Bitcoin could hit $150,000 as soon as early October, according to a Cooper Research report.
Analysts say the Bitcoin markets could begin to overheat between the $140K and $200K range.
Strong inflows to spot Bitcoin ETFs stand to fuel the asset’s next rally, the firm said.
Bitcoin could surge to a price of $150,000 before the year’s end, according to a new report from Cooper Research.
The research firm predicts the world’s oldest cryptocurrency could hit a price of $140,000 in September, sailing to $150,000 as soon as early October, the Friday shows. Its ascent “seems inevitable” as investors pour massive amounts of funds into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, according to the analysts.
“Across a range of data metrics, Bitcoin appears primed for another significant leg upward,” the analysts wrote.
Cooper researchers’ earlier findings that Bitcoin markets could begin to overheat between the $140,000 and $200,000 range this year “still hold,” they added.
Bitcoin is poised to hit new highs as economic uncertainties drive investors to park their funds in risk-on investments, including spot Bitcoin ETFs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that consumer prices ticked up in June, fueling investors’ jitters over the U.S. economy. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is reportedly poised to delay interest rate cuts at its meeting later this month, further stoking concerns that the U.S. economy will stagnate. The central bank hasn’t slashed rates since December. And the bond market is showing signs of distress, too, underscoring investors’ concerns over federal debt levels.
Amid those factors, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in more than $2 billion this week, marking one of their best weeks since the SEC greenlit the funds in January 2024.
Those inflows stand to have a significant impact on Bitcoin’s price, according to the report.
Bitcoin has rallied an average of 1.8% for every 10,000 Bitcoins added to ETF holdings, the analysts said. That growing demand helped push the price of Bitcoin to multiple new all-time high marks since late last week, with the current record sitting just below $123,000, per data from CoinGecko.
But while Bitcoin is poised to make massive gains, it could soon begin trading in a less volatile manner, the analysts noted.
“With smarter capital taking the reins and leverage-driven retail mania fading into history, Bitcoin’s price action may now follow a more tempered path,” they said.
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Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his company fully intends to register its flagship USDT stablecoin via the newly-signed GENIUS Act.
The company will also likely offer another, U.S.-specific stablecoin in the American market.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said he believes his company is nonetheless poised to particularly benefit from the passage of the GENIUS Act.
Minutes after President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, the CEOs of the world’s two largest stablecoin issuers laid out their plans for complying with the landmark legislation, with each making the case that their own company is better suited to America’s new regulatory landscape.
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the world’s top stablecoin issuer, told Decrypt Friday his company intends to make sure USDT—its flagship dollar-pegged token—complies with the GENIUS Act’s regime for foreign stablecoin issuers, and thus can trade in the United States. USDT is issued by Tether from El Salvador.
“We’ll be working very, very hard to make sure we comply with the foreign issuer pathway within the GENIUS Act,” Ardoino said. “It’s crazy that sometimes people think Tether will not comply.”
The GENIUS Act requires foreign issuers to obey stringent anti-money laundering laws and undergo intricate audit reserves. Tether’s reserves have never undergone a full audit, though Ardoino said the company intends to do so in the future.
“We have three years to make sure this process can go through properly,” Ardoino continued. “We are going to be very precise and very dedicated to that.”
In April, Ardoino told Decrypt Tether was considering creating a U.S.-specific stablecoin to better satisfy American requirements. The process of Congress drafting stablecoin legislation over the last few months had been rife with questions about whether USDT—handily the world’s dominant stablecoin, with a $161 billion market capitalization—would be boxed out of the American market under new laws.
Ardoino said Friday that Tether still intends to create a U.S.-based stablecoin, but also get USDT approved under GENIUS. The dueling Tether offerings will cater to different clients for different purposes in America, he said. USDT, for instance, might be “mostly” used in the United States as a way to pay remittances overseas.
“There are a lot of expats [who] work in the United States, and [their] families are at home,” Ardoino said.
Tether’s commitment to bringing USDT stateside under GENIUS could be considered an unwelcome development for Circle, America’s top stablecoin issuer and the world’s second largest, which has long framed itself as a more regulatorily compliant Tether alternative.
On Friday, however, when informed of Tether’s plans, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire appeared unaffected. He maintained that under GENIUS, his company will only be further rewarded for what he framed as its history of regulatory compliance.
