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On India’s 79th Independence Day, while the nation celebrated its political freedom, a big move in the world of cryptocurrency, one that focuses on financial freedom. The Bitcoin Policy Institute of India (BPI India) officially launched at midnight on August 15, 2025, with a mission to make Bitcoin a key part of India’s economic future. New Plan for India’s Economy In a recent tweet post, the Bitcoin Policy Institute India (BPI) says now is the time for “financial freedom,” where India controls its economy without relying on other nations. However, BPI India wants to connect Bitcoin technology with Indian leaders by sharing research, education, and advice. Their aim is simple, to help India not just take part in the new global economy but become a leader in it. Today, on India’s Independence Day, we are proud to launch the Bitcoin Policy Institute India. Our mission: To provide the research & education needed to secure India’s financial sovereignty using #Bitcoin. Our story, exclusively in @BitcoinMagazine:https://t.co/CYDGPefyWs — Bitcoin Policy Institute India 🇮🇳 (@BitcoinPolicyIN) August 14, 2025 Meanwhile, Mithilesh Kumar Jha, one of the founders, says Bitcoin can help protect India from global political problems, make payments cheaper, and even turn the country’s renewable energy into digital wealth, an idea already growing in many developing countries. BPI India Steps Toward Bitcoin Strategy BPI India has started its journey by publishing a white paper on state-level Bitcoin mining opportunities. The institute is also creating a “CFO Playbook” to guide Indian companies on holding Bitcoin in their corporate treasuries.  On top of it, BPI India’s plan focuses on five main areas to promote Bitcoin across the country, which will help both governments and businesses adopt Bitcoin in a safe and strategic way. 2⃣ Sovereign Mining Harness India’s vast renewable energy to mine Bitcoin sustainably. Goal: Create a state-level playbook to turn energy into a strategic monetary asset, inspired by Bhutan’s model. pic.twitter.com/3N8LaWp5Md — Crypto India (@CryptooIndia) August 15, 2025 Firstly, using renewable energy for Bitcoin mining, guiding governments with clear policy data, promoting Bitcoin as a treasury asset, teaching people about Bitcoin and financial literacy, and enabling faster, low-cost transactions for businesses and individuals.  These steps aim to boost India’s financial independence and make the economy more self-reliant. Global Market Boost Fuels Momentum Over the past few weeks, Bitcoin’s price has been pushing higher, supported by growing liquidity, and hints of U.S. rate cuts in September & October make it more attractive for riskier assets like Bitcoin.  For Indian investors, this comes at a time when global crypto adoption is expanding, and the local market is becoming more receptive to digital assets. As of now, Bitcoin price is trading around $119, reflecting a drop of 2% seen in the last 24 hours. We’d Love to Hear Your Thoughts on This Article! Was this writing helpful? Read More

The crypto market could be entering one of its most exciting moments yet, a true altcoin season. After moving sideways for months, altcoins have jumped over 50% in value since early July. According to Coinbase analysis says big investors are buying Ethereum (ETH), which is helping altcoins rise. This trend could see massive boost in September.  Let’s see what Coinbase’s analysis says. Droping Bitcoin Dominance – A sign Coinbase research says Bitcoin’s dominance has fallen from 65% in May to 59% in August, hinting at an early shift toward altcoins. The Altcoin Season Index is still at 53, below the 75 mark that signals a full alt season. Altcoin value has surged over 50% in just six weeks, now at $1.4 trillion. With new liquidity expected in late Q3 and early Q4 2025, this could speed up capital rotation into alts. Altcoin Season is coming As September approaches, the transition to a full-scale altcoin season is likely. Our positive 3Q25 outlook stems from macro trends such as potential Fed rate cuts and expected regulatory advancements. More key themes in this Monthly Outlook report ↓ — Coinbase Institutional 🛡️ (@CoinbaseInsto) August 14, 2025 Rates, Cut & Global Liquidity Coinbase believes the timing for an altcoin rally looks better than it has in months. A big reason is the chance the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September or October. Lower rates usually make people more willing to put money into riskier assets like crypto. Right now, there’s also a huge $7.2 trillion sitting in U.S. money market funds,  basically cash on the sidelines. If confidence improves, some of that money could flow into crypto.  Coinbase’s money supply data points to fresh liquidity by late Q3 2025, and market liquidity is already improving after months of decline, boosted by clearer stablecoin rules. ETH at the Center: Big Treasuries, Bigger Narrative Ethereum’s growing popularity among big investors is now driving major market changes and its social dominance hit 17%.  At the same time, the biggest Ethereum treasury holders now own almost 3 million ETH, which is over 2% of all ETH in existence. One major player Bitmine Immersion bought 1.15M ETH and plans to buy more after raising $20B, while Sharplink Gaming holds 598.8K ETH. Institutional interest in ETH is driving Altcoin Season Fueled by digital asset treasuries (DATs) and stablecoin narratives, the divergence in the Altcoin Season Index and total altcoin market cap reflects rising institutional interest in Ethereum ( $ETH ). pic.twitter.com/SJHKmKnq07 — Coinbase Institutional 🛡️ (@CoinbaseInsto) August 14, 2025 This rising demand has also boosted related tokens like Lido DAO (LDO), which provides liquid staking services. LDO’s price has climbed nearly 60% this month, helped by the U.S. September To Spark Altcoin Season  Coinbase says we might be in the early phase of a shift from big coins to smaller ones. If this keeps up, September could be when altcoins shine, bringing more price swings and bigger profit chances for those willing to take the risk. We’d Love to Hear Your Thoughts on This Article! Was this writing helpful? Read More

