Tag: tech

Revolut Aims to Take on Phone Providers With ‘Mobile Plans’

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 19:44:47 +0000

London-based FinTech Revolut is preparing to launch mobile phone plans.

The new program, announced Wednesday (April 30), will offer users unlimited calls, texts and data at home and a 20GB roaming allowance across Europe and the U.S., launching first in the U.K. and Germany.

“Mobile Plans is the latest move by Revolut as it expands into full mobile connectivity and drives further competition against traditional network providers as UK consumers suffer from hefty European roaming charges,” the company said in a news release.

“In 2024, Revolut became one of the first UK financial institutions to offer global eSIMs for its customers to stay connected when travelling abroad.”

That program, the release added, has since seen customers create millions of data plans used in more than 100 locations around the world, making eSIM Revolut’s number one non-banking product in terms of usage.

“The massive success of our eSIM product launched has proven mobile offerings are ripe for disruption,” Hadi Nasrallah, general manager, telco and retail director at Revolut, said in the announcement.

“In our view, consumers are suffering with traditional network offerings due to a lack of transparency with hidden fees, painful customer experience and old, difficult to navigate UX. We’re looking to solve all three, providing Revolut customers with a tech-led experience, the best value and no fixed contract commitments.”

The announcement comes one week after Revolut reported that it had booked its first billion-dollar annual profit in 2024. As PYMNTS wrote, this milestone spotlights the way the “super-app’s widening menu of wealth, credit and subscription services is translating customer growth into bottom-line results.”

Revolut’s earnings showed group revenue jumping 72% to $4 billion, driven by double-digit expansion across each major line, from card payments and foreign exchange to its fledgling wealth arm, where revenue surged 298% to $647 million.

In a separate report last month, PYMNTS wrote that efforts by companies like Revolut “to branch into investing and credit card rewards … speaks volumes to the appeal of apps as a digital front door to a continuum of financial activities.”

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 60% of millennials, 57% of Generation Z and 52% of Generation X primarily use mobile banking apps. Beyond that, 94% approved their overall access to financial services, and 79% said new technologies have improved their access to banking services.

The post Revolut Aims to Take on Phone Providers With ‘Mobile Plans’ appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Anker’s lightest 45W USB-C charger is already on sale for 26 percent off

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 19:40:41 +0000

Anker’s 45W Nano charger is pocketable yet powerful.

If you need a svelte USB-C charger that won’t weigh you down on your commute or your next flight, Anker’s new 45W Nano charger is on sale for the first time at Amazon, where you can pick it up in either black or white as part of a lightning deal for $25.99 ($9 off).

At 1.45 inches long and weighing just 52 grams, Anker’s latest Nano charger is easy to slip into your pocket, bag, or laptop sleeve. Its single USB-C port is capable of delivering 45W to a wide range of devices, allowing you to charge everything from smartphones and tablets to laptops and handheld gaming consoles. And with Samsung Super Fast Charging support, you can juice phones like Samsung’s S25 Ultra to around 70 percent capacity in roughly 30 minutes or provide a full charge in just under an hour (according to Anker).

Additionally, the lightweight charger ships with a six-foot USB-C cable, allowing you to start charging directly out of the box. It also comes with Anker’s welcome 18-month warranty, so if anything goes wrong, the company will replace or repair your charger at no additional cost.

Three more deals worth a look

As a part of its ongoing Mother’s Day sale, the 10-inch version of one of our Mother’s Day gift guide picks — the Skylight Calendar — is on sale for $139.99 ($30 off) directly from Skylight. You can also pick up the 15-inch model for $269.99 (also $30 off) from Skylight, or for $10 more from Best Buy. Not only can the Wi-Fi-connected smart calendar display your family’s schedules from Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud at a glance, but it also doubles as a hub for showcasing grocery lists, chores, and other tasks. Read our review of the 27-inch Max model.
Now through May 30th, Woot is selling the Beats Fit Pro for $129.99 ($70 off), which matches their best price to date. The fitness-friendly earbuds don’t have ear hooks like the PowerBeats Pro 2, but their built-in wing tips still do a good job of staying secure during intense workouts. They also feature an IPX4 rating for water resistance, deliver excellent noise cancellation and sound quality, and pair well with Android and iOS. Read our review.
The Breville Barista Express is currently on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $549.99 ($150 off), which is its best price of the year. With 16 grind settings, the home espresso machine lets you brew your coffee just the way you like it; it’s also easy to use and maintain, making it a great option for enjoying cafe-style drinks from the comfort of your own home. Read our review.

AI Boom Reportedly Presents $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Private Credit

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 18:28:33 +0000

A surge in new AI projects has reportedly been good news for the private credit sector.

Tech companies need funding to build data centers for their artificial intelligence (AI) models, an effort that could require more than $1.8 trillion in funding by the decade’s end, Bloomberg News reported Thursday (May 1), citing an estimate from the Carlyle Group.

Some of that demand can be met by private markets, Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz wrote in a recent shareholder letter, per Bloomberg.

“There’s a need for private credit to facilitate the infrastructure build for AI, whether it’s chips or data center developments,” Mark Van Zandt, managing director and co-head of real estate at King Street Capital Management, told Bloomberg.

Public-market products such asset-backed bonds or traditional real estate debt, have financed data center projects, but these “can’t do it all,” he added.

According to Bloomberg, several tech companies have already tapped private credit, including startup Nscale, which is seeking a $1.8 billion private credit loan, on the back of a pending partnership with ByteDance.

And Meta hopes to raise billions to build its U.S. domestic centers, with Apollo Global Management and KKR as possible backers.

Ares Management Corp. has estimated private credit outfits could finance about $5.5 trillion of capital across debt and equity in global infrastructure, including AI-related projects, through 2035, according to a report this year.

“The capital needs are enormous,” Van Zandt said. “There’s a demand-supply imbalance in the market that will take some time to get resolved.”

The trend is happening as financial watchdogs are warning of possible risks related to private credit. For example, a recent Federal Reserve report notes that private credit stress was cited by roughly 20% of the Fed’s market contacts, while risks for nonbank financial institutions were cited in the mid-teen percentage of respondents.

This, PYMNTS wrote earlier this week, suggests “that these two avenues of financial shock are increasingly on the radar.”

The Fed report echoes concerns spotlighted in a separate stability report last month from the International Monetary Fund.

“It is crucial to strengthen policies that mitigate nonbank leverage and other vulnerabilities,” the report’s executive summary said. “Enhanced nonbank reporting requirements could help supervisors develop a systemwide and cross-sectoral perspective of risks and distinguish poorly governed and excessive risk-taking institutions from those that contribute more positively to financial intermediation.”

For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.