“I think the GENIUS Act enshrines in law Circle’s way of doing business,” Allaire told Decrypt.
The New York-based executive said top institutions partner with Circle because of the trust the firm has earned after years of undergoing public audits and complying with regulatory regimes around the world.
“We think that this law obviously continues to accelerate that opportunity for us,” Allaire continued, “as we move from […] offshore crypto trading […] into the world of legal, dollar digital currency integrated into the mainstream financial system.”
Though Tether and Circle are fierce competitors, which routinely take shots at one another, the leaders of both companies almost never find themselves in the same room.
Friday’s GENIUS ceremony at the White House presented that rare opportunity; both Ardoino and Allaire stood behind President Trump as he signed the bill into law.
Shortly thereafter, both men stood about 20 feet apart from each other in front of the White House, speaking to reporters. They did not say hello.
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MicroStrategy’s $70 billion Bitcoin holdings are spread across 9 potential custodians including Coinbase, BitGo, and Fidelity, but the exact distribution remains confidential under SEC Rule 83.
Coinbase and MicroStrategy set stock records this week as crypto markets surge, though MicroStrategy has since pulled back while Coinbase keeps rising.
Multiple companies launched or grew their crypto treasuries, with Bit Origin raising $500M for Dogecoin, Sharplink expanding to $6B for Ethereum, and e-bike maker Volcon planning $500M for Bitcoin.
Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.
This week: We dig into who exactly is holding Strategy’s Bitcoin billions, both Coinbase and Strategy rack up stock records, and more companies make crypto treasury moves.
Custody short list
There isn’t a public list of the custodians holding Strategy’s $70 billion worth of Bitcoin. But there’s strong evidence that the SEC knows.
And Strategy has said enough in public filings that we were able to put together a shortlist of potential custodians.
Strategy appears to have told the SEC who custodies its Bitcoin in a 2023 response to an inquiry from the regulator. At the time, the industry was still reeling from FTX’s collapse and the resulting contagion that followed. And, more importantly, Silvergate Bank—which in 2022 lent Strategy $205 million to buy more Bitcoin, and held 34,619 BTC as collateral—had just shuttered.
The SEC asked Strategy point-blank who it uses as custodians, strongly hinting that it was worried about the BTC held at Silvergate. Strategy answered, but invoked SEC Rule 83 to keep its list out of the public domain. But what it did say narrows the list down to 9 companies: BitGo, Coinbase, GMO-Z.com, Fidelity, Bakkt, Gemini, NYDIG, Paxos, and Standard Custody & Trust Company.
Suffice it to say, Strategy still hasn’t replied to a request from Decrypt to comment on the matter.
COIN and MSTR records
Coinbase and Strategy smashed through record highs this week, thanks to a crypto market that’s suddenly awash in fresh money.
COIN hit multiple all-time high price marks over the course of the week, as analysts pointed to the surge in trading volume, the influx of ETF‑related inflows, and new custody deals as tailwinds. Now the firm has done it again to close out the week, finishing Friday at a new closing peak of $419.78 after hitting a new intraday peak of $444.65.
The weekly surge came after Argus Research initiated coverage with a “buy” rating and $400 price target and JMP Securities doubled down on its “market outperform” reading. Rosenblatt also reiterated its buy rating on Thursday.
Strategy—Michael Saylor’s unapologetic Bitcoin hoarder—hit its own all-time high market cap close on Wednesday as the company’s relentless buying spree pushed its holdings to 601,550 BTC. But MSTR hasn’t held onto its gains.
On Friday, things weren’t so rosy for Strategy, with its stock falling more than 6% by close. Is it the Jim Cramer curse? The long-time crypto critic recently mentioned Strategy during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”—but his comments were pretty cryptic.
He recounted that someone approached him and asked if he “would be the figurehead” for a business “about, you know, one of the coins”—apparently referring to Bitcoin. He said he turned it down.
“I was kind of like [JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon],” he said, “I’m kind of like lukewarm on that.”
Treasured Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin
It’s difficult to go a day without hearing about a new crypto treasury company or an existing one adding to its coffers. And the investor response isn’t always to take the stock straight to the moon. This week was no exception.