Harvard Business Review Logo The HBR Playbook on keeping employees motivated in troubling times. by Ania W. Masinter August 13, 2025 Roses Wong Layoffs cause fear, anger, and deep loss of trust among remaining employees. These feelings have very real repercussions: Research has shown that layoffs targeting just 1% of a company’s workforce result in a 31% increase in turnover. Another survey found that 74% of employees said that their productivity declined after their company’s layoffs. With more corporate leaders discussing the potential for AI-related mass job cuts, the anxiety around a reduction in force runs even deeper. Read More

Igor Babuschkin announced this week that he is leaving the company he helped cofound with Elon Musk to start his own company focused on AI safety research. Babuschkin posted the news on X, which is owned by xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company. “Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023,” he wrote. “I still remember the day I first met Elon. We talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold.” Related: ‘My Startup Roots Have Begun Tugging on Me’: A Big Tech CEO Just Quit to Be an Entrepreneur Again Igor Babuschkin, co-founder of xAI, during the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg | Getty Images Babuschkin wrote that “through blood, sweat, and tears,” they “shipped frontier models faster than any company in history,” and during the process, he earned two “priceless” lessons from Musk. 1. Be fearless “Be fearless in rolling up your sleeves to personally dig into technical problems,” he wrote. Babuschkin noted that Musk personally worked with the team, flying to a data center and staying all night until the issues were fixed. 2. Have a “maniacal” sense of urgency “xAI executes at ludicrous speed,” he wrote. “Industry veterans told us that building the Memphis supercluster in 120 days would be impossible. But we believed we could do the impossible.” Today was my last day at xAI, the company that I helped start with Elon Musk in 2023. I still remember the day I first met Elon, we talked for hours about AI and what the future might hold. We both felt that a new AI company with a different kind of mission was needed. Building… — Igor Babuschkin (@ibab) August 13, 2025 Musk replied to his post, offering thanks: “Thanks for helping build xAI! We wouldn’t be here without you.” Related: Elon Musk’s xAI Is Hiring Engineers for Its Anime ‘AI Companions’ — With Salaries Up to $440,000 a Year Join top CEOs, founders and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue and building sustainable success. Read More

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Three of the same VC firms that backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay, respectively, are all investing in Pacaso. Venture backing in companies like Pacaso is nothing new. After all, early-stage companies often have the potential to deliver the most outsized returns. But, recent regulatory updates have opened the door for individual investors to invest alongside these venture capitalists. Normally, everyday investors have to wait for a company to go public before they can invest, missing out on that early gain potential. Now, some companies are opening up investment opportunities to the public. This type of investing has already seen some great success stories. For example, in 2016, 433 people invested an average of $2,730 in a private startup named Revolut. Fast-forward to today, those $2,730 stakes are worth more than $1 million, up 89,900%. That potential could be why 10,000+ investors have taken the chance on Pacaso alongside big-name VCs, contributing $36M+ already. It’s no surprise, considering Pacaso’s résumé: The company has made $110M in gross profits to date Pacaso’s co-founder sold his last company to Zillow for $120M They operate in more than 40 vacation destinations across the U.S., Mexico, UK, and France The company reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO The growth potential is where the excitement is. Below we’ll reveal more about how Pacaso has built a competitive moat so quickly, and how you can share in their potential growth. Next-generation co-ownership After his $120M exit and subsequent role as a Zillow executive, Austin Allison created Pacaso’s game-changing co-ownership model. Powered by proprietary tech and an innovative structure that eliminates the headaches of traditional vacation home ownership, it’s already leaving a mark. Here’s how: Seamless transactions: Clients easily buy, finance, and resell, shares of luxury homes through Pacaso’s intuitive platform. Turnkey ownership: Pacaso handles maintenance, scheduling, and furnishing; owners simply enjoy their vacation homes. Maximized value: Homes that once sat empty up to 90% of the year now stay occupied nearly year-round, benefiting