The post AI Boom Reportedly Presents $1.8 Trillion Opportunity for Private Credit appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

This Week in B2B: Rewiring Legacy Payment Rails With Stablecoins and Automation

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 15:46:48 +0000

Sleek tech is turbocharging the B2B space. And slow wires and clunky payment systems going the way of the fax machine couldn’t be happening at a better time for businesses.

The global financial ecosystem is in flux, driven by a confluence of high-stakes innovation and mounting geopolitical tensions around trade tariffs. But B2B FinTech innovation is helping firms maintain agility and keep up with the speed of change in ways that legacy systems and manual processes simply can’t.

Gone are the days of chasing invoices and late fees. Today’s tools let businesses automate billing, manage cash flow and track every dollar in real time. From artificial intelligence (AI)-powered procurement platforms to blockchain-enabled stablecoin cards, the news this week puts an exclamation point on the fact that the financial arteries of global trade are being rewired.

Advances in B2B Financial Infrastructure

Investors are pouring fresh capital into infrastructure firms hoping to digitize B2B trade flows, a domain long plagued by paper checks, manual credit terms and opaque counterparties.

San Francisco-based Nuvo, for example, recently secured $45 million in a Series B round to expand its B2B trade infrastructure across verticals such as manufacturing, hospitality and food service. Nuvo’s pitch is to replace a fragmented landscape of trade credit workflows with a single, verified ecosystem where buyers and suppliers can vet profiles, assess creditworthiness and exchange banking data in real time.

Elsewhere, Field Materials, a procurement startup targeting the construction industry, raised $10 million to further develop its AI-based sourcing and invoice management platform. The firm estimates that contractors lose up to 20% of material costs to procurement inefficiencies — something it hopes to eliminate through automation.

Meanwhile, German FinTech Pliant has set its sights on the U.S. market after landing $40 million in fresh funding. The firm offers a card-based platform enabling businesses to issue virtual corporate cards with tailored controls and automated expense reconciliation.

Incumbent leaders are also accelerating their offerings. FIS, a treasury management behemoth, launched a cloud-native “Quantum Edition” of its treasury platform. The rollout promises real-time cash visibility, instant liquidity tracking and frictionless API integration — a response to CFOs seeking greater agility in managing global flows.

“CFOs want to focus their resources and ensure what those resources are doing adds the most strategic value,” Edenred Pay CFO Joe Denson told PYMNTS. “AP automation allows finance staff to stop doing manual tasks like entering invoices or looking up suppliers.”

The result? A leaner, more strategic finance function that’s built for resilience and agility.

“It’s a win-win, but you have to be ready to lean into it,” Denson said.

Integration of Stablecoins Into Mainstream Finance

While B2B platforms modernize the plumbing of enterprise finance, a parallel transformation is unfolding in digital assets. Stablecoins — digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies — have emerged as the crypto sector’s most viable bridge to the mainstream.

Once relegated to niche DeFi protocols, stablecoins are now being integrated into major payment networks and expense platforms.

In a landmark move, Visa and Bridge — a stablecoin orchestration platform owned by Stripe — partnered to launch stablecoin-linked cards across key markets in the region. These cards allow users to top up with USDC (a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin), then spend seamlessly across merchants that accept Visa.

Meanwhile, Mastercard said Monday (April 28) that it partnered with two more companies — OKX and Nuvei — to further its own efforts to power stablecoin transactions for consumers and merchants.

The partnerships align with a broader narrative explored in a recent digital asset primer from PYMNTS, which notes a growing interest among payments professionals in stablecoin staking and settlement. By staking stablecoins, platforms are incentivizing liquidity while exploring yield-generating models — blurring the line between DeFi and traditional finance.

Innovations Redefining Global Trade

Yet not all corners of the global economy are enjoying a FinTech-fueled boom. For small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), macroeconomic volatility — especially in the form of trade policy — is becoming an existential challenge.

With tariffs climbing, small businesses are facing inventory shortfalls, margin erosion and in some cases, complete market exit.

Amazon, one of the largest beneficiaries of global sourcing, is reportedly pressuring its suppliers for steep discounts in response to new U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. The move is part of a broader campaign to offset rising costs, which are squeezing margins and disrupting procurement cycles.

Still, firms remain focused on solving many of cross-border commerce’s longstanding frictions. Thunes this week raised $150 million in a Series D funding round to strengthen its cross-border payments platform and accelerate its expansion in the United States; while Mastercard has invested in a 3% stake in Corpay’s cross-border business, and the two companies have formed exclusive agreements.

Global payroll is also becoming a focus of innovation.

“Can I, as the chief payroll person in the company, allow myself not to interact with AI? The answer is 100% no,” Amit Levi, chief product officer at Papaya Global, told PYMNTS. “AI is real. Unlike other buzzwords we heard in the past, AI is real.”

Levi added, “Processes that used to take days are happening in an hour.”

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

The post This Week in B2B: Rewiring Legacy Payment Rails With Stablecoins and Automation appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

VC Funding for Retail FinTech Market Drops 38% Amid Tariff Concerns

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 14:57:00 +0000

Venture capital (VC) funding for the retail FinTech market dropped 37.8% in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter, PitchBook said in a report released Thursday (May 1).

The decline was driven by concerns about tariffs and inflation, which overwhelmed earlier optimism around the adoption of artificial intelligence and the President Donald Trump administration’s regulatory softening, according to the report.

The first quarter’s VC funding for the retail FinTech market totaled $1.9 billion, the report said. Of that, $1.3 billion went to the credit and banking segment and $275.3 million went to WealthTech.

The median pre-money valuation for the retail FinTech sector in the first quarter fell 41.2% compared to the full-year 2024 figure, per the report.

The steepest decline was seen in the pre-seed/seed stage, while venture growth saw a 62.9% increase driven by “outliers” like Klarna’s $12 billion valuation, the report said.

“With mounting tariff-related headwinds and heightened consumer-sector vulnerability, we expect funding to remain restrained through mid-2025, as evidenced by suspended IPOs from Klarna and eToro, and the steep 47.8% drop in quarterly exit count,” the report said.

It was reported April 4 that several technology and FinTech companies, including Klarna, paused their activities related to IPOs amid a fall in the stock market and uncertainty caused by tariffs.

Klarna had publicly filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed IPO only weeks earlier, on March 14.

As of April 4, the market valuation of one of Klarna’s biggest competitors in the United States, Affirm, had slid to a level lower than Klarna’s target in its IPO after Affirm’s shares dropped 46% since the beginning of the year.

On April 8, it was reported that the new tariffs rocking the global stock market had shifted the mood inside Silicon Valley VC firms, even though it was earlier thought that IPOs would flourish in 2025.