Bitcoin mining firm Bit Origin saw its share price spike after raising $500 million to start a Dogecoin treasury. The miner, which trades on the Nasdaq under the BTOG ticker, has been slow to come down off that high. As of Friday close, its stock was still changing hands for $0.78—nearly double the price it started the week at.
Ethereum juggernaut Sharplink double dipped this week, picking up $48 million on Monday and then $225 million on Tuesday, and told the SEC on Thursday that it’s upsizing its $1 billion raise to $6 billion—all in the name of buying more ETH.
Sharplink, which trades on the Nasdaq under the SBET ticker, has gained 16% since the start of the week. But it lost a whopping 20% off its share price in the past day and finished the day trading hands at $28.98 a share.
There’s also a new Bitcoin treasury company in the mix. E-bike maker Volcon saw its shares soar 135% on Thursday as it said it plans to raise $500 million to start buying BTC. The shareholder euphoria was short-lived, though.
On Friday, VLCN shares finished the day trading for $17.11 after falling by nearly 21%.
Other Keys
No gray area. OG crypto asset manager Grayscale has made its intentions clear: The firm has filed preliminary paperwork that could lead to an IPO as the industry basks in a resurgence of interest in IPOs. But so far, the S-1 is still in draft mode while the firm, the issuer of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, works out the kinks.
High stakes. Perhaps you’ve heard it’s ETH szn? Seen an altcoin ticker tape parade? Maybe heard the rumble of XRP Army troop movements? On Wall Street, the altcoin jubilee has iShares Ethereum Trust issuer BlackRock yearning for the ability to stake the nearly $8 billion worth of ETH it holds. Bad news: The SEC isn’t due to start issuing verdicts on staking for Ethereum ETFs until October.
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While federal agencies continue to shape national crypto regulation, a growing number of U.S. states are independently evaluating how blockchain technology could play a role in the future of public infrastructure, finance, and data management. Though most states are still in the early phases, a clear pattern is emerging. Some are commissioning research and building expertise. Others are updating financial laws or designing crypto-specific licensing regimes. A few are even considering ways to directly hold, issue, or manage digital assets. Together, these initiatives form a state-level blockchain maturity curve with three common phases: strategic exploration, regulatory foundations, and public asset engagement.
Strategic Exploration
States in this phase are building institutional knowledge about blockchain and exploring potential public-sector applications. These efforts often take the form of task forces, research commissions, or university partnerships that provide forward-looking analysis without requiring full-scale deployment.
Regulatory Foundations
States in this phase are laying the legal foundation for blockchain adoption, including defining digital assets in law and creating clear, crypto-friendly licensing regimes that attract innovation while protecting consumers.
Asset Strategy
A smaller but growing number of states are now exploring how blockchain-based assets could play a role in public finance. In this phase, policymakers are introducing legislation or holding hearings to evaluate whether assets like Bitcoin, stablecoins, or tokenized reserves could support treasury diversification or improve payment infrastructure.
How Chainlink Supports State Blockchain Priorities
As state governments explore the potential of blockchain technology, Chainlink provides the secure, modular infrastructure needed to move from research to practical applications.
For states in the early phases of strategic exploration, Chainlink Functions can support academic institutions, innovation offices, and task forces by enabling rapid prototyping of smart contracts that interact with real-world systems. These pilots can simulate how blockchains might connect to procurement databases, environmental sensors, or identity frameworks, allowing states to assess the value of blockchain-based solutions without having to commit to production infrastructure.
For states building regulatory foundations, Chainlink’s track record working with governments, central banks, and regulated institutions globally provides a strong basis for understanding how to implement blockchain with public-sector safeguards in mind. From powering use cases under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian to formalizing a global blockchain standards alliance with Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Chainlink has helped demonstrate what’s technically feasible within highly regulated environments. This experience can inform how states draft legislation and oversight frameworks that align with both innovation goals and government-level risk standards.
For states considering digital asset strategies such as holding Bitcoin or issuing stablecoins, Chainlink Proof of Reserve offers a way to maintain financial transparency and public accountability. By providing real-time, cryptographic verification that assets are fully backed, Chainlink Proof of Reserve can help state treasuries and oversight bodies ensure that tokenized reserves remain secure and independently auditable.