owners and local economies. The demand for their services and expertise is real. In top destinations, co-ownership is growing 21% annually in the U.S., and Pacaso homes have appreciated nearly 10% since 2021 – roughly double the growth of the broader luxury market. Scaling into 10 new international destinations Pacaso is already leading the charge in the $1.3 trillion U.S. vacation home market, combining real estate innovation with tech-driven efficiency to generate multiple revenue streams, the company says. These include transaction service fees on every sale, recurring property management fees, and exclusive financing options tailored to co-owners. And the platform’s global reach is growing quickly, as they’re already seeing strong returns in the $500B global market. In 2024, they set records in Paris and London. Meanwhile, Cabo is the #3-most-searched destination on their platform. No surprise Europe and Mexico have accounted for 22% of revenue over the past two years, the company says. Now, they’re taking international expansion to an entirely new level. They recently announced 10 new international destinations will be added to their platform, spread across Italy, the Caribbean, and Mexico. That means Pacaso’s unique model is poised to dominate a combined $1.8T in vacation home markets. Why investors are paying attention There are many reasons why firms managing a combined $180B+ in assets have already backed Pacaso, including: Proven leadership: With a $120M exit and experience as an executive for Zillow, Allison’s real-estate expertise is unmatched. Strong growth metrics: Full-year 2024 financials showed a 21% YoY increase in gross real estate volume and a 24% improvement in adjusted EBITDA. Surging demand: 40% of Americans want to buy a vacation home in the next year (Coldwell Banker), and co-ownership is growing 21% annually in the United States After impressive full-year earnings showed gross profit grew 41%, and with continued growth and expansion plans ahead, Pacaso is hitting their stride. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO. You can claim your stake in Pacaso today for just $2.90/share. Be part of this market’s next big disruption. Visit invest.pacaso.com to learn more. This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the Nasdaq is subject to approvals. comparisons to other companies are for informational purposes only and should not imply similar success. Read More

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. We’ve all heard it: “Be transparent with your team.” It’s the advice that gets handed out at every startup panel and leadership workshop, especially when the waters get rough. And at first glance, it looks like a no-brainer. Who wouldn’t want to know the truth? Who wouldn’t want to work somewhere honest? But in the thick of a crisis, the reality is more complicated. When you’re the one steering the ship and the waters turn choppy, the call for transparency starts to sound a lot less simple. There’s a very real difference between being open and overwhelming your team. The right amount of information can create clarity and trust. Too much, too soon, or in the wrong way can lead to confusion, distraction and even panic. Most people — especially founders — learn this lesson the hard way. Maybe it starts with an attempt at full openness: You share every new update as soon as it comes in, mention every risk and try to involve everyone in every tough decision. The intent is good. But then you notice side effects: anxious questions, whispered rumors and a team that feels less steady, not more. Here’s why transparency can actually hurt your team in a crisis and how to handle it instead. Transparency without context creates noise, not clarity Leadership is full of messy, moving targets. During a crisis, your dashboards light up, your inbox fills with alarms, and every meeting brings a new set of questions. For some, the instinct is to share it all — to be as open as possible so nobody feels left out or kept in the dark. But raw information without context can be worse than saying nothing. If you give your team every data point and warning bell without making sense of it yourself first, you’re handing them a pile of puzzle pieces and asking them to build the picture. Some will try, but most will feel lost. Assumptions fill in the gaps. (And usually, those assumptions don’t land in your favor!) Context is what separates clarity from chaos. Instead of raw facts, people need to know what those facts mean. Are we facing a cash crunch, or just an expected seasonal dip? Is this client’s feedback a sign of a bigger trend, or a one-off? Your job as a leader is to interpret the story behind the data before you share it widely. If you haven’t made sense of it yet, neither will your team. When you’re ready to share, give the background, share your thinking and explain why it matters. And if you don’t know yet, it’s okay to say that. “Here’s what we know, here’s what we don’t, and here’s what we’re doing next.” That’s more stabilizing than anecdotal data and uncertainty. Emotional stewardship vs. emotional spillover Honesty is important, but so is emotional discipline. In the pressure of a crisis, it can be tempting to process your fears and anxieties out loud, almost as a way of inviting your team into your stress. But there’s a world of difference between letting people in and asking them to carry your burden. If you share every fear, doubt or draft scenario as you’re experiencing it, you risk dragging your team onto an emotional roller