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Why 6 top Tesla leaders have departed over the past 2 years Tesla has struggled to keep top talent at the company over the last two years as it battles declining sales and a tarnishing brand Tesla hasn’t been short of problems lately.  Just in the last few months, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla has reported declining sales and bleak second-quarter earnings, been sued by shareholders over its robotaxi claims, found liable in a fatal Autopilot crash and ordered to pay $300 million in damages, launched robotaxis that violated traffic laws, and more. Plus, Musk’s rocky on-again-off-again relationship with President Donald Trump hasn’t helped.  Tesla’s many woes have caused its brand to face public backlash and its stock to dip, dropping nearly 13% this year.  And on top of the EV company’s compiling issues, it has a talent retention problem. Over the last two years alone, six top leaders have departed from Tesla. On Thursday, news broke that Pete Bannon, Tesla’s leader for its Dojo team, is leaving the company, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. On top of Bannon leaving, the outlet reported that Musk ordered the company’s Dojo operations, which was Tesla’s in-house supercomputer program, to be shut down and the team to be moved to other areas of the company. Hours after Bloomberg’s report, Musk took to his social media site X to essentially confirm the reporting, saying “it doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs” adding that “all effort” is focused on Tesla’s “AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips.”  Bannon had been at the company since joining as a director in 2016. Before that, he worked at Apple. It doesn’t appear Bannon has made any public comment regarding his exit from Tesla.  Check out the five other top leaders who have left the company in the last two years. —William Gavin and Diego Lasarte contributed to this article.  2 / 6 Omead Afshar Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images Omead Afshar was Tesla’s leader for sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe, but lost his role after Musk fired Afshar at the end of June, Forbes first reported. He was promoted to his role as VP in 2024.  The outlet cited a recent drop in sales in both markets as a likely reason for Afshar’s firing.  Afshar joined the company in 2017 and had worked in Tesla’s Office of the CEO, per his LinkedIn profile. As far as where Afsahr is working now, there aren’t any updates. But he still has Tesla’s account featured in his X profile, and his Linkedin profile still says he works at the EV company. Afshar hasn’t posted on X since June 24, two days before news broke of his departure, and on June 23, he made a post thanking Musk after Tesla’s robotaxis were unveiled.  3 / 6 Milan Kovac Milan Kovac was Tesla’s vice president for Optimus, the company’s “humanoid robot” per X. He announced his departure from the company in an X post on June 6.  “This week, I’ve had to make the most difficult decision of my life and will be moving out of my position,” Kovac said in his post. “I’ve been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad. I want to make it clear that this is the only reason, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. My support for @elonmusk and the team is ironclad – Tesla team forever.”  He added that “joining Tesla in 2016 as an engineer in the core Autopilot team and then leading a part of it over the years under Elon was already more than I could have hoped for.” In a separate response the following day, Kovac clarified that he isn’t leaving the country, just plans to travel back and forth.  Musk responded to Kovac’s post by thanking him and telling him to enjoy the time with his family.  Kovac hasn’t announced any new prospects since leaving Tesla, according to his Linkedin profile.  4 / 6 Andrew Baglino Andrew Baglino, Tesla’s former senior vice president for energy engineering and powertrain, resigned from the company in April of last year. He had been with the company since March 2006.  Baglino was one of the original electrical engineers working on the Roadster, Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle, and was a frequent face at investor events. Baglino was also one of Tesla’s four key leaders. “I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday,” Baglino said in a statement. “I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years.” News of his departure came shortly after Tesla announced it was cutting more than 10% of its global workforce.  In September 2024, five months after leaving Tesla, Baglino founded his own company called Heron Power, a renewable energy equipment manufacturing company which says its “building cutting-edge power electronics for the 21st-century grid,” per Linkedin. He is also CEO of the company, according to his Linkedin profile.  5 / 6 Rohan Patel Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images Rohan Patel was Tesla’s vice president of public policy and business development. He left the company at the same time as Bagliano in April 2024.  Patel was a familiar face to Tesla’s ultra-online community, often engaging with investors and customers on Musk’s X as a one-man public relations department. “The past 8 years at Tesla have been filled with every emotion—but the feeling I have today is utmost gratitude,” Patel posted on X, thanking Tesla’s customers, Musk, and his team. “To the broader Tesla team—the never-say-die attitude and scrappiness is what makes the place special,” he added. Patel is currently serving as a member for three organizations’ boards, according to his Linkedin profile.  6 / 6 Zachary Kirkhorn Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s former “master of coin” and chief financial officer, resigned from the company in August 2023.