Chainlink supports governments across every phase of blockchain engagement, helping them operate in ways that are secure, transparent, and aligned with public-sector priorities.
Conclusion
States are increasingly recognizing that blockchain and digital assets are not abstract technologies. They are practical tools that can support government priorities such as financial transparency, operational efficiency, and economic competitiveness. As outlined in this post, state-level activity is taking shape across three clear fronts: strategic exploration through task forces and academic partnerships, regulatory groundwork through updated financial statutes and licensing regimes, and emerging asset strategies focused on digital reserves and stablecoin frameworks.
By taking initiative in these areas, states are building institutional knowledge and policy flexibility that will serve them well as the technology continues to evolve. Whether the goal is to modernize recordkeeping, improve financial oversight, or evaluate new models for managing public assets, early engagement gives states the ability to shape outcomes rather than react to them.
Shane Donovan Moore, a former semi-pro rugby player, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for defrauding over 40 investors out of $900,000 through a fake crypto mining scheme.
Moore promised 1% daily returns from mining equipment that didn’t exist, using investor money to fund a lavish lifestyle and repay earlier victims in typical Ponzi fashion.
Judge Tana Lin explicitly mentioned the emotional and psychological damage Moore caused to his victims.
A former semi-pro rugby player who promised investors daily returns from a crypto mining business that never existed has been sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison.
Shane Donovan Moore operated Quantum Donovan LLC from January 2021 to October 2022, during which he defrauded over 40 investors out of more than $900,000, according to the Department of Justice’s Thursday statement.
Moore claimed the funds would be used to purchase crypto mining rigs that would generate 1% daily returns.
But instead of buying mining rigs, he funneled investor money into his personal accounts to fund a lavish lifestyle, such as buying luxury apartments, designer luggage, and electronics, while using some funds to pay earlier investors and keep the Ponzi scam running.
“Moore used the newness of cryptocurrency to commit an age-old fraud—a Ponzi scheme,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said. “He left a path of damaged relationships in his wake.”
The 37-year-old Seattle rugby player targeted fellow rugby players across Washington, Utah, Oregon, Connecticut, and New Jersey, exploiting personal trust to recruit victims who lost more than $387,000 in total.
To maintain the illusion, Moore used some of the investor money to purchase crypto and repay small sums to early participants, which helped recruit additional victims, according to the statement.
U.S. District Judge Tana Lin noted during sentencing that Moore “caused emotional and psychological damage to the victims” beyond financial harm.
“These scams run on false hope and high returns,” Karan Pujara, founder of the scam defense platform ScamBuzzer, previously told Decrypt. “The only thing that changes is the face of the scammer… and the victim, who is greedy enough to YOLO their life savings.”
Over $2.17 billion in crypto has already been stolen this year, surpassing all of 2024, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis’ 2025 Mid-Year Crypto Crime Report.
Moore’s sentencing comes amid a broader crackdown on crypto investment fraud.
Just last month, two executives behind OmegaPro were charged with running a $650 million global Ponzi disguised as a forex-crypto platform.
Like Moore, they flaunted luxury lifestyles and promised huge returns before blocking withdrawals and vanishing in 2023.
The rugby player will serve his 30-month sentence in federal prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution, though authorities did not specify the full repayment plan.
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More than 40 top AI researchers propose monitoring chatbots’ internal “chain of thought” to catch harmful intent before it becomes action.
Privacy experts warn that monitoring these AI thought processes could expose sensitive user data and create new risks of surveillance or misuse.
Researchers and critics alike agree that strict safeguards and transparency are needed to prevent this safety tool from becoming a privacy threat.
Forty of the world’s top AI researchers just published a paper arguing that companies need to start reading their AI systems’ thoughts. Not their outputs—their actual step-by-step reasoning process, the internal monologue that happens before ChatGPT or Claude gives you an answer.
The proposal, called Chain of Thought monitoring, aims to prevent misbehavior, even before the model comes up with an answer and can help companies to set up scores “in training and deployment decisions,” the researchers argue
But there’s a catch that should make anyone who’s ever typed a private question into ChatGPT nervous: If companies can monitor AI’s thoughts in deployment—when the AI is interacting with users—then they can monitor them for anything else too.