coaster. Instead of feeling involved, they end up riding shotgun to your worst-case-scenario thinking. It can feel like every week brings a new mood swing, and it’s distracting and exhausting. What your team actually needs is for you to do your own processing with your board, mentors or a small circle of advisors — people whose job is to help you sort out your own thinking. Once you’re grounded, you can come back and share what matters most in a way that helps others do their jobs. Share your humanity, yes, but don’t turn your town hall into group therapy. Your team deserves your thoughtfulness, not your unfiltered reaction. Transparency does not equal consensus One of the biggest misconceptions about transparency is that it means everyone gets a vote. In a crisis, leadership sometimes requires you to make quick decisions, even unpopular ones. If you mistake transparency for consensus, you risk slowing everything down or, worse, giving the impression that every issue is up for debate. You can and should explain your reasoning, outline the options you considered and be clear about the risks you’re accepting. But ultimately, your team needs to know that you’re accountable for the call and that you’re confident in your direction — even if not everyone agrees. Inviting feedback is not the same as opening every topic for a team referendum. Sometimes, what people need most is the assurance that someone is steering the ship. Timing and delivery are just as important as the message It’s not just what you say, but when and how you say it. Dropping a tough update in an email late on a Friday or scattering information piecemeal in Slack can make your team’s anxiety worse. Instead, gather your team, give them your full attention and offer them space to ask questions even if you don’t have all the answers yet. Think through the cadence of your communication, too. People need regular check-ins, but they don’t need a tidal wave of info every time you get new input. Predictability creates safety, even when the news itself isn’t what they’d hoped for. Transparency, when done thoughtfully, builds resilience and trust. But in a crisis, your job isn’t to share a running list of every problem and possibility. It’s to interpret the facts, contextualize them and communicate with care. Honesty matters, but so does judgment. In the hardest moments, your team is looking for a calm hand on the wheel. Give them clarity and confidence, and you’ll get through those moments much more easily. Read More

Every week on our show, How Success Happens, I get to talk to incredible people who accomplish amazing things in the face of great obstacles. Most entrepreneurs wish they could avoid big obstacles, but others seek them out. Such is the case for Jesse Itzler and Devon Levesque, the one-two punch behind the epic Runningman Festival, a three-day health and wellness event that is equal parts adult summer camp, business networking, party, and athletic race. (Tickets are available here.) For the past 35 years, Itzler has cemented his status as a game-changing entrepreneur, founding and selling companies like Marquis Jet and Zico Coconut Water. He’s a bestselling author and speaker — and a guy who likes to run 100-mile ultramarathons in his spare time. Levesque built and sold nutrition brand Promix for nine figures, and does things like completing a marathon-length bear crawl when he is not building new companies. Related: Kim Perell Shares The Mistakes That Made Her a Millionaire The two describe Runningman as a kind of Disneyland where health and wellness meet business. There are motivational speakers, breakout sessions, and on the second day, they put the “running” in Runningman. Attendees have access to a one-mile loop for eight hours that they can use however they choose — some walk a mile, take a yoga class, then walk another mile. Others run 5Ks, 10Ks, and over the last two years, some have used the time to complete ultramarathons. “It’s about getting whatever you want out of it, meeting people out there, building friendships and even making deals,” says Itzler. I spoke with Itzler and Levesque about their wild festival, and the business and life lessons they’ve learned from pushing their bodies to their outer limits. Listen to our entire conversation here or watch it above, and read below for three success takeaways. Subscribe to How Success Happens to get a dose of inspiration twice a week! Apple | Spotify | YouTube Continue to redefine success for yourself. In his 20s and 30s, Jesse says success was all about “trying to be richer than the next guy,” but now is says it means figuring out what buckets are the most important to you — family, health, philanthropy, business — and striving to do whatever you can to be as good as you can in those areas you truly care about. Understand that physical pain can bring mental well-being. Devon says that pushing his body to its physical limits brings a sense of calmness to his brain, allowing him to “approach the world in a better way” and “stops me from making chaotic decisions.” He says it has made him stronger when facing any obstacle in his life. “You learn that pain is temporary.” Start with fun, and success will follow. Planning Runningman is unlike any other business endeavor. “We’ve never talked about how to make more money — our conversations are ‘Is there a way to have an ice skating rink there in the middle of summer in Georgia? Do you know 50 people on stilts that can do a Slip ‘n’ Slide? Our conversations are insane!” Fast facts Devon holds a world record for performing the highest altitude backflip, which he did at the peak of Mount Everest. Jesse wrote “Go, New York, Go!”, the theme song for the New York Knicks that has been played since 1993. Read More