There’s a homeowner financial tsunami on the horizon, with a reported $35 trillion in home equity in U.S. residential real estate right now, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. What’s more, indications are rising that homeowners are itching to tap some of that cash. A case in point: On July 28, the MBA reported that Total originations of Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs) and closed-end home equity loans rose by 7.2% from 2023 to 2024, according to the MBA’s 2025 Home Equity Lending Study. “With close to $35 trillion of homeowner equity in residential real estate and many homeowners locked into low-rate first mortgages, HELOCs and home equity loans have become the product of choice for many homeowners,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, the MBA’s vice president of industry analysis, in a statement. “Lenders in our study expect year-over-year growth of almost 10% for HELOC debt and 7% for home equity loan debt in 2025.” No doubt, soaring home values have boosted home equity funds. According to Zillow, the average home value in July 2019 was $229,000. It’s currently about $369,000. “That’s a massive jump in just six years, so it’s no wonder that home equity is so high,” said Adam Hamilton, CEO at REI Hub in Richmond, Virginia. “That’s a big reason why so many people are choosing to hold onto their homes for longer, because they know their home values are increasing significantly, and selling means having to buy a new home at a much higher price.” Higher rates are holding up home equity spending Homeowners leverage home equity cash for myriad reasons, including paying down debt, home maintenance and remodeling, or even investing in property. One issue that may be holding more homeowners back from landing home equity loans is interest rates, with the average loan rate for a $50,000 HELOC loan standing at about 7% right now. That figure may be too high for some homeowners, who prefer to wait for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, a move that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been considering, but not yet implementing. If and when the Fed does curb rates, the home equity floodgates may fly open and pour billions of dollars or more into the U.S. economy. “If the Federal Reserve decides to pull rates lower, that economic fuel’s getting lit,” said Eric Croak, president of Ohio-based Croak Capital, a fiduciary financial firm with $200 million in assets. “HELOCs, cash-outs, renovations, debt consolidation, even new construction all become accessible again.” If that’s the case, the U.S. economy could be looking at a consumer spend cycle that is real estate-fueled instead of wage-driven. “That’s different from what we saw in 2020–2021, when COVID-driven federal government stimulus checks and credit card usage floated the economy. Now, home equity is going to feel like found money, and Americans tend to put found money straight back into the system.” Assuming the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates, home and property experts expect homeowners to quickly tap into the HE cash and set off a home mortgage rate/maintenance boom. “The pendulum swung all the way in one direction, with a dramatic drop in demand, and we are going to see a tsunami on the back end, with a surge of delayed demand coming through,” said Jacob Naig, owner of Iowa-based We Buy Houses Des Moines. “I anticipate a renaissance in home improvements, secondary dwelling unit builds, and mid-size renovations like basement finishes or kitchen expansions.” Naig said he’s talked to dozens of homeowners who stopped their renovation plans because they were unable to refinance due to high borrowing rates. “Now they’re sitting on $150,000 or $250,000 in tappable equity,” he said. “However, they are unwilling to shell out 8% for the use of the cash. When the Fed makes the path even clearer downward and when we see home equity loan rates below 6% again, there’s no question money will start moving.” These stocks should stand tall when home equity cash rolls in Investors looking to get ahead of the home equity leviathan landing on Uncle Sam’s doorstep may want to start kicking the tires on stocks that would directly benefit from the cash infusion. “We’ll likely see a domino effect; contractors, as big-box retailers, appliance makers, and lenders all benefit,” Croak noted. Which stocks look best-positioned to attract assets from a home equity bonanza? These three stocks should be at the top of any investor’s list. Home Depot (HD) Year-to-date performance: -2.76% As soon as U.S. homeowners begin to utilize their home equity, they’ll need to spend cash to either renovate or update their homes. “This can be encouraging to companies like Home Depot, who will have more customers with more equity who will be keen on investing the money in their homes to add value to their properties,” said Ryan McCallister, founder of F5 Mortgages in Traverse City, Michigan. Home Depot has struggled to corral more customers in recent years, with high inflation and cautious customers setting the tone. That scenario should change as the economy grows stronger and as home equity funds start to kick in. The demand should accelerate in what is expected to be a $1 trillion U.S. home improvement market by 2027. Home Depot’s meal ticket isn’t necessarily do-it-yourself consumers — professional contractors comprise 50% of its customers. That figure should rise after Home Depot’s purchase of SRS Distribution, a roofing, landscaping, and specialty building goods company, which could bring more professional contractors to the revenue mix. PayPal (PYPL) Year-to-date performance: -20.52% Yes, PayPal shares are down significantly in 2025, but the company is ideally positioned to leverage the $35 trillion home equity market. “On the technology side, take a look at PayPal, an alternative payment and finance platform that benefits from people spreading out costs when cash starts flowing,” Croak said. In its most recent earnings statement, PayPal beat analyst expectations. However, an operating cash flow issue has been holding the stock back, with cash flow of $898 million versus analyst expectations of