When safety becomes surveillance
“The concern is justified,” Nic Addams, CEO at the commercial hacking startup 0rcus, told Decrypt. “A raw CoT often includes verbatim user secrets because the model ‘thinks’ in the same tokens it ingests.”
Everything you type into an AI passes through its Chain of Thought. Health concerns, financial troubles, confessions—all of it could be logged and analyzed if CoT monitoring is not properly controlled.
“History sides with the skeptics,” Addams warned. “Telecom metadata after 9/11 and ISP traffic logs after the 1996 Telecom Act were both introduced ‘for security’ and later repurposed for commercial analytics and subpoenas. The same gravity will pull on CoT archives unless retention is cryptographically enforced and access is legally constrained.”
Career Nomad CEO Patrice Williams-Lindo is also cautious about the risks of this approach.
“We’ve seen this playbook before. Remember how social media started with ‘connect your friends’ and turned into a surveillance economy? Same potential here,” she told Decrypt.
She predicts a “consent theater” future in which “companies pretend to honor privacy, but bury CoT surveillance in 40-page terms.”
“Without global guardrails, CoT logs will be used for everything from ad targeting to ’employee risk profiling’ in enterprise tools. Watch for this especially in HR tech and productivity AI.”
The technical reality makes this especially concerning. LLMs are only capable of sophisticated, multi-step reasoning when they use CoT. As AI gets more powerful, monitoring becomes both more necessary and more invasive.
Furthermore, the existing CoT monitorability may be extremely fragile.
Higher-compute RL, alternative model architectures, certain forms of process supervision, etc. may all lead to models that obfuscate their thinking.
— Bowen Baker (@bobabowen) July 15, 2025
Tej Kalianda, a design leader at Google, is not against the proposition, but emphasizes the importance of transparency so users can feel comfortable knowing what the AI does.
“Users don’t need full model internals, but they need to know from the AI chatbot, ‘Here’s why you’re seeing this,’ or ‘Here’s what I can’t say anymore,'” she told Decrypt. “Good design can make the black box feel more like a window.”
She added: “In traditional search engines, such as Google Search, users can see the source of each result. They can click through, verify the site’s credibility, and make their own decision. That transparency gives users a sense of agency and confidence. With AI chatbots, that context often disappears.”
Is there a safe way forward?
In the name of safety, companies may let users opt out of giving their data for training, but those conditions may not necessarily apply to the model’s Chain of Thought—that is an AI output, not controlled by the user—and AI models usually reproduce the information users give to them in order to do proper reasoning.
So, is there a solution to increase safety without compromising privacy?
Addams proposed safeguards: “Mitigations: in-memory traces with zero-day retention, deterministic hashing of PII before storage, user-side redaction, and differential-privacy noise on any aggregate analytics.”
But Williams-Lindo remains skeptical. “We need AI that is accountable, not performative—and that means transparency by design, not surveillance by default.”
For users, right now, this is not a problem—but it can be if not implemented properly. The same technology that could prevent AI disasters might also turn every chatbot conversation into a logged, analyzed, and potentially monetized data point.
As Addams warned, watch for “a breach exposing raw CoTs, a public benchmark showing >90% evasion despite monitoring, or new EU or California statutes that classify CoT as protected personal data.”
The researchers call for safeguards like data minimization, transparency about logging, and prompt deletion of non-flagged data. But implementing these would require trusting the same companies that control the monitoring.
But as these systems become more capable, who will watch their watchers when they can both read our thoughts?
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Coinbase launched a new app called Base on Wednesday in Los Angeles, rebranding its Coinbase Wallet into an “everything app” for the on-chain economy.
The app combines social features, AI tools, and monetization, allowing users to earn from posts, messages, trade, and play games—all in one place.
Base aims to create a more social, composable, and creator-friendly Web3 experience for both early adopters and mainstream users.
Coinbase unveiled its new mobile app, Base—a rebrand and expansion of the company’s Coinbase Wallet during a standing-room-only event in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
The crypto faithful packed the venue to witness the reveal of the app, which had gone live earlier that day.
Billed as an “everything app” for the on-chain economy, Base aims to go beyond simple transactions, giving users the tools to create, earn, message, game, and interact with AI, all within a single platform.
