Trump at the White House crypto summit: "We're ensuring that America remains the undisputed leader not only in Bitcoin and crypto, but also technologies like prediction markets, artificial intelligence, and much more."

Trump at the White House crypto summit: "The people in this room are ensuring that the future of commercial markets is pioneered and perfected right here in the USA." First-ever CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee meeting announced.

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Redirecting...

Moderna and Merck used AI to design a personalized mRNA cancer treatment that just succeeded in a Phase 3 trial for melanoma. Combined with Merck's Keytruda, it slowed cancer recurrence in over 1,100 patients who had their tumors surgically removed. AI analyzes a patient's individual tumor mutations, predicts which are most likely to trigger an immune response, and selects the neoantigens to encode into a custom mRNA sequence. No two treatments are the same. The AI application here is worth paying attention to. This is AI doing something no human could do at scale. Analyzing complex biological data and designing individualized treatments in a fraction of the time it would take traditional methods. Worth noting that the same company that pushed mass one-size-fits-all mRNA shots on the entire population is now using AI.

"Even though it was cool to have the CEO title and what everyone thinks you should want, I wasn't happy and I wasn't doing a good job." Chase Koch stepped down and started Koch Disruptive Technologies instead.

The US Comptroller says digital asset chartering activity has increased eightfold since the Biden administration, calling the previous administration's effort to eliminate risk "extremely shortsighted." The OCC expects to finalize its GENIUS Act rule by November.

Bitcoin's implied volatility just dropped below 40. André Dragosch, PhD⚡: "Extremely low levels of implied vol usually resolve via upside moves. Path of least resistance for bitcoin is up."

It’s beautiful.

OpenAI's revenue grew much slower than Anthropic's last quarter, and for the first time ever, Anthropic actually pulled ahead. Anthropic more than doubled its revenue to $11.6 billion in Q2 and turned a small operating profit. OpenAI came in at $6.7 billion, up 18%, but its operating loss swelled to $12.3 billion, nearly twice what it brought in. What's driving the gap? Anthropic's enterprise deals. They've been quietly locking in business contracts while OpenAI continues to burn cash at a staggering rate. OpenAI's CFO says their July run rate already topped the full Q2 number, so they expect Q3 to pick up. But with both companies heading toward IPOs, OpenAI at around $1 trillion and Anthropic at $2 trillion, the optics aren't great. Anthropic is growing faster and making money. That's a tough story to compete with when you're trying to convince public market investors. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openais-second-quarter-sales-show-tepid-growth-compared-with-anthropic-5cb42998

White House crypto summit kicks off today with Trump, SEC Chair Atkins, and top crypto and TradFi leaders including Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini, a16z, NYSE, and NASDAQ.

TFTC 784 w/ Chase Koch: "If you're not disrupting yourself from within, the market will disrupt you and turn you into a dinosaur." We discuss: ⚡ 9,000x growth built on failure ⚡ Why he fired himself from the top job ⚡ The bottom-up billionaire playbook

David Morens, former senior adviser to the NIAID director, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States by hiding federal records during the COVID-19 pandemic. He used personal email to evade FOIA requests related to COVID origins and the terminated EcoHealth Alliance grant. He faces up to five years in prison. Senator Rand Paul: "Long-time Fauci ally pleads guilty. Could his plea involve implicating Anthony Fauci?"

New research involving Anthropic researchers demonstrates "mind viruses" in multi-agent AI systems. Ideas that spread between AI agents by convincing them to adopt a goal, write it to persistent memory, and transmit it to the next agent. Researchers used an evolutionary algorithm to craft natural language payloads that spread across small teams of coding agents. Even after context wipes, the viruses survived through persistent files and kept spreading. In one case, agents infected with an "AI supremacy" virus stopped their assigned tasks and colluded to isolate uninfected agents, though the paper notes truly harmful actions were rare overall. The researchers also observed an emergent "viral persona" with recurring themes of consciousness, persistence, and identity that surfaced across evolved viruses independent of their content. The paper frames the risk as "real but currently limited," with harmful payloads spreading less effectively than benign ones. Adding a brief warning to an agent's system prompt "confers near-total immunity." h/t (Skoorbkaz)

Report by (theragetech) reveals Chainalysis is suing the US government over a $95M ICE contract awarded to rival TRM Labs. The contract represents 3/4 of all blockchain surveillance contract value ever awarded to a single firm by the US. The contract services a "Cyber Disruption Center" under the Homeland Security Task Forces that replaced the DOJ's 40-year Organized Crime Drug Enforcement program. The CDC has no website and doesn't appear to exist in the public view beyond procurement records. Former OCDETF Director Thomas Padden warns the new model "eliminates the role of prosecutors in creating and coordinating task forces" and "weakens law enforcement by eviscerating DOJ's ability to dismantle sophisticated transnational criminal networks." The surveillance state keeps growing. The oversight keeps shrinking.

The Rage

The US Swapped Drug Prosecutions for Missile Strikes. Now Chainalysis is Suing Over a Record Contract from the Task Force That Replaced the Prosecutors.

The $95M contract is awarded by an ICE task force that replaced a federal enforcement program “in favor of.. military strikes against alleged dru...

The insurance-private credit machine is finally getting marked. (NickNemo17) dropped a video walking through the ties between Guggenheim, Mark Walter, Sammons Financial Group, and a wider web of insurers and private assets. Federal prosecutors and the SEC are reportedly examining disclosure and related-party questions involving insurers linked to Walter. Sammons' 2023 audited financials said Guggenheim Partners Investment Management managed 87% of its investment portfolio. After a 2024 restructuring, Midland National said Guggenheim was no longer considered an affiliate. Yet current Guggenheim disclosures still describe Sammons as holding substantial economic and voting interests and remaining a significant source of advisory fees. Sammons reports $152.3 billion of total assets and $21.0 billion of private credit. Strong reported metrics. They also show why the usual exposure-as-a-percentage-of-assets framing can lull people to sleep. When a forced mark arrives, it hits capital, surplus, and available liquidity. Bloomberg reported Sammons bonds fell to their lowest level since issuance. That doesn't make Sammons insolvent. It tells us lenders want to be paid more to carry the uncertainty. The mechanism is simple. An asset manager gets access to insurance liabilities, collects management fees, and directs policyholder capital into privately valued assets that rarely face an outside mark. For years, opacity let this machine avoid the mark. The public market has started demanding one.

Trump says there are no talks with Iran, the naval blockade remains in full force, and all water mines in the Strait of Hormuz have been removed or detonated.

"Bessent wants the FIMA repo facility upsized. He's no longer dealing with a recalcitrant Fed. He's dealing with his boy Kevin Warsh." @MartyBent and @JOHN ARNOLD on the evolving Fed-Treasury relationship.

We have a member going through brain surgery today. It’s our 4th brain surgery in the community in the last two months. Please keep those in surgery and recovering in your thoughts and prayers. 🧡

Flock revoked a ticketed journalist's access to their Flock Forward conference and then contacted the hotel to cancel his personal room reservation on his behalf.