International Cat Day falls on August 8 each year to honor and promote the wellness of felines. Two and a half weeks later, pooches get their turn with a decidedly less buzzy International Dog Day on August 26. The trendiness gulf between the two holidays begs several questions: Are you a cat or dog person? Are dog people really more agreeable? Are cat people actually less conformist? And above all else in the creator-economy age, what does the apparent dichotomy say about your potential earnings online? Suggested Reading According to Sprout Social, the top dog influencer — a golden named Tucker Budzyn — earns more than the leading cat influencer account — DontStopMeowing, which features several calicos; the former commands an estimated media value of $4.5 million on TikTok and $3.16 million on Instagram, while Sprout clocked the latter at $828,930 on TikTok and $259,033 on Instagram. Each of these accounts boast millions of followers on their respective platforms, yet the social-management platform reports that Budzyn draws a much higher engagement rate from his followers. Related Content This pattern persists for the second-leading dog and cat influencers, too, with Doug the Pug’s estimated media value eclipsing Nala Cat’s, per Sprout. “Brands pay more to influencers with high engagement rates, and dog influencers generally perform slightly better on platforms like Instagram and TikTok in this regard,” said Laya Flaherty, CEO of the pet influencer agency Urban Paws. Flaherty tells Quartz that dog influencers are typically more financially successful than cat influencers because they’re “easier to train and pose, making them ideal for product integration.” Pups also tend to garner a broader array of sponsorship deals. “Dogs fit naturally into lifestyle, travel, outdoor, and wellness niches,” she said. “This expands their monetization channels beyond just pet-specific products.” Yet, sometimes cat fandom still seems to eclipse dog fandom online. “Cats dominate in viral content and meme culture,” explained Flaherty, citing the enduring love for Grumpy Cat (RIP). Plus, Flaherty added, cat pages remain fully capable of converting “highly loyal and niche audiences” into “significant income from merchandising, book deals, and brand licensing.” Regardless of category, “petfluencers” in general are on the rise, and a March 2025 paper published in The Journal of Advertising Research even found that pet influencers “can be more persuasive” than humans. For pet influencers and their caretakers, the apparent rivalry between cat and dog people may not even matter. “While cat and dog influencers do compete for general social media attention,” Flaherty said. “They often attract different audiences and advertisers, so the overlap is limited.” “They share the same platforms, but tend to occupy distinct marketing niches and brand personas,” she added. 📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief Read More

The Trump family business World Liberty Financial is planning to announce a crypto treasury company, say three investors who have seen parts of the deal. The plan, according to details shopped around to investors and viewed by Fortune, revolves around a publicly traded company that would hold a combination of World Liberty’s proprietary token WLFI and cash.  The proposal also calls for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to serve on the board, and hopes to raise $1.5 billion to fund the new company. If the plan goes forward, it would be the latest addition to the Trump family’s fast-growing crypto empire. The Trump family first announced the World Liberty crypto project last fall, launching a series of products including the WLFI token, which has netted $550 million in sales, as well as its own stablecoin, USD1.  A spokesperson for World Liberty declined to comment. Spokespeople for Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to requests for comment. The planned treasury company comes amid a boom in so-called “digital asset treasury companies,” or publicly traded firms that hold large stashes of cryptocurrency on their balance sheets. According to details shared with investors, the planned treasury company for World Liberty’s token is a shell firm that is already listed on the NASDAQ, and that it has already acquired. The concept of crypto treasury companies was pioneered by billionaire Michael Saylor, who remade his software company MicroStrategy into a vehicle to acquire Bitcoin in 2020 then renamed it Strategy in 2025. Traders soon saw the company’s stock as a proxy for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, and bought up its shares as Bitcoin’s price increased. For Strategy, the tactic proved so successful that it went on