“We’re going from a single-player tool to a network,” John Granata, Coinbase Director of Product, told Decrypt after the launch. “It’s very social forward—because that’s how people trade, send payments, find friends, and build apps together.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Image: Jason Nelson/Decrypt
Among those excited for the launch was serial entrepreneur and Vee Friends creator Gary Vaynerchuk, who spoke at the event.
“I’ve been waiting nearly a decade for a decentralized social network. I knew it was the next move,” Vaynerchuk told Decrypt. “Whether Coinbase pulls it off or not, it’s coming. The early previews and the nuances they delivered were really interesting. I enjoyed it.”
Beyond social, financial, and entertainment features, the Base app integrates creator-focused monetization, allowing each post—whether text, image, or video—to become an on-chain asset.
“For many users who’ve never earned from their media before, Base could be the first place they do,” Granata said. “If your post goes viral, you can earn a lot more due to the ways that you can monetize on the platform.”
Image: Jason Nelson/Decrypt
Filmmaker Roman Coppola, co-founder of the film studio Decentralized Pictures, one of the early developers on Base, said the shift toward decentralization is especially meaningful for artists.
“To be included as one of the key developers in what could be a game-changing ecosystem is a big honor,” Coppola told Decrypt. “The broader theme here is creators having more control and earning financial rewards from their work. The decentralized dream is coming true—and we’re proud to represent film alongside gaming and other creative categories.”
End-to-end encrypted chat with wallet integration is another standout feature. Users can send crypto or execute trades directly within a group chat, often assisted by AI agents, which can handle transactions with a simple message.
During a keynote speech at the event, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong positioned the launch within the company’s broader mission.
“Coinbase was founded 13 years ago, and our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world,” he said. “We think crypto is the most important technology to help go do that.”
Armstrong described the Base app as part of a shift away from traditional financial services.
“We always thought that once we had the bridge from fiat to crypto, we needed to make a new kind of app that would actually allow permissionless access for everyone all over the world,” he said.
Armstrong called the launch of the Base app the company’s “Netscape” moment, referring to the early web browser that brought the internet to a mass audience.
“We fixed on-ramping with Coinbase,” he said. “Base provided fast, cheap transactions around the world. I think we’re at this moment as an industry—it took innovation across companies, foundations, groups, and individuals.”
“We’ve got these Lego pieces,” he added. “How do we assemble them into an app that creates the onchain economy for a billion people—and makes it usable for regular people who don’t even know anything about crypto? I think we’re right on the cusp of doing that.”
Alongside messaging, AI also curates user feeds and powers creator tools such as smart video editing and annotation.
“2025 is the year of AI agents,” he said. “And crypto is the perfect tool for them.”
Underpinning the Base app is a set of open protocols—including Farcaster for social, XMTP for messaging, and Zora for monetization—designed to promote transparency and composability.
“Because we build on top of base, on top of open protocols, on chain, we don’t have to ask you to trust us,” Granata said. “The trust is in the network. The trust is in the protocol.”
To skeptics who question why they should leave other apps for a product from Coinbase, Granata had a simple message: Base is for everyone.
“Some people are early adopters. Others need time,” he said. “Our app is for everyone in that sense, and we’re trying to build it in that way.”
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Google Search has launched an AI tool that can call local businesses, ask about prices and availability, and deliver answers without requiring users to make a call.
A second feature, Deep Search, uses Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model to return detailed answers to complex queries.
Both tools are part of Google’s AI Mode and are available in the U.S. through Google Labs with expanded access for paid subscribers.
Google launched a new AI-powered feature in Search on Wednesday that can call local businesses, check prices and availability, and report back—all without the user ever having to make a phone call.
“Search now has the agentic capability to call local businesses using AI to check on prices and availability, saving you the hassle of tracking down information yourself,” VP of Google Search Robby Stein wrote on X. “This is rolling out in the U.S., with increased access for AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers. Makes it much easier to cross “dry cleaning” off my to-do list.”
The new AI call feature builds on Google’s Duplex, a conversational AI launched in 2018 that makes phone calls on a user’s behalf. It uses speech recognition and context to talk naturally with businesses, then summarizes the results using AI.
“We may share your first and last name with the business being contacted, and we let users know this on the confirmation screen before they submit a request,” a Google spokesperson told Decrypt. “This helps businesses recognize that real potential customers are behind these calls and makes it easier for them to serve those users.”