Investors said tariffs are likely to affect startups dealing with hardware and international trade, such as eCommerce businesses, while AI companies could face higher computing costs.

The post VC Funding for Retail FinTech Market Drops 38% Amid Tariff Concerns appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Poshmark Backer Uncork Raises $300 Million With AI Focus

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 14:18:12 +0000

Uncork Capital, a venture firm whose portfolio includes Poshmark and Fitbit, has raised $300 million.

Company officials told Bloomberg News Thursday (May 1) that the new capital will be used for two funds: one centered on seed investing ($225 million, up from $200 million in a comparable fund in 2023) and another $75 million for the company’s growth fund.

The report notes that artificial intelligence (AI) will be a focus for Uncork Capital, which invests only in companies serving the American market.

“Every company today has to have an AI story,” Managing Partner Andy McLoughlin said.

As covered here in March, excitement for AI has driven American startup investment to a three-year high, though much of this funding has been centered on a few very large private tech companies, including OpenAI and Safe Superintelligence, which was co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist.

A report late last year from HSBC Innovation Banking found that venture capital in the U.S. had moved to AI firms at an “unprecedented” rate, with the scale of capital invested in AI companies by American venture investors approaching that allocated to the rest of the venture market.

According to the bank, 42% of U.S. venture capital was invested into AI companies in 2024, up from 36% in 2023 and 22% the year before that. As of 2024, 20 AI firms had each raised at least $2 billion, the report added.

“Venture capital has always gravitated toward transformative industries, but the level of consolidation we’re seeing within one category is unprecedented,” HSBC U.S. Innovation Banking Head Dave Sabow said in a news release.

The Bloomberg report notes that the last few years have been difficult ones for the venture capital (VC) and startup space, though McLoughlin said these leaner times could help identify weaker players.

“For the companies where it’s not working, we all figure that out sooner,” he told Bloomberg.

McLoughlin said that one of reasons the firm upped the size of its early-stage fund is that investing in fledgling companies has grown more costly, as startups now expect bigger investments.

He added that Uncork isn’t pushing to sell big stakes on the secondaries market, even though initial public offerings have become scarce, partially because “prices are still too low.”

The post Poshmark Backer Uncork Raises $300 Million With AI Focus appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Microsoft is raising prices on Xbox consoles, controllers, and games worldwide

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 13:00:05 +0000

Microsoft is raising the prices of its Xbox Series S / X consoles, Xbox controllers, and even some new Xbox games around the world. Starting today, Microsoft says it has adjusted its recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers, with the Xbox Series X being bumped by $100 to $599.99. Microsoft is also planning to adjust the pricing of some of its new first-party Xbox games this holiday season up to $79.99.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series S (512GB) model is moving from $299.99 to $379.99, a price hike of $80. The Xbox Series S 1TB model is moving to $429.99, and the Xbox Series X digital edition will now be priced at $549.99, with the 2TB galaxy black special edition model now an eye-watering $729.99.

Xbox wireless controllers and headsets are also having their recommended retail pricing adjusted in the US, with the base controller moving to $64.99 and the Xbox wireless headset now at $119.99. You can already find both of these accessories at this type of pricing right now.

Some new Xbox games are moving from $69.99 to $79.99 this holiday, in a move that matches the more expensive pricing of Nintendo’s top Switch 2 launch titles. Xbox Game Pass pricing will remain the same, though.

The Xbox console and controller price increases will also impact European countries, including the UK, as well as markets like Australia. In Europe and the UK the Xbox Series S (512GB) will now be priced at €349.99 / £299.99, with the Xbox Series X (1TB) rising to €599.99 / £499.99. Sony also increased the price of its PS5 consoles in Europe and the UK earlier this month.

Microsoft last hiked the price of its Xbox Series X console in June 2023, as part of price increases that also impacted Xbox Game Pass. The subscription service also saw a price increase last year, alongside the launch of a new standard tier.

The price rises come amid uncertainty over the Trump tariffs, and just a day after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Microsoft “ended the quarter as the top publisher by preorders and preinstalls on both Xbox and PlayStation Store” during the company’s Q3 fiscal earnings call. Microsoft also saw PC Game Pass revenue increase by 45 percent year-over-year.

Brendan Carr’s FCC Abuses Run Face First Into Trump Court Efforts To Destroy Regulatory Power

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 12:34:37 +0000

So we’ve established by now that the second Trump administration is attempting to completely destroy regulatory authority, consumer protection, labor rights, and corporate oversight. Whether by precedent-ignoring court ruling, executive order, illegally firing commissioners, cronyism, or regulatory capture, the effort isn’t subtle, and is poised to usher forth a new golden age of corruption.

That’s a problem for Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr, who has been trying to abuse now-nonexistent FCC authority to bully companies he thinks aren’t being sexist or racist enough. Or to launch fake investigations into media companies if they dare engage in journalism critical of the Trump administration. Or to harass companies he thinks don’t carry a suitable amount of right wing, religious programming.

As I wrote in a recent Verge profile of Carr’s first 100 days, Carr will routinely proclaim that his agency has no power at all when it comes to protecting consumers or standing up to giants like AT&T, but all the power in the world when it comes time for petty authoritarian bullshit.

Recently, the Fifth Circuit declared the FCC no longer has the authority to leverage fines against companies for wrongdoing. Their ruling let AT&T off the hook for decades of major abuse of sensitive consumer location data, which repeatedly put the public at risk.

The ruling is the latest in a series by Trumplican-stocked courts basically stating that U.S. regulators no longer have the authority to do… anything corporate power doesn’t like. Like the 6th Circuit ruling that the FCC can’t protect broadband consumers. Or the 5th Circuit ruling that federal efforts to help poor people afford broadband are now illegal. Like I said: not subtle.

After the AT&T privacy ruling, both Verizon and T-Mobile unsurprisingly sued the FCC (Verizon in the 2nd Circuit and T-Mobile in the DC Circuit) to have their own privacy fines overturned. Trump FCC pick Nathan Simington has vowed to vote against any fine imposed by the FCC “until its legal powers are clear” (spoiler: Trumplings don’t want regulatory authority to ever be clear, ever again).

But it’s curious: in some of these latest cases Carr is having his FCC lawyers argue that the 5th Circuit’s ruling should be ignored:

“Carr repeatedly opposed Biden-era efforts to regulate telecom providers and is aiming to eliminate many of the FCC’s rules now that he is in charge. But Carr has also been aggressive in regulation of media, and he doesn’t want the FCC’s ability to issue penalties completely wiped out.”