to accumulate more than $72 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and reached a market capitalization of almost $113 billion, despite reporting only $115 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2025. Crypto investors saw the boom in Strategy’s valuation and followed suit. Early copycats included a budget hotel company in Japan, which began adding Bitcoin in 2024, as well as a handful of other companies that joined the trend later that year. But this year, the practice has accelerated. There are now treasury companies for Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency. There are also others for a growing number of cryptocurrencies, including Litecoin, Sui, and Ethena. Meanwhile, another Trump family venture, Trump Media, bought $2 billion of Bitcoin earlier this summer for its own treasury.  Advocates say the treasury companies let traditional investors, who may be constrained by what they can trade through brokerages like Vanguard, trade cryptocurrencies and gain exposure to the digital assets market. But an increasing number of investors have warned that the trend is a fad and say many of these companies may be at risk of collapse as the current crypto boom subsides. Aside from World Liberty Financial, which promises to launch different decentralized financial applications built around its token and stablecoin, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have both launched their own memecoins. Eric and Donald Jr. are also deeply involved in the blockchain industry, including their backing of a Bitcoin mining company. On the new Fortune Crypto Playbook vodcast, Fortune’s senior crypto experts decode the biggest forces shaping crypto today. Watch or listen now Read More

When Match Group released its latest earnings this week, its CEO Spencer Rascoff boasted that Hinge, one of its flagship dating apps, was “crushing it,” with growth accelerating despite reports that young users are breaking up with dating apps. Revenue was up 25% compared to the same quarter the prior year, and users had flocked to the site. Previously languishing Tinder was also showing signs of a turnaround. Match’s stock popped 12% that day.  But the day before that earnings call, a Match Group shareholder named Ned Habedus filed a lawsuit against the company’s board of directors, including Rascoff and former CEO Bernard Kim, that raises questions about the company’s leadership and the board’s priorities in the wake of a bombshell investigation published earlier this year.  That media report, “Dating App Cover-Up: How Tinder, Hinge, and Their Corporate Owner Keep Rape Under Wraps,” by the Pulitzer Center and Calmatters, co-published by The Guardian and The 19th, grew out of 18 months of reporting and is widely excerpted in the new lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in central California.  Quoting the reporting, the lawsuit alleges that “‘Match Group has known… which users have been reported for drugging, assaulting, or raping their dates since at least 2016, according to internal company documents. Since 2019, Match Group’s central database has recorded every user reported for rape and assault across its entire suite of apps; by 2022, the system, known as Sentinel, was collecting hundreds of troubling incidents every week, company insiders say.’” Match did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment on the new lawsuit. Nor did its former CEO Bernhard Kim. When the investigation was published, the company told the media outlets that it “vigorously combats violence,” according to the report. “We will always work to invest in and improve our systems, and search for ways to help our users stay safe, both online and when they connect in real life,” Match Group said in a statement at the time. It also said: “We take every report of misconduct seriously, and vigilantly remove and block accounts that have violated our rules regarding this behavior.” However, Match Group has not yet produced a promised report that would give all stakeholders, including customers, a clear sense of the risks facing users. And some accused offenders found ways to stay on the site, allowing them to continue trawling the websites for potential targets—sometimes for months or years—even after their crimes had been reported to Match. The complaint also claims, again citing the investigative report, “In one particularly outrageous example… cardiologist Stephen Matthews retained access to Match’s platforms as late as January 25, 2023, despite a user reporting him for sexual assault on September 28, 2020. Match only removed his profile after he was arrested by law enforcement.” In 2024, Matthews was convicted by a Colorado court of drugging 10 women he met through dating apps Hinge and Tinder, and sexually assaulting eight of them. He was sentenced to serve 158 years in prison. An attorney for the plaintiff declined to comment and pointed Fortune to the complaint.  Match Group, a $8.8 billion company, owns more than a dozen apps, including Tinder, Hinge, Match, Meetic, OkCupid, and Plenty Of Fish. The lawsuit seeks damages from the executives and board members named for breaches of fiduciary duty, securities law violations, and unjust enrichment. It also calls for reforms to corporate governance and risk oversight, restitution of executive pay, and other costs incurred by the company.  