In addition to the business-calling feature, Google is rolling out a new Deep Search tool powered by its Gemini 2.5 Pro model.
The features are part of Google’s shift toward artificial intelligence and AI agents designed not just to answer questions but to act on the user’s behalf.
In May, during its annual Google I/O event, Google unveiled a range of new AI features, including Veo 3, Imagen 4, and Gemini Diffusion, for its flagship AI product, Gemini. That same month, Google launched the AI Edge Gallery, a platform for distributing on-device AI models to smartphones.
However, as AI becomes increasingly capable, experts warn about the amount of data it requires to function and the hidden costs associated with agentic AI taking on more personal tasks.
“My concern is whether we’re applying the right level of oversight to the higher-risk use cases,” co-founder and CEO of AI risk management company, Monitaur AI, Anthony Habayeb, told Decrypt. “And with agentic AI systems that act on your behalf, the risks compound.”
He pointed to the growing use of AI tools that handle sensitive data—like calendars, contacts, and credit cards—as an example of how misuse or failure can escalate quickly when governance, especially in the event of a system oversight, is lacking.
According to Google, businesses contacted through the feature retain control over how they are reached and what information is shared, using settings in their Google Business Profile, including the option to opt out of automated calls.
While Google said businesses only received a user’s name, not their contact details, the feature still raised concerns about data sharing.
“Everyone wants efficiency—no one likes being on hold with a restaurant or searching for a barber while traveling,” Habayeb said.
“Consumers need to determine their risk appetite,” Habayeb added. “Some will accept the convenience and data trade-offs; others won’t. What matters most is transparency and letting the market decide from there.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump said he’s “not planning on doing anything” after reports suggested that he could soon oust Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Despite months of pressure from Trump and his associates, the U.S. central bank has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.
Trump’s efforts to fire Powell could benefit Bitcoin amid headwinds for stocks and bonds, analysts say.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric toward Fed Chair Jerome Powell appeared to stoke volatility in the crypto market on Wednesday, as investors weighed whether he could soon fire the official.
The price of Bitcoin rose as high as $119,500, then fell to around $119,000—yet it’s up even higher now to $119,650, currently up 2% over the last day per data fromCoinGecko. The market moves came as Trump again criticized the Federal Reserve chairman, yet pushed back against the notion of firing Powell in front of reporters.
“We’re not planning on doing anything,” Trump said, after being asked about plans to push Powell out of the central bank’s leadership role before his term ends in eight months. “He’s doing a lousy job, but no I’m not talking about that.”
Trump’s posturing conflicted with a report from Bloomberg, which signaled on Wednesday that Trump will likely fire Powell soon, citing an undefined White House official.
On Tuesday night, Trump showed a draft of a letter firing Powell to Republican lawmakers, who had gathered in the Oval Office to discuss their apprehensions toward passing crypto legislation, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the meeting. Trump acknowledged the meeting during Oval Office comments on Wednesday.
Trump has repeatedly called on Powell to lower interest rates, arguing that it would reduce the U.S. government’s debt burden. But the central bank has held its benchmark rate steady this year, waiting to see whether Trump’s tariffs could lead to renewed price pressures.
If Trump were to try and fire Powell, the move would be unprecedented. It’s unclear whether Trump actually has the authority, but the move has the potential to wreak havoc on stocks and bonds, experts say, if it degrades trust in the foundation of America’s economy.
As a competing store of value to the U.S. dollar, however, some analysts believe that challenging the Fed’s independence would benefit Bitcoin and other assets like gold.
Trump and his associates have stepped up pressure on Powell recently, leaning into accusations of conducting monetary policy in a partisan fashion and raising concerns over the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation plan for its headquarters.
Asked by a reporter on Wednesday whether he thinks the renovation plan could be sufficient cause to fire Powell, Trump said, “I think it sort of is.”
The episode is reminiscent in some ways of Trump’s efforts to reshape global trade through “reciprocal” tariffs earlier this year.
Amid twists and turns in his administration’s trade policy, Trump’s account of ongoing negotiations with several nations conflicted at times with members of his cabinet, including the status of a deal that was eventually reached with China.