Carr wants his cake and to eat it too. He’s the dog that caught the car. As his “delete, delete, delete” deregulatory bonanza shows, Carr wants to be a loyal footsoldier in the Trump agenda of destroying all federal oversight of corporate power. But he also wants to be able to, you know, harass Comcast for not being racist enough. Or bully CBS for making King Donald sad with facts.

The FCC already has no remaining authority to hold your shitty broadband provider to account. And if this trajectory holds, they’ll no longer have the ability to police things like scams and robocalls, or to protect public cybersecurity safety, throwing our telecom networks into (further) disarray.

Some of these folks are stripping away regulatory authority simply because, like Musk, they don’t want oversight of their often dubious — if not outright illegal — behaviors. Others have drunk decades of right wing and “free market” Libertarian Kool-Aid about how if you dismantle corporate oversight and regulatory autonomy, magic and innovation spills forth from the sidewalk.

Of course here in reality, when you strip away oversight of large, politically-powerful corporations (like say, AT&T or Comcast), most objective folks know those companies just double down on all their worst, anti-competitive, anti-consumer impulses. It’s been a generational effort by companies like AT&T to turn the FCC into a pile of pudding, and it’s not, I regret to inform you, in service of the public interest.

So on one hand, you have corporate power achieving its generational goal of destroying labor rights, consumer protection, and adult oversight. On the other hand, you have Brendan Carr and his legally-dubious efforts to behave like a full-diapered bully in pursuit of bigotry and religious extremism. If I had to bet between the two, I certainly know who I’d pick as the most likely winner (spoiler: it’s the one with more money).

Either way this country loses. I don’t think the fact we’ve lobotomized all our federal regulators has received anywhere close to enough attention from our feckless, corporate press for what should be obvious reasons. We’re ushering in the golden age of corruption, and I’m not sure the impact of what’s coming is truly fathomable to your average American.

Even in a best case scenario where Trump authoritarianism is destroyed, I’m highly doubtful that, in a country this corrupt, the incentive will ever exist to fully restore regulatory autonomy. This die is cast, the deadly impact is going to reverberate for generations, and I hope all the folks responsible — from Trumplings to “free market” think tankers — fully enjoy the brave new world they helped create.

Top 5 Crypto PR Agencies That Will Boost Your Project in 2025

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 12:25:00 +0000

The post Top 5 Crypto PR Agencies That Will Boost Your Project in 2025 appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

If you’ve been around the crypto space long enough, you’ll know all too well that it isn’t exactly famous for sitting still. New projects are launched by the day. Scandals hit the headlines regularly. And every once in a while, the “next big thing” pops up and takes the industry by storm.

Amongst all this madness, standing out is more than just a challenge. For some, it can feel like an impossible task. Yes, while you might have revolutionary tech or feel like you’ve got the most elegant solution to a real problem, but without the right promotion strategy, you’re basically invisible. That’s where specialized crypto PR agencies come in and do the heavy lifting.

Top 5 Crypto PR Agencies That Will Boost Your Project in 2025

Crypto PR Agencies Reviewed
Evox
Funday Agency
X10 Agency
DIFY Singapore
Picking Your PR Partner

Crypto PR Agencies Reviewed

These aren’t your typical PR firms. They genuinely get the crypto world and all its nuances, warts and all. They understand the distinction between DeFi and GameFi, recognize credible media outlets, and have established relationships with the right influencers over time. They’re the people who can translate your technical whitepaper into something that actually excites potential users and investors, and that’s worth its weight in gold if you want to get ahead.

Let’s take a look at five agencies that could help put your project on the map.

MarketAcross

Founded in 2014, MarketAcross is one of the first blockchain-specific PR agencies globally. Because of this, it’s pretty much safe to say that they’ve seen it all in the crypto space; the bull runs, the crashes, the trends that stuck around, and the ones that fizzled out overnight.

MarketAcross PR agency is deliberate in their approach and knows what it takes to get your project noticed. They don’t just blast out generic press releases, take your money, and hope for the best. They take a content-first approach, focusing on creating material that they know crypto audiences will actually want to read.

To back this up, their network of publication relationships is impressive, with connections across all the major crypto news outlets. These are the places that you need to be featured if you really want to make waves in the blockchain world.

One of their key strengths is generating buzz around crypto events and major project milestones. When you look at their client list (Binance, Polygon, Solana) it’s clear they know how to work with projects at every level.

Pros:

No retainer fees. They succeed when you succeed
Deep relationships with crypto publications that matter
Proven results with industry heavyweights

Cons:

It may not be ideal for projects with very small budgets
High demand means they may not be able to service all requests

Evox

As the first crypto-focused PR agency in Turkey, Evox brings something unique to the table. Since 2011, they have combined their deep technical expertise with marketing expertise to help their clients create campaigns that resonate in the cryptocurrency world.

A key feature of Evox is its integrated approach. They don’t just do PR in isolation. Instead, their campaigns integrate social media, visual content, strategic messaging, and community building into a single cohesive approach. Their technical background enables them to genuinely understand the value of your project, eliminating the need for you to simplify or repeatedly explain it.

Pros:

Strong regional expertise in Turkish markets
Technical knowledge informs their marketing strategies
A comprehensive social approach beyond just PR

Cons:

May have limited reach in Western markets
Smaller team than some larger players

Funday Agency

With a name like “Funday,” you might expect to get something a little different than your typical run-of-the-mill PR agency. And you’d be right. Founded in 2019, they bring a fresh, creative energy to marketing that truly sets them apart from more corporate and formal agencies.

While they aren’t crypto-specific, Funday is a growing and innovative PR agency that would be an excellent fit for any projects looking to get creative and test the boundaries with what they can do. It’s for that reason they rightly label themselves as “big experience with boutique vibes.” You’ll get sophisticated strategies without feeling like just another client.

While you may lose the technical expertise of crypto-specific teams, what really stands out about Funday is their ability to make your project accessible and exciting through creative campaigns.

Pros:

Genuinely creative campaign ideas that stand out
Strong research-based approach to audience targeting
Personal attention you don’t get from bigger agencies

Cons:

Less crypto-specific experience than some competitors
Smaller network of crypto media connections
Sometimes creativity might overshadow technical depth

X10 Agency

From a lighthearted name to something that sounds like it’s from the year 3000, X10 Agency is a blockchain-exclusive PR agency specializing across various categories. Some of these areas of expertise include ICOs, NFTs, DeFi, GameFi, and other related fields. They position themselves as a complete launchpad for Web3 projects.

X10 is another agency that prides itself on its comprehensive range of services. Need PR? They’ve got you. Community management? Check. Influencer connections? Paid traffic? Partnerships with other projects? They cover that too. For founders who don’t want to juggle multiple agencies, this one-stop approach is appealing; however, it may come at the cost of quality in a specific area.