It is a derivative lawsuit, in which a shareholder brings claims against leadership on behalf of the company. Any payments ordered by the court go to the company, and shareholders benefit indirectly. (Typically, directors have insurance policies that will cover such payments. If the misconduct is not covered by the policies, however, board members are obliged to cover the costs themselves.)  The Pulitzer Center report opens with a harrowing and detailed account from one of Matthews’ victims, who says that when she visited Matthews at his home, he drugged and assaulted her. She was able to escape and get into an Uber, and after the effects of the drug had worn off, she reported the incident to Match. At the time of that assault, two other women had already reported Matthews to the site, according to the report.  In several cases, the lawsuit compares what the company disclosed in securities filings and during analyst calls with what the Pulitzer Center’s report alleged that the company already knew. For example, the legal filing states that the company revealed falling monthly active user figures for Tinder in November 2024 without disclosing what the plaintiff alleges was the real reason the app was losing customers: the long-running safety issues outlined in the exposé published a few months later.  “Competition or economic considerations did not cause the rapid decline in Tinder’s MAU,” the complaint says. “It faltered because users had grown tired of meeting abusers and predators on the platform.” “Users also were frustrated by the Company’s failure to curtail this nefarious conduct,”  it continues, “which was known to the Company’s leadership.” Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list. Read More

Mexican authorities are accusing sportswear company Adidas of plagiarizing artisans in southern Mexico, alleging that a new sandal design is strikingly similar to the traditional Indigenous footwear known as huaraches. The controversy has fueled accusations of cultural appropriation by the footwear brand, with authorities saying this is not the first time traditional Mexican handicrafts have been copied. Citing these concerns, local authorities have asked Adidas to withdraw the shoe model. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday that Adidas was already in talks with authorities in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to provide “compensation for the people who were plagiarized,” and that her government was preparing legal reforms to prevent the copying of Mexican handicrafts. The design at the center of the controversy is the “Oaxaca Slip-On,” a sandal created by U.S. designer Willy Chavarría for Adidas Originals. The sandals feature thin leather straps braided in a style that is unmistakably similar to the traditional Mexican huaraches. Instead of flat leather soles, the Adidas shoes tout a more chunky, sports shoe sole. According to Mexican authorities, Adidas’ design contains elements that are part of the cultural heritage of the Zapotec Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, particularly in the town of Villa Hidalgo de Yalálag. Handicrafts are a crucial economic lifeline in Mexico, providing jobs for around half a million people across the country. The industry accounts for around 10% of the gross domestic product of states like Oaxaca, Jalisco, Michoacán and Guerrero. For Viridiana Jarquín García, a huaraches creator and vendor in Oaxaca’s capital, the Adidas shoes were a “cheap copy” of the kind of work that Mexican artists take time and care to craft. “The artistry is being lost. We’re losing our tradition,” she said in front of her small booth of leather shoes. Authorities in Oaxaca have called for the “Oaxaca Slip-On” to be withdrawn and demanded a public apology from Adidas, with officials describing the design as “cultural appropriation” that may violate Mexican law. In a public letter to Adidas leadership, Oaxaca state Gov. Salomón Jara Cruz criticized the company’s design, saying that “creative inspiration” is not a valid justification for using cultural expressions that “provide identity to communities.” “Culture isn’t sold, it’s respected,” he added. Adidas responded in a letter Friday afternoon, saying that the company “deeply values the cultural wealth of Mexico’s Indigenous people and recognizes the relevance” of the criticisms. It requested to sit down with local officials and to discuss how it can “repair the damage” to Indigenous populations. The controversy follows years of efforts by Mexico’s government and artisans to push back on major global clothing brands who they say copy traditional designs. In 2021, the federal government asked manufacturers including Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl to provide a public explanation for why they copied clothing designs from Oaxaca’s Indigenous communities to sell in their stores. Now, Mexican authorities say they’re trying to work out stricter regulations in an effort to protect artists. But Marina Núñez, Mexico’s undersecretary of cultural development, noted that they also want to establish guidelines to not deprive artists of “the opportunity to trade or collaborate with several of these companies that have very broad commercial reach.” Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list. Read More