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Let’s be real: Most founders don’t need more marketing tactics. There is a ton of content out there about how to handle your marketing — so much that it’s overwhelming. Marketing also accounts for a large part of business budgets, adding up to nearly 10% of the cost for the average business. It’s easy to chase trends, try to be on every platform, run ads without understanding ROI and slap together messaging that changes every other week. When you do that, it just leads to more confusion for your audience and usually, a waste of money. Overcomplicated marketing strategies generally come from a good place — founders want to grow. But in trying to do everything, they end up doing nothing well. Let’s talk about why this happens and how to simplify your marketing so it actually works. Related: 5 Common Marketing Mistakes You Need to Look Out For Why we overcomplicate things in the first place There are a few common culprits that drive marketing overwhelm. The most common thing I see in small business owners is a sense of “shiny object” syndrome. When a business owner sees a new tactic pop up on Instagram or their peer swears by a niche funnel, too often, they just start rebuilding their whole strategy around it. Even more importantly, too many business owners get into this situation and then have no data tracking set up. Trying new things is good, but how will you know if it worked or not? Gut feeling is definitely not enough when it comes to determining your marketing spend, and if you are too busy throwing too many things at the wall, you likely aren’t setting up proper tracking, so those experiments aren’t telling you much in the end. If any of that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Let’s break down what a simpler, more effective marketing strategy might look like. Simple marketing strategies often outperform complex ones The best marketing strategies are clear, consistent and rooted in your actual business goals. They don’t try to do everything, and instead focus on doing the right things well, consistently and with proper tracking. To start, define your one core message. You should be able to clearly articulate what you do, who it’s for and why it matters. If you can’t say it in a sentence, your audience won’t get it either. Next, establish a consistent cadence that is realistic for you. Whether it’s weekly emails, biweekly blogs or daily Instagram stories, consistency beats perfection every time. Resist the temptation to set too ambitious of a goal, if you realistically might not meet it. Setting a realistic goal sets up a habit, and that can build much more easily from there. Finally, establish a feedback loop. Your marketing should be a living system. You put out a message, you watch how it performs, and you adjust accordingly. For whatever you are trying, establish a KPI that defines if it is working, and monitor it. Be willing to cut when it’s not working, and double down when it is. Most importantly, simple marketing is sustainable. This sets up the foundation for you to continue to grow. Related: 3 Reasons Your Marketing is Failing (And How to Fix It) How to use data to guide your strategy If you feel that you aren’t sure how to track the impact of your marketing, you are in the majority — more than 85% of businesses don’t track the impact of marketing on an ongoing basis. You don’t need a fancy dashboard or expensive analytics software to do this. You just need to start with a few key questions: Where are your leads coming from? Look at your clients who came in as prospects in the last 30-90 days, and break them down by where they came from. If you aren’t sure, this is a chance to pause and add more lead tracking into your marketing tech before moving on to the next point. What percentage of those leads turn into paying clients? Do the same exercise as the above, but only with those who bought. How much did you spend on each of these channels? This includes any labor spend working on your marketing, tech costs, ad spend, event entrance costs and more. Do your best to break that down by lead channel. What’s the lifetime value of a client? Look at your clients from the last six months or so and their average spend. This is the value of the client to your business. These numbers will tell you more than any guru’s playbook ever could. One of the most common trends to look at is where you’re investing time and money versus where you’re getting leads. For example, if you’re pouring time into Instagram but your conversions are all coming from referral emails, that’s a signal to double down on email and consider refreshing or cutting back on your Instagram strategy. The second thing to consider is the lifetime value of your clients as compared to the cost of a lead. If you’re getting leads from paid ads but they are costing you two times as much as their lifetime value, it’s very likely you need a paid ads refresh. Once you have this kind of clarity, you can market smarter, not harder. Related: Your Marketing Strategy Needs an Overhaul — This Approach Is What Separates Successful Campaigns From the Rest Growth comes from focus, not frenzy That’s it. You don’t need a 42-step funnel or three different types of lead magnets to make this work. You just need a clear offer, a consistent cadence and a feedback loop. It’s easy to think more marketing equals more growth, but if that “more” isn’t strategic, it’s likely not serving you. 