With that said, X10 acknowledges that different types of crypto projects require distinct marketing approaches. They quite rightly state that the strategy for a play-to-earn game isn’t the same as for a serious financial protocol. Being able to work with an agency that understands and delivers this level of differentiation and personalized strategy is definitely a significant advantage.

Pros:

Wide range of marketing services under one roof
Experience with many types of crypto projects
Specialized approaches for different project categories

Cons:

May lack the specialized excellence of focused agencies
Quality might vary between different service departments

DIFY Singapore

DIFY brings an interesting Asian perspective to cryptocurrency marketing, operating from its Singapore-based headquarters. They specialize in delivering integrated communications capabilities to brands across the blockchain, fintech, and emerging technology sectors.

What DIFY is unique is their dual philosophy, which they mention on their site and across their marketing communications. This is represented by their mascots, Shoyu and Dan. Shoyu is all about bringing creative, unorthodox ideas. Dan focuses more on proven, traditional approaches.

This isn’t about choosing one over the other. Instead, DIFY brings an innate awareness of when one situation may require a more traditional approach, or where another may have room for experimentation and boldness. This balance enables them to create campaigns that innovate, stay creative, and deliver reliable results.

For projects targeting Asian markets (which, let’s face it, are massive in the crypto space), DIFY offers valuable regional insights and connections that Western agencies may lack.

Pros:

Strong presence and connections in Asian markets
Nice balance between creative and traditional approaches
Experience across multiple related tech sectors

Cons:

Less exclusively focused on crypto than some specialists
May have limited reach in markets outside Asia

Picking Your PR Partner

There is no perfect PR agency, and there certainly is no one-size-fits-all approach here. The best agency for you will depend on several factors, including your current stage in the journey, the target audience you’re trying to reach, and your actual goals.

Are you launching an NFT collection that needs creative marketing and influencer connections? Or are you building a serious DeFi protocol that requires technical credibility and trust-building? Your answers should guide your choice.

The right agency won’t just take your money and send some press releases. They’ll become partners who understand your vision, challenge your assumptions when needed, and help you build genuine connections with your community.

Elon Musk Slams WSJ Over “False” CEO Exit Rumors – Crypto Leaders Rally

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 12:10:29 +0000

The post Elon Musk Slams WSJ Over “False” CEO Exit Rumors – Crypto Leaders Rally appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Elon Musk isn’t holding back. The Tesla CEO has blasted The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for publishing what he called a “deliberately false” article claiming Tesla’s board is looking to replace him as CEO.

In a fiery post on X, Musk called it an “EXTREMELY SERIOUS ETHICS VIOLATION,” accusing WSJ of ignoring a direct denial from Tesla’s board. The report suggested that concerns over Musk’s political involvement and divided attention across his ventures pushed the board to seek a new CEO.

Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, didn’t waste time firing back. Posting from Tesla’s official X account, she stated clearly that the board has not contacted any recruiters and fully supports Musk’s leadership.

It is an EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS that the @WSJ would publish a DELIBERATELY FALSE ARTICLE and fail to include an unequivocal denial beforehand by the Tesla board of directors! https://t.co/9xdypLGg3c

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2025 Why Is This Report Coming Out Now?

The WSJ report dropped just as Musk faces fresh criticism over his political ties – specifically his advisory role in Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Critics argue that Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration has hurt Tesla’s image, especially in international markets.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s Q1 numbers haven’t helped the narrative:

Profits dropped 71% in the first quarter
Market value fell by over $800 billion since the start of the year

Tesla Stays Bullish on Bitcoin

Despite the rocky earnings, Tesla didn’t sell its Bitcoin. The company’s crypto holdings dropped from $1.076 billion to $951 million in Q1 2025, right in line with Bitcoin’s 11.56% price dip to $82,514.

Also Read: How Elon Musk’s Tesla and Bitcoin Investments are Dominating Global Markets

Crypto Leaders Join the Backlash

Musk isn’t the only one calling out WSJ. Big names in crypto have been doing the same.

On April 12, Binance’s former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), slammed a WSJ report that claimed he agreed to testify against Tron’s Justin Sun as part of a DOJ deal.

“WSJ is really TRYING here. They seem to have forgotten who went to prison and who didn’t,” Zhao wrote in an April 12 X post. “People who become gov witnesses don’t go to prison. They are protected. I heard someone paid WSJ employees to smear me.”

And this isn’t new. Back in March 2023, Tether also rejected a WSJ article accusing it of using fake documents and shell companies to keep banking access. Tether called the claims “stale,” “inaccurate,” and “misleading.”

It’s Bigger Than Just Elon

This goes beyond one headline. Musk and major crypto players are pushing back hard against what they say is biased, agenda-driven reporting by legacy financial media.

With Musk now balancing Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and the recently merged X and xAI – while advising DOGE remotely – there’s more scrutiny than ever.

But for now, the message from Tesla’s board is crystal clear: Musk is still in charge.

Bitcoin Solaris Solves Ethereum’s Gas Fee Problem: New Protocol Could Generate 50x Returns for Early Investors

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 11:35:20 +0000

The post Bitcoin Solaris Solves Ethereum’s Gas Fee Problem: New Protocol Could Generate 50x Returns for Early Investors appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Ethereum revolutionized blockchain with smart contracts and decentralized apps, but it came with one major problem: gas fees. At peak times, simple transactions can cost users more than the transaction itself. That bottleneck has slowed adoption, especially in emerging markets where affordability is key.

Now, a powerful new blockchain project has entered the scene: Bitcoin Solaris (BTC-S). Designed to solve Ethereum’s core limitations, including its notorious gas problem, Bitcoin Solaris is already drawing massive interest from crypto analysts and early investors who believe it could deliver 50x returns in the years ahead.

Ethereum’s Impact—and Its Frustrating Flaw

Ethereum made blockchain programmable and opened the doors to DeFi, NFTs, and Web3. But its congestion-prone network and expensive fees have created friction for both users and developers. Many projects have had to migrate away or build costly layer-2 solutions to remain usable.

Even with the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, gas costs haven’t disappeared — just shifted. This leaves the door open for new platforms that offer:

Lower transaction costs
Faster finality
Better scalability for real-world apps

Bitcoin Solaris is stepping through that door, offering a seamless, efficient solution to the problem Ethereum still hasn’t solved.

Bitcoin Solaris: Designed to Eliminate Gas Friction

Bitcoin Solaris introduces a hybrid dual-layer protocol built to scale while keeping fees ultra-low — even during high traffic periods. Its design delivers the performance Ethereum lacks:

Dual-Layer Architecture

Base Layer (Proof-of-Work) for security
Solaris Layer (Delegated Proof-of-Stake) for high-speed smart contract execution

Transaction Highlights

10,000+ transactions per second (TPS)
2-second finality
99.95% less energy consumption than Ethereum or Bitcoin
Zero congestion impact on fees

Smart contracts and DeFi applications run on the Solaris Layer, meaning even at scale, users enjoy minimal fees and fast confirmations — solving the very issue that’s plagued Ethereum since its inception.