The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, a White House official said Friday, weeks after the Department of Justice accused the school of antisemitism and other civil rights violations. UCLA is the first public university to be targeted by a widespread funding freeze over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against elite private colleges. In recent weeks, the administration has struck deals with Brown University for $50 million and Columbia University for $221 million but has explored larger settlements, such as with Harvard University. The White House official did not detail any additional demands the administration has made to UCLA or elaborate on the settlement amount. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the request and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Trump administration suspended $584 million in federal grants for UCLA, the university said this week. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division issued a finding that UCLA violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.” The university had drawn widespread criticism for how it handled dispersing an encampment of Israel-Hamas war protesters in 2024. Jewish students said demonstrators in the encampment blocked them from getting to class. One night, counterprotesters attacked the encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested. The University of California’s president, James B. Milliken, said in a statement Friday that the university was reviewing a document it “just received” from the Department of Justice. “Earlier this week, we offered to engage in good faith dialogue with the Department to protect the University and its critical research mission,” Milliken said. “As a public university, we are stewards of taxpayer resources and a payment of this scale would completely devastate our country’s greatest public university system as well as inflict great harm on our students and all Californians.” This would not be the university’s first settlement over the 2024 protests. Last month, UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued, arguing that the university violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters to block their access to classes and other areas on campus in 2024. The settlement comes nearly a year after a preliminary injunction was issued, marking the first time a U.S. judge had ruled against a university over their handling of on-campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza. UCLA initially had argued that it had no legal responsibility over the issue because protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’ access to areas. The university also worked with law enforcement to thwart attempts to set up new protest camps. But U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi disagreed and ordered UCLA to create a plan to protect Jewish students on campus. The University of California, one of the nation’s largest public university systems, has since created systemwide campus guidelines on protests and has said it is committed to campus safety and inclusivity and will continue to implement recommendations. As part of the settlement, UCLA said it will contribute $2.3 million to eight organizations that combat antisemitism and support the university’s Jewish community. It also has created an Office of Campus and Community Safety, instituting new policies to manage protests on campus. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany to Mexico and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias. The Trump administration has used its control of federal funding to push for reforms at elite colleges that the president decries as overrun by liberalism and antisemitism. The administration also has launched investigations into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying they discriminate against white and Asian American students. Last month Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into the government’s allegations that the school violated federal antidiscrimination laws. The agreement also restores more than $400 million in research grants. The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation. ___ AP reporters Jocelyn Gecker and Julie Watson contributed to this report. Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list. Read More

President Donald Trump said Thursday he will nominate a top economic adviser to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors for four months, temporarily filling a vacancy while continuing his search for a longer-term appointment. Trump said he has named Stephen Miran, the chair of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, to fill a seat vacated by governor Adriana Kugler, a Biden appointee who is stepping down Friday. Miran, if approved by the Senate, will serve until January 31, 2026. The appointment is Trump’s first opportunity to exert more control over the Fed, one of the few remaining independent federal agencies. Trump has relentlessly criticized the current chair, Jerome Powell, for keeping short-term interest rates unchanged, calling him “a stubborn MORON” last week on social media. Miran has been a major defender of Trump’s income tax cuts and tariff hikes, arguing that the combination will generate enough economic growth to reduce budget deficits. He also has played down the risk of Trump’s tariffs generating higher inflation, a major source of concern for Powell. The choice of Miran may heighten concerns about political influence over the Fed, which has traditionally been insulated from day-to-day politics. Fed independence is generally seen as key to ensuring that it can take difficult steps to combat