10% of funding to the “Inside Safe” program. The city has spent millions on combating homelessness, and the numbers continue to rise.
Crime is more expensive than funding the LAPD. Criminals have cost the city of Los Angeles an estimated $7.6 billion annually. Gang violence alone costs the city around $1 billion per year, according to the Vera Institute of Justice, which is half of the annual budget of the LAPD. The California Department of Justice has acknowledged that property crime has risen in recent years and accounts for 60–70% of total losses. Yet, violent demonstrations are permitted to occur whenever Washington enacts a policy that displeases the Democrats.
Blue policies such as the net-zero climate initiative have caused businesses to flee Los Angeles and California as a whole. From 2020 to the present day, over 164 companies have left California. In the last year, 12 major companies like SpaceX, Chevron, X, and KFC have fled CA for TX. Los Angeles shed 106 corporate headquarters between 2018 and 2024, the second-highest number of losses in US metros behind San Francisco/San Jose.
Taxpayers are fleeing the state en masse. State and local taxes are among the highest in the nation and disproportionately harm the middle and upper classes to fund the growing public sector. Energy costs have skyrocketed, with major refiners abandoning California. Gas is expected to rise 75% by 2026, and residents are already paying the highest price for gas in the nation. The cost of living is exorbitant. Those who can have already fled as the government must continue to leech of the taxpayers to fund their failures.
There should be checks and balances against these elected officials who recklessly spend with no end in sight. Downsizing the police force is a political move that will only cause crime and the costs associated with crime to rise. Los Angeles is becoming a failed city as a direct result of socialist policies that have historically NEVER worked.