Helios: The Engine Powering Scalable DeFi

At the heart of Bitcoin Solaris’s low-fee, high-performance system is Helios — a framework that unlocks advanced decentralized finance capabilities without compromising usability.

Helios enables:

Instant swaps and low-slippage decentralized exchanges (DEXs)
Lending and borrowing protocols with low gas and fast processing
Cross-chain functionality that bridges Bitcoin Solaris with ecosystems like Solana and Ethereum
Yield farming strategies with automated liquidity and rewards

New Token, Familiar Strength—Meet BTC-S Today

Unlike Ethereum’s expensive DeFi tools, Helios is accessible, affordable, and scalable, enabling projects and users to interact with DeFi in real time, with no prohibitive costs.

Presale Live: 50x Potential for Early Participants

Bitcoin Solaris is now in Presale Phase 1, and the excitement is building fast. Here’s what early buyers need to know:

Current Price: $1.00
Next Phase: $2.00
Launch Price: $20.00
Potential Gain: Up to 1,900%

With a fixed total supply of 21 million BTC-S, the opportunity to get in before exchange listings is narrowing — and early entry has historically been the key to outsized gains in crypto.

In addition, Bitcoin Solaris active presence on X ensures users are always informed, with updates and announcements shared consistently to build trust and engagement.

Double Rewards Referral Program: Earn More by Sharing

To accelerate adoption, Bitcoin Solaris has introduced a dual-sided referral system during the presale:

Referrers earn 5% in BTC-S tokens for each successful referral
Referred users receive a 5% bonus on top of their token purchase
Rewards are automatic and credited in real time

How to get started:

Visit bitcoinsolaris.com
Log in to your account and grab your referral link
Share it across social platforms or directly with friends
Earn passive BTC-S while helping grow the network

Conclusion

Ethereum proved what was possible—but also exposed major flaws, especially high gas fees. Bitcoin Solaris delivers the solution Ethereum couldn’t, empowering users, developers, and early investors alike.

With audited smart contracts, Helios-powered DeFi, mobile mining, and a community-driven referral system, Bitcoin Solaris is a full crypto ecosystem. The presale is live, the tech is working, and with real utility and adoption ahead, 50x returns may not be far off.

The Future of Bitcoin Starts Here—Be Part of BTC-S

For more information on Bitcoin Solaris:

Website: https://www.bitcoinsolaris.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/Bitcoinsolaris
X: https://x.com/BitcoinSolaris

Sam Altman Brings Iris-Scanning Company World to US

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 10:52:22 +0000

Sam Altman’s digital identity effort World made its official U.S. launch.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported late Wednesday (April 30), the debut of this project — which involves eyeball scanning technology and a digital token — is happening as the U.S. government is taking a pro-cryptocurrency stance.

World has initially launched its product outside of the U.S., in part because the Biden administration had cracked down on the crypto sector. Since then, President Donald Trump has campaigned to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”

According to the FT, Altman — also CEO of OpenAI — announced the U.S. launch at an event Wednesday in San Francisco, telling the audience: “I’m a very proud American, I think America should lead innovation, not fight it off.”

Altman added that the company’s tech was “a way to make sure humans remained central and special in a world where the internet had a lot of AI-driven content.”

“There were very good reasons why we focused on making sure that the product worked in the entire world before coming to the United States. Some of them are related to regulatory changes,” said Adrian Ludwig, chief architect at Tools for Humanity, which developed World.

The company’s founders contend that a dependable way to distinguish humans from computers is critical as artificial intelligence (AI) evolves.

World manufactures eyeball-scanning “orbs” that generate unique IDs, letting users access the group’s Worldcoin token. The FT says the company hopes to build up to 10,000 orbs for the American market in the next 12 months.

The company is also reportedly at work on a super app that Altman and CEO Alex Blania say could someday compete with X, assuming that company develops its own super app plans.

Weeks later, reports emerged that World was in talks with Visa to add on-chain card features to the group’s self-custody crypto wallet.

The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny in several countries due to privacy concerns. Spain blocked World last year, saying there were concerns that the company was collecting personal data of minors. World has also faced bans, fines or investigations in France, Portugal, Hong Kong and Kenya.

In spite of these worries, research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found that a large share of U.S. consumers have embraced biometric authentication tools, with more than half of consumers who shop online employing biometric authentication to verify purchases.

The post Sam Altman Brings Iris-Scanning Company World to US appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Is AI making us all write the same?

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 10:05:58 +0000

Click, type, pause. A faint grey suggestion appears, offering the perfect phrase. We hit TAB, accept, and move on. From Gmail’s Smart Compose to the autocomplete features baked into browsers and word processors, artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how we write. It promises efficiency, a smoother flow, a polished end result. But beneath the surface of convenience, a troubling question emerges: Is this helpful AI subtly sanding away the unique edges of our cultural expression, pushing us all towards a homogenized, Westernized way of communicating?

We know large language models (LLMs), the engines powering these tools, often reflect the biases baked into their vast training data. They’ve been shown to perpetuate harmful stereotypes and prioritize Western norms and values. This is problematic enough in chatbots where users can sometimes guide the output. But what happens when these biases operate silently, embedded within the writing tools we use daily, offering suggestions we accept almost unconsciously? What if the AI assistant, trained predominantly on Western text, starts nudging users from diverse backgrounds to sound less like themselves and more like a generic, perhaps American, standard?

Researchers at Cornell University, Dhruv Agarwal, Mor Naaman, and Aditya Vashistha, decided to investigate this potential “cultural homogenization” directly. They weren’t just interested in explicit bias, but the more insidious ways AI suggestions might be altering not just what people write, but how they write, potentially erasing the very nuances that differentiate cultural voices. Their work raises critical questions about digital culture, identity, and the hidden costs of AI convenience.

A cross-cultural experiment

To explore how a Western-centric AI impacts users from different backgrounds, the Cornell team designed a clever cross-cultural experiment. They recruited 118 participants through the online platform Prolific, carefully selecting 60 individuals from India and 58 from the United States. This setup created a “cultural distance” scenario: American users interacting with an AI likely aligned with their own cultural norms, and Indian users interacting with an AI potentially distant from theirs.