inflation, such as raising interest rates, that politicians might be unwilling to take. Federal Reserve governors vote on all the central bank’s interest-rate decisions, as well as its financial regulatory policies. Miran’s nomination, if approved, would add a near-certain vote in support of lower interest rates. Kugler had echoed Powell’s view that the Fed should keep rates unchanged and further evaluate the impact of tariffs on the economy before making any moves. Trump has said he will appoint Fed officials who will cut interest rates, which he says will reduce the borrowing costs of the federal government’s huge $36 trillion debt pile. Trump also wants lower rates to boost moribund home sales, which have been held back partly by higher mortgage costs. Yet the Fed doesn’t directly set longer-term interest rates for things like home and car purchases. At its most recent meeting last week, Fed officials kept their key rate unchanged at 4.3%, where it has stood after three rate cuts late last year. But two Fed governors — Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman — dissented from that decision. Both were appointed by Trump in his first term. Still, even with Miran on the board, 12 Fed officials vote on interest rate policy and many remain concerned that Trump’s sweeping tariffs could push inflation higher in the coming months. Miran could be renominated to a longer term on the Fed once his initial appointment is concluded, or replaced by another nominee. Powell’s term as chair ends in May 2026. Yet, Powell could remain on the board of governors until January 2028, even after he steps down as chair. That would deny, or at least delay, an opportunity for Trump to appoint an additional policymaker to the Fed’s board. As a result, one option for Trump is to appoint Powell’s eventual replacement as chair to replace Kugler once the remaining four months of her term are completed. Leading candidates for that position include Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor from 2006 to 2011 and frequent critic of Powell’s chairmanship, and Kevin Hassett, another top Trump economic adviser. Another option for the White House next May would be to select Waller, who is already on the board, to replace Powell, and who has been widely mentioned as a candidate. Marco Casiraghi, senior economist at investment bank Evercore ISI, noted that the choice of Miran could be a positive sign for Waller, because Trump did not take the opportunity to nominate someone likely to become chair once Powell steps down. After the July jobs report was released last Friday, Miran criticized the Fed chair for not cutting benchmark interest rates, saying that Trump had been proven correct on inflation during his first term and would be again. The president has pressured Powell to cut short-term interest rates under the belief that his tariffs will not fuel higher inflationary pressures. “What we’re seeing now in real time is a repetition once again of this pattern where the president will end up having been proven right,” Miran said on MSNBC. “And the Fed will, with a lag and probably quite too late, eventually catch up to the president’s view.” Last year, Miran expressed support for some unconventional economic views in commentaries on the Fed and international economics. Last November, he proposed measures that would reduce the value of the dollar in order to boost exports, reduce imports and cut the U.S. trade deficit, a top priority for Trump. He also suggested tariffs could push U.S. trading partners, such as the European Union and Japan, to accept a cheaper dollar as part of a “Mar-a-Lago Accord,” an echo of the Plaza Accord reached in the 1980s that lowered the dollar’s value. As a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, Miran in March 2024 also proposed overhauling the Fed’s governance, including by making it easier for a president to fire members of its board of governors. “The Fed’s current governance has facilitated groupthink that has led to significant monetary-policy errors,” Miran wrote in a paper with Dan Katz, now a top official at the Treasury Department. Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year’s list. Read More

The position marks one of the largest known bitcoin allocations by a U.S. university endowment. Updated Aug 8, 2025, 9:12 p.m. Published Aug 8, 2025, 8:49 p.m. Harvard Management Company, which oversees the university’s $50 billion endowment, disclosed a $116 million position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in its latest quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The stake, reported in a Form 13-F on Friday covering holdings as of June 30, 2025, represents one of the largest known bitcoin allocations by a U.S. university endowment. IBIT, launched in January of last year, is a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund that allows investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without directly holding it. The position places the university among a growing cohort of institutional investors — from hedge funds to pension systems — adding regulated bitcoin products to their portfolios. The disclosure comes as total assets across U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have climbed into the tens of billions of dollars, driven by both retail inflows and large-scale institutional allocations. For endowments, the ETF structure offers daily liquidity and SEC oversight, which can help meet