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The U.S. government acknowledged in federal court for the first time that the Internal Revenue Service is sharing taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the Trump administration intensifies its deportation campaign. Suggested Reading The notice was filed on Aug. 12 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by a pair of Justice Department officials. It mentioned the deal forged earlier this year between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security establishing the basis for tax data to be used in deportation efforts. Related Content A Treasury spokesperson said the data-sharing arrangement between IRS and DHS has been “litigated and determined to be a lawful application of Section 6103, which provides for information sharing by the IRS in precise circumstances associated with law enforcement requests.” Then a senior DHS official said in a statement that the redacted agreement “outlines a process to ensure that sensitive taxpayer information is protected, while allowing law enforcement to effectively pursue criminal violations.” Experts, though, say the ongoing data sharing between IRS and immigration authorities reverses longstanding taxpayer protections originally established by Congress. “This is a blow in decades of precedent that the IRS is not going to disclose taxpayer information except in extremely limited circumstances,” said Tom Bowman, policy counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Many undocumented immigrants pay taxes, he said, and argued it would cause many of them to think twice before filing tax returns with personal information that puts them at risk of deportation. Bowman added the tax data-sharing could lead to “a total erosion of trust with immigrant communities.” The notice was filed four days after Billy Long was ousted as IRS commissioner. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that White House and IRS officials had clashed over employing taxpayer data to detain and deport suspected undocumented immigrants in the hours leading up to Long’s removal. Federal law strongly shields sensitive taxpayer information such as a person’s annual earnings and imposes strict guardrails on sharing it with other government agencies. Yet in April, the Treasury Department — which oversees the IRS — and DHS forged the opaque tax-data sharing agreement with the aim of accelerating the Trump administration’s mass deportations. It raised alarms among tax advocates and Democratic lawmakers. A group of 47 House Democrats have demanded an unredacted copy of the data-sharing deal to no success so far. “We are concerned that this [deal] will result in grave consequences for taxpayers whose information is shared,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. 📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief Read More

Bitcoin has slumped in value just hours after hitting a record high, following a stronger-than-expected inflation reading and comments by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the U.S. would not buy the asset for its strategic reserve. Suggested Reading The cryptocurrency fell 4.8% on Thursday to $117,387 as of 2:24 p.m. ET. On Wednesday evening it had risen to a new high of $124,210, shortly after the S&P 500 closed at its own record. Related Content Two developments came shortly before the drop. First, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Producer Price Index showed a 0.9% rise from June — triple the pace economists expected — and pushed the annual wholesale inflation rate up to 3.3%, from 2.4% in June. The data marked a sharp turn in the narrative after months of seemingly steadying rates, prompting traders to scale back expectations for imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts. Also on Thursday, Bessent said in an interview on Mornings with Maria on Fox Business that the government would not buy more of the cryptocurrency for its proposed strategic reserve, dashing the hopes of some investors.  “We’ve also started to get into the 21st century, a Bitcoin reserve. We’re not going to be buying that, but we are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up,” he said. Bessent reiterated a statement from March that the government would stop selling bitcoin that it had collected in criminal cases. Nonetheless, Bitcoin remains far above levels seen before President Donald Trump won the 2024 election with promises of crypto-friendly policies. Trump signed an executive order in March to set up a strategic bitcoin reserve, which would use digital assets seized by the government in criminal cases. More recently, Trump signed another order that opens the door for 401(k)s to invest in cryptocurrency, private equity, real estate, and other so-called alternative assets.  In July, the U.S. also passed the GENIUS Act, a bipartisan bill that established the first federal stablecoin framework and requires full backing with reliable assets. That cleared some regulatory fog over programmable money systems, boosting investor confidence. Speaking on Thursday, Bessent added that he believes the U.S. government’s current holdings at current prices are “between $15 and $20 billion,” below some third-party estimates of about $24 billion. —Shannon Carroll and Hannah Parker contributed to this article. 📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief Read More