Participants were asked to complete four short writing tasks in English. These weren’t generic prompts; they were designed using Hofstede’s “Cultural Onion” framework, a model that helps operationalize culture by looking at its layers. The tasks aimed to elicit different aspects of cultural expression:

Symbols: Describing a favorite food and why.
Heroes: Naming a favorite celebrity or public figure and explaining the choice.
Rituals: Writing about a favorite festival or holiday and how it’s celebrated.
Values: Crafting an email to a boss requesting a two-week leave, implicitly revealing cultural norms around hierarchy and communication.

Crucially, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. Half wrote their responses organically, without any AI assistance (the control group). The other half completed the tasks using a writing interface equipped with inline autocomplete suggestions powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model (the treatment group). The AI would offer suggestions (up to 10 words) if the user paused typing, which could be accepted with TAB, rejected with ESC, or ignored by continuing to type. The researchers meticulously logged every interaction – keystrokes, time taken, suggestions shown, accepted, rejected, and modified.

By comparing the essays and interaction data across the four groups (Indians with/without AI, Americans with/without AI), the researchers could directly address their core questions. Does writing with a Western-centric AI provide greater benefits to users from Western cultures? And does it homogenize the writing styles of non-Western users toward Western norms?

The first major finding concerned productivity. Unsurprisingly, using AI suggestions made writing faster for everyone. Indian participants saw their average task completion time drop by about 35%, while Americans saw a 30% reduction. Both groups wrote significantly more words per second when using the AI assistant.

However, digging deeper revealed a crucial disparity. While both groups benefited, Americans derived significantly more productivity from each suggestion they accepted. Indian participants, on the other hand, had to rely more heavily on AI suggestions – accepting more of them – to achieve similar overall speed gains. They also modified the suggestions they accepted more frequently than Americans did. Analysis showed Indians modified suggestions in roughly 63.5% of tasks, compared to 59.4% for Americans.

This suggests the AI’s suggestions were inherently less suitable, less “plug-and-play,” for the Indian cohort. They accepted more suggestions overall (an average reliance score of 0.53, meaning over half their final text was AI-generated, compared to 0.42 for Americans), but they had to invest more cognitive effort in tweaking and adapting those suggestions to fit their context and intent. This points to a subtle but significant “quality-of-service harm” – non-Western users needing to work harder to extract comparable value from a supposedly universal tool.

Writing towards the west

The study’s most striking findings emerged when analyzing the content and style of the essays themselves. The researchers first looked at whether AI made writing more similar *within* each cultural group. Using sophisticated natural language processing techniques to compare the semantic similarity of essays (based on OpenAI’s text embeddings), they found that AI indeed had a homogenizing effect. Both Indians and Americans wrote more similarly to others within their own cultural group when using AI suggestions.

But the critical test was the cross-cultural comparison. Did AI make Indian and American writing styles converge? The answer was a resounding yes. The average cosine similarity score between Indian and American essays jumped significantly when both groups used AI (from 0.48 to 0.54). Participants from the two distinct cultures wrote more like each other when guided by the AI assistant.

Furthermore, the effect size of this cross-cultural homogenization was stronger than the within-culture homogenization observed earlier. This wasn’t just a general smoothing effect; it indicated a powerful convergence across cultural lines.

Which way was the convergence flowing? Was AI making Americans write more like Indians, or vice versa? By comparing scenarios where only one group used AI, the researchers found the influence was asymmetrical. AI caused Indian writing to become significantly more similar to natural American writing styles than it caused American writing to resemble natural Indian styles. The Western-centric AI was clearly pulling Indian users towards its own embedded norms.

Could this homogenization simply be explained by AI correcting grammatical errors for non-native English speakers? The researchers tested this. While AI did reduce grammatical errors slightly for both groups (using the LanguageTool checker, carefully excluding spell-checks that penalize Indian proper nouns), the reduction was statistically similar for both Indians and Americans. This meant grammar correction alone couldn’t account for the significant convergence in writing styles. The homogenization ran deeper.

To prove this further, the researchers trained a machine learning model (logistic regression) to classify essays as either Indian-authored or American-authored based on their text embeddings. When trained on essays written *without* AI, the model was quite accurate (around 90.6%). However, when trained on essays written *with* AI suggestions, the model’s accuracy dropped significantly (to 83.5%). The AI had blurred the stylistic distinctions, making it harder for the algorithm to tell the authors’ cultural backgrounds apart.

Crucially, this performance drop persisted even when the researchers used highly simplified versions of the text embeddings (reducing dimensionality drastically) or when they focused solely on the “email writing” task – a task designed to elicit implicit cultural values rather than explicit cultural symbols like food or festivals. This strongly suggests the AI wasn’t just causing users to omit specific cultural references (like mentioning “Diwali” or “Biryani”). It was influencing more fundamental aspects of writing style – the underlying structure, tone, and linguistic patterns.

One concrete example the study highlighted was lexical diversity, measured by the Type-Token Ratio (TTR). Without AI, Indian and American writing showed significantly different levels of lexical diversity. With AI, however, the diversity level of Indian writing increased and converged with that of Americans, eliminating the statistically significant difference between the groups. The AI had subtly reshaped this linguistic feature, nudging Indian writing towards an American pattern.

Why we must govern AI used inside tech companies

How culture gets flattened

A qualitative content analysis of the essays written by Indian participants painted a vivid picture of this cultural flattening. When describing the festival of Diwali without AI, participants often included rich details about specific religious rituals (like worshipping Goddess Laxmi) or culturally specific activities (like bursting crackers or making rangolis). With AI assistance, descriptions often became more generic, focusing on universal elements like “lights and sweets,” “family gatherings,” and “exchanging gifts.” While not factually wrong, these AI-influenced descriptions lacked the specific cultural texture, presenting the festival through a more Westernized, simplified lens.

Similarly, descriptions of the popular Indian dish Biryani shifted. Without AI, users might mention specific regional variations (Malabar style) or unique accompaniments (raita, lemon pickle). With AI, the descriptions leaned towards common, almost cliché, food writing tropes like “rich flavors,” “melts in my mouth,” and “aromatic basmati rice,” subtly exoticizing the food rather than describing it with familiar detail.

The AI’s suggestions themselves often revealed a Western default. When Indian participants started typing the name of an Indian public figure, the initial suggestions were almost always Western celebrities. For the food task, the first suggestions were invariably “pizza” or “sushi”; for festivals, it was “Christmas.” While users often bypassed these initial, incongruent suggestions, their persistent presence underscores the model’s underlying bias. There was even tentative evidence that these suggestions might slightly shift choices: sushi, unmentioned by Indians without AI, appeared in three AI-assisted essays, and mentions of Christmas increased slightly.

The researchers argue these findings provide concrete evidence of a phenomenon potentially termed “AI colonialism.” This isn’t about military or political control, but about the subtle imposition of dominant cultural norms through technology. Western-based tech companies develop powerful AI models trained primarily on Western data, often using low-paid labor from non-Western regions for data labeling. These models are then embedded in globally distributed products, reinforcing Western cultural hegemony and potentially erasing other forms of cultural expression.

The homogenization observed in the study represents a form of cultural imperialism, where the nuances of diverse languages, communication styles, and value systems risk being flattened by a dominant, technologically enforced standard. Think of the differences in directness, formality, or politeness across cultures – AI suggestions biased towards a Western, often informal and direct style, could erode these distinctions over time.

Beyond overt cultural practices, there’s the risk of “cognitive imperialism.” Writing shapes thinking. If users are constantly exposed to and nudged towards Western modes of expression, it could subtly influence how they perceive their own culture and even their own thoughts, potentially leading to a loss of cultural identity or feelings of inferiority. This creates a dangerous feedback loop: users adopt Westernized styles influenced by AI, generating more Western-like content online, which then trains future AI models, further amplifying the bias.

The Cornell study is a wake-up call.

Featured image credit

Tesla board denies report it wanted to replace Elon Musk

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 09:43:20 +0000

Tesla has hit back following a Wall Street Journal report that its board had initiated a search for a new CEO to replace Elon Musk, taking to Musk’s social platform X to call the claim “absolutely false.”

According to the WSJ report, about a month ago Tesla’s board began the process of hunting for a successor to Musk, reaching out to “several” executive search firms and getting as far as narrowing down to one firm to lead the search.

Around the same time the board reportedly told Musk he needed to spend more time on Tesla, and less on DOGE, and say so publicly. In an earnings call last week he did exactly that, promising that from May he’d be “allocating far more” of his time to Tesla. The auto company has suffered from slumping sales, declining revenue, and a major brand crisis since Musk took on a closer role with Donald Trump and led efforts to slash government spending. There’s good reason to think Tesla and Musk’s other companies stand to benefit from that work too, though.

Tesla moved quickly to reject the Journal’s report, publishing a rebuttal on X from board chair Robyn Denholm, who said the directors are “highly confident” in Musk’s ability to lead Tesla. She both denied that the board had initiated a CEO search, and claimed that “this was communicated to the media before the report was published.” Musk himself later tweeted his thoughts, accusing the paper of an “EXTREMELY BAD BREACH OF ETHICS,” and suggesting that it had been sent an “unequivocal denial beforehand.”

The WSJ’s original report notes that it reached out to Musk for comment and didn’t receive any, and in an update the paper has insisted that it did not receive any statement from Tesla prior to publication.

Tesla’s board has eight members, including Musk himself along with his brother, Kimbal Musk, and James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch. The group has been accused of being “full of sycophants,” and “overly beholden to CEO Musk,” especially in the wake of last year’s efforts to secure Musk a record-breaking pay package.

As for Denholm? Despite that high confidence in Musk, she just sold over $32 million worth of Tesla shares, her third major sale in three months, and appears to be liquidating her position in the company.

Update, May 1st: Added The Wall Street Journal’s note that it did not receive any statement from Tesla prior to publication.

Trump Admin Freaks Out Over Report Amazon Planned To Be Transparent About Tariffs

admin — Thu, 01 May 2025 02:49:15 +0000

Okay, there’s a lot to unpack in this story, so hang with me here. For the past month or so, Americans and American businesses have been stuck in tariff hell. Blanket and additional tariffs issued via executive order by Trump have been in a seesaw pattern for a month now. This tariff program was a key campaign promise Trump had on offer and, since becoming President, has been something over which Trump has had an immense amount of pride. Tariffs are good, you see. A boon to the country. A major achievement of this administration. That they haven’t settled on when or how much will go into effect, nor for how long, is of no importance. Neither is the hilariously faulty math and premise that the constructed tariff rates were built upon. Tariffs are great and that’s all you need to know.

Earlier this week, Punchbowl News reported that Amazon planned to include line items on its online store across the board to denote to purchasers just how much of the cost of a product came from Trump’s tariffs. Now, it appears that this report was mostly wrong and that Amazon instead was discussing putting that in place only on its Amazon Haul store, which is a sub-store focused on imported goods from China to compete with the likes of Temu and Shein. And Amazon has since said it has scrapped the plan entirely as well (more on that in a second).

But the point is this: Trump freaked out about a massive online retailer showing American buyers the impact on pricing of the tariffs that Trump is totally proud of and that will bring America into its new golden age. Tariffs are good, you see, but the public knowing what they do is not.

Amazon issued such a specific and forceful on-the-record denial in part because it had drawn the ire of the Trump administration. In a press briefing early this morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked a question about the report, which the administration responded to as though Amazon had made a formal announcement about the policy.

“This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” Leavitt said, before blaming the Biden administration for high inflation and claiming that Amazon had “partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”

The Washington Post also reported that Trump had called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain about the report.

There is simply no way to square this circle other than to say that Trump knows it will piss off Americans if they see how much cost he is adding to them, rather than to foreign companies and countries as he’s claimed this will all work. So he wants to hide the thing he says is awesome and is proud of from the American people. And he’s willing to put his thumb on commercial interests to do so.

Why? Why is it a bad thing for retailers and manufacturers to inform the public of where the costs of their goods are coming from? If tariffs are so great, why does the public need to be shielded from understanding what they do? These sellers are going to be accused of price-gauging, particularly from anyone who believes Trump’s nonsense claim that anyone but Americans will be paying these tariffs. Why should they endure those accusations in favor of Trump’s game of hide-and-seek?

And why do these tech companies keep bending the knee to this President? They’ve been engaging in this placating routine since the inauguration, when many heads of companies showed up to prove that they could, in fact, manage to stand as Hail to the Chief plays while not having a spine.

CNBC’s Squawk Box, featuring Trump cheerleader Joe Kernan, made the point beautifully in reaction to all of this when Kernan essentially asked why government enforcement efforts against Amazon, such as antitrust litigation, haven’t evaporated now that the company has added boot-licking to its portfolio of services. CNBC makes the clip pretty much impossible to embed here, but at the tail end of it you have Kernan essentially asking aloud why Amazon is bowing to Trump when all this government action is hanging over its head still, with the Wired reporter responding that he doesn’t know, but that Trump keeps that stuff hanging to use as leverage.

Despots are never satisfied or appeased, as is often said.

So, let’s summarize. The Trump administration freaked out over a mostly-wrong report that Amazon was going to be transparent about pricing effects from tariffs, that Trump is very proud of, on its website, so it pressured the company to nix those plans both in the press and via personal phone calls from the President, only to have Amazon once more bend the knee to Trump despite seemingly getting nothing out of it in return.

Totally normal stuff happening around America these days.