governance and compliance requirements for alternative investments. Harvard didn’t provide further comment on the filing. Read more: U.S. Endowments Are Leaning Into Crypto: FT Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy. Aoyon Ashraf Aoyon Ashraf is CoinDesk’s Head of Americas. He spent almost a decade at Bloomberg covering equities, commodities and tech. Prior to that, he spent several years on the sellside, financing small-cap companies. Aoyon graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in mining engineering. He holds ETH and BTC, as well as ADA, SOL, ATOM and some other altcoins that are below CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000. X icon AI Boost “AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk’s AI Policy. More For You Swiss Bank Sygnum Launches Regulated SUI Custody and Trading for Institutions Sygnum is expanding regulated Sui blockchain access for institutional clients with custody and trading, and plans to add staking and collateral-backed loans later this year. What to know: Sygnum has partnered with the Sui Foundation to offer regulated institutional custody and trading for SUI. SUI staking will be added in the coming weeks, with collateral-backed Lombard loans planned for the fourth quarter. The partnership aims to tap growing demand from banks, asset managers and high-net-worth clients for regulated digital asset exposure. Read full story Read More

Sygnum and Amina banks have added SUI trading, custody and lending products for professional investors. Aug 8, 2025, 7:19 p.m. Sui’s (SUI) price rose 4% in the past 24 hours to $3.82 as Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum expanded its offerings to include custody, trading and lending products tied to the blockchain for its institutional clients. The move means regulated investors in Switzerland can now hold, trade and borrow against SUI through Sygnum’s platform, broadening access to the layer-1 blockchain’s ecosystem. The bank’s services are aimed at professional and institutional investors seeking exposure under Swiss financial regulations. Earlier this week, another Swiss institution, Amina Bank, said it had started offering both trading and custodial services for SUI. Amina described the step as making it the first regulated bank globally to support the blockchain’s native asset. The announcements appear to have spurred market activity. CoinDesk Analytics data shows trading volume spiked to 36.45 million tokens over midnight, more than double the 14.31 million daily average, as buyers stepped in to defend a support zone between $3.72 and $3.74. That level has held since mid-July, suggesting short-term traders see it as a key price floor. SUI’s daily gains track closely with the broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index , which climbed 4.5% in the past day. The token’s monthly performance is also positive, up 7% over the past 30 days, but significantly lower than the broader market, with the CD20 up 24%. For institutional clients, the expansion of regulated access to newer blockchain projects like Sui represents more than just another trading option. It signals growing comfort among banks with integrating blockchain networks beyond the largest, most established assets. In practice, this could mean asset managers, corporate treasuries and high-net-worth clients have more ways to diversify holdings without leaving regulated frameworks. Sui, developed by Mysten Labs, aims to offer high-speed, low-cost transactions using a novel data structure called “objects” to improve scalability. Wider access through banks like Sygnum and Amina could help it compete for developer attention and real-world applications. If demand for bank-mediated blockchain exposure continues to grow, Sui may find itself in a stronger position to attract not only speculative traders but also enterprise adoption. Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy. Helene Braun Helene is a New York-based markets reporter at CoinDesk, covering the latest news from Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and updates on crypto markets. She is a graduate of New York University’s business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH. X icon CD Analytics CoinDesk Analytics is CoinDesk’s AI-powered tool that, with the help of human reporters, generates market data analysis, price movement reports, and financial content focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain markets. All content produced by CoinDesk Analytics is undergoes human editing by CoinDesk’s editorial team before publication. The tool synthesizes market data and information from CoinDesk Data and other sources to create timely market reports, with all external sources clearly attributed within each article. CoinDesk Analytics operates under CoinDesk’s AI content guidelines, which prioritize accuracy, transparency, and editorial oversight. Learn more about CoinDesk’s approach to AI-generated content in our AI policy. More For You Ether to $4.4K? This Hidden Signal Suggests a Possible Quick Fire Rally The net gamma exposure of dealers in the Deribit-listed ether options market is negative between $4,000 and $4,400. What to know: The net gamma exposure of dealers in the Deribit-listed ether options market is negative between $4,000 and $4,400. The dynamic could create a self-reinforcing positive cycle, leading to a quick ascent to $4,400, one observer said. Read full story Read More