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AI News

Microsoft Russia has announced that it plans to file for bankruptcy

Microsoft Russia has announced that it plans to file for bankruptcy

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Microsoft Russia has announced that it plans to file for bankruptcy. It joins a list of other Western technology companies pulling out of the Russian market.

Geopolitical tensions are again affecting the technology industry as Microsoft is joining a list of other Western companies such as Google that are closing their Russian subsidiaries.

Microsoft Corp.’s Russian subsidiary, Microsoft Rus LLC, has announced that it will declare bankruptcy. The announcement was made through a notice published on the official Russian registry Fedresurs on Friday, May 30.

This decision seems like it was brought on by the ongoing pullback of Western technology companies from the Russian market, considering the escalating political tensions and economic isolation stemming from the war in Ukraine.

Microsoft’s Russia unit is on the brink

While Microsoft has not issued an official statement in response to inquiries, the notice signifies an end to the company’s already scaled-down presence in Russia. Over the last two years, the company has significantly reduced its presence in the country.

The notice came just days after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, publicly criticized and suggested that foreign digital service providers like Microsoft and Zoom should be “throttled” in favor of domestically developed alternatives.

Microsoft was one of several Western technology giants that responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 by curtailing services and operations in the country. Initially, the company continued to provide essential services such as security updates and cloud support, but by June 2022, the company announced a substantial downsizing of its Russian operations due to the deteriorating economic environment and geopolitical instability.

After the announcement, the company removed the RT (formerly Russia Today) app from the Windows App Store and banned advertisements from Russian state-affiliated media.

The Fedresurs registry entry states that Microsoft Rus LLC is now proceeding with legal steps to enter bankruptcy, which would potentially dissolve its presence as a formal business entity in Russia. This is the pattern that other foreign companies exiting Russia have followed.

Russia’s TASS news agency noted that Microsoft operates three other affiliated entities in the country, namely: Microsoft Development Center Rus, Microsoft Mobile Rus, and Microsoft Payments Rus.

At this time, the status of these units remains unclear. Whether they will also initiate bankruptcy proceedings or attempt to continue operating under restricted conditions is yet to be seen.

Other companies exiting Russia

Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin emphasized the need to wean Russia off Western digital tools, specifically naming Microsoft and Zoom.

While Russia’s “technological sovereignty” policy is not new, the pressure to use regulation to suppress foreign firms to prop up Russian-developed alternatives has grown since the war in Ukraine began.

In 2022, Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy after authorities froze its bank accounts, making it impossible for the company to pay local employees or fulfill obligations to suppliers.

Some foreign software continues to be used in Russia as of now and are often circulated through gray market channels or rebranded alternatives, but official policy increasingly favors domestic innovation, even at the cost of performance, reliability, or global integration.

Microsoft’s exit might accelerate Russia’s domestic innovation ambitions as sectors that relied on the company’s productivity tools, cloud services, and cybersecurity infrastructure will now be left empty handed.

Industry observers have noted that replicating the sophistication and integration of Microsoft’s ecosystem will be a significant challenge for Russian developers, at least in the short term.

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Microsoft reveals its main focus of increasing Copilot adoption

Microsoft reveals its main focus of increasing Copilot adoption

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Microsoft has made significant progress with its Copilot AI assistants, securing a major deal with Barclays.

Judson Althoff, a Chief commercial officer of Microsoft, told workers that the British Universal bank signed on to buy 100,000 licenses of Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant, marking a significant deal.

At the standard list price of $30 per user per month, this deal could generate approximately $36 million in annual revenue for the tech firm, though large clients typically receive bulk discounts.

Microsoft has embedded Copilot, its flagship AI offering, across its products. During the firm’s third-quarter earnings call on April 30, CEO Satya Nadella listed an array of Copilot-infused applications and strong adoptions.

According to Nadella, the tech firm is previewing a first-of-its-kind software engineering agent capable of asynchronously handling developer tasks. He noted that GitHub Copilot now has over 15 million users, a more than fourfold increase year-over-year, with adoption by both digital-native firms like Twilio and large enterprises including Cisco, HPE, Skyscanner, and Target, all leveraging the tool to embed AI across the entire software development lifecycle.

Microsoft reveals its main focus of increasing Copilot adoption

The people who wished to remain anonymous as the deal was privately revealed that Althoff said several dozen clients — such as Accenture Plc, Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG, and Siemens AG — now have more than 100,000 Copilot users.