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The EU has sanctioned pro-Kremlin influencer Simeon Boikov and Moldova-based platform A7 for using crypto to spread disinformation and interfere in elections.
A7’s ruble-backed stablecoin, A7A5, was reportedly used to move billions, bypassing Western financial restrictions.
The sanctions will “really put pressure on those actors,” TRM Labs’ Isabella Chase said.
The European Union has sanctioned key actors accused of weaponizing cryptocurrency to interfere in democratic elections and bypass international sanctions, including pro-Kremlin influencer Simeon Boikov and the Moldova-based platform A7.
Boikov, known as the “Aussie Cossack,” was designated for disseminating pro-Russian disinformation, including a fabricated video alleging voter fraud in Georgia in the 2024 U.S. election.
He received donations via cash-to-crypto services, darknet markets, and non-KYC Russian exchanges, according to a TRM Labs report released Tuesday.
The sanctions also targeted A7 OOO, a company linked to efforts to influence Moldova’s 2024 presidential elections and EU accession referendum through direct vote-buying schemes.
The EU said that A7 was used by Ilan Shor, a fugitive Moldovan oligarch, who previously orchestrated the 2014 bank fraud scandal that drained $1 billion from Moldova’s economy.
The A7 platform issued A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin “set up for the express purpose of sanctions evasion,” Isabella Chase, Head of Policy, EMEA at TRM Labs, told Decrypt.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies tied to the value of traditional currencies, used to enable faster, lower-cost transactions with minimal price volatility.
While media reports suggest the A7A5 stablecoin moved $9.3 billion in four months, Chase cautioned that “we don’t have an official government source for it.”
However, she noted the massive volume isn’t “really surprising” given the asset’s purpose.
Chase explained that despite the eye-catching numbers, “the number of entities involved in using it is quite small.”
“When you look at the use of other stablecoins for sanctions and the role it played in sanctions, their volume is much, much larger,” she said.
The stablecoin was previously used by sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex to transfer user funds to Kyrgyz exchange Grinex before Garantex was seized by the U.S. Secret Service in March.
TRM Labs’ blockchain analysis revealed that Garantex began moving funds into the A7A5 stablecoin as early as January, “indicating a premeditated effort to create a sanctions-resistant asset for facilitating the transfer and recovery of frozen assets.”
The firm traced connections between A7A5 and Grinex, which helped move funds abroad through shell-like entities registered to residential addresses.
These networks are increasingly used to move dual-use goods from China into Russia, the report noted.
Chase explained how Western sanctions can pressure jurisdictions like Kyrgyzstan despite geographical distance.
The sanctions create pressure on entities in what she calls “third countries, so not within the UK or the European Union or in Kyrgyzstan, who are trying to do business with all those different blocs.”
“These sanctions really put pressure on those actors to ask themselves, who are you prioritizing, your relationship with the EU and the UK, or access to A7? Chase told Decrypt.
This approach, she noted, creates reach “into the supply chains that are considering using this type of asset class.”
Cracking down on Russia’s crypto operations
The sanctions come as Western authorities intensify their crackdown on Russian crypto operations.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Russian bulletproof hosting provider Aeza Group for facilitating cybercriminal activity, including ransomware attacks and darknet drug markets.
For the crypto industry, these sanctions highlight the need for enhanced monitoring capabilities.
“We always say it’s important to have, not just a tool that can ingest sanctioned addresses and entities, but also teams that can expand on those addresses and really understand who they’re transacting with, and what the linked entities are,” Chase said.
The expert described the latest EU action as “encouraging to see the level of coordination between the EU and the UK on tightening controls against the A7 platform.”
The UK had previously designated A7 months earlier, showing growing international cooperation in targeting Russian financial networks.
Regulatory guidance remains insufficient for this emerging sector, she said, noting that “having specific guidance from regulators on how to do sanctions implementation effectively would always be useful” as “this is a relatively new sector.”
Chase pointed to the ongoing nature of this fight against such hybrid threats, adding TRM Labs will “continue to monitor its role in the broader Russian use of crypto assets to evade sanctions.”
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Added a new Ledger window for browsing key realm, character and world information
Added 9 Ledger pages: “Ongoing Wars”, “Artifacts”, “Characters”, “Houses and Dynasties”,...