Microsoft is concentrating on getting Copilot adopted and is closely monitoring how much of the customer workforce is using the tools, Satya Narayana Nadella, a chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft, said during a company-wide town hall event.

Following its close partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and as such, it is inserting Copilot into its suite of productivity apps. The world’s largest software maker is seen as a leader in commercializing AI products.

Microsoft said in January that its AI suite, which includes cloud infrastructure and AI applications, was on track to achieve at least $13 billion in annual revenue.

Despite all these progresses, Wall Street is still eager to see proof that the multibillion-dollar bet is working.

Corporate clients describe Copilot as a measured rollout and a series of trials

Many anecdotes have emerged on corporate customers adopting Copilot, but Microsoft has not shared a total customer count or the financial impact of those sales. 

Other corporate clients have said the tools need a lot of internal tweaks and employee training. Moreover, many say their use of Copilot is best described not as a race to equip all of their employees with the expensive software as quickly as possible but as a measured rollout plus a series of trials.

Weeks after disclosing plans to lay off 6,000 workers — nearly 3% of the workforce — Microsoft also has reason to rally the troops. In the meeting, Nadella addressed the cuts and explained that they were driven by organizational changes rather than employee performance.

The layoffs were concentrated on the people who build the company’s products, suggesting that even engineering jobs are not immune to the age of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft declined to comment on the matter. Representatives from Barclays, Accenture, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Siemens also did not provide a statement.

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Nvidia sees $44.06 billion revenue in Q1 2025, up 72% as stock futures surge in reaction

Nvidia sees $44.06 billion revenue in Q1 2025, up 72% as stock futures surge in reaction

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Nvidia reported a blowout first quarter on Wednesday, pulling in $44.06 billion in revenue—72% more than it made in the same period last year—according to data reported by LSEG. 

The number landed well above expectations and immediately pushed Nvidia’s stock up around 6% in after-hours trading. The company also beat on earnings, posting 96 cents per share, adjusted, compared to the 93 cents analysts expected.

Despite new restrictions from Washington that blocked shipments of its H20 AI chips to China, Nvidia still delivered one of its strongest quarters ever. The company had been set to make nearly $8 billion more in revenue if not for the policy change. 

During the quarter, the US government informed the company that the H20 chip, which had previously been cleared, would now require an export license. That decision forced Nvidia to take a $4.5 billion hit from excess inventory and wiped out $2.5 billion in potential sales.

China ban slams revenue, Jensen Huang says AI market is closed to US

Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang told investors during the earnings call that the new export controls effectively blocked US companies from competing in China’s massive AI chip market. “The H20 export ban ended our Hopper data center business in China,” Jensen said. 

He added that the $50 billion AI chip opportunity in China is now “effectively closed to US industry.” The company’s gross margin came in at 61%, but would have been 71.3% if not for the China-related losses.

Still, Nvidia’s net income for the quarter climbed 26% to $18.8 billion, or 76 cents per share, compared to $14.9 billion or 60 cents per share a year ago. Revenue jumped from $26 billion a year earlier, driven largely by the company’s data center unit. That division, which includes the hardware powering AI tools like ChatGPT, rose 73% to $39.1 billion, accounting for 88% of total revenue.

Nvidia said that almost half of the data center business came from large cloud providers. Sales of networking products, which connect thousands of GPUs for AI training, hit $5 billion. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress told investors that Microsoft has “deployed tens of thousands of Blackwell GPUs and is expected to ramp to hundreds of thousands” of the company’s GB200 chips, mainly due to its work with OpenAI.

Gaming, auto, and visualization units post solid gains

The gaming division, once the company’s main business, pulled in $3.8 billion, a 42% increase from the previous year. Nvidia still builds the processor for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, but many of these chips now double for AI purposes too. 

The automotive and robotics unit brought in $567 million, up 72%, boosted by more demand for chips and software used in self-driving technology.

The professional visualization segment, including hardware like the DGX Spark and DGX Station, posted $509 million in revenue, up 19% from last year. These machines are used for AI and 3D design workloads.

The company also returned cash to shareholders in a big way. It spent $14.1 billion on share repurchases and issued $244 million in dividends during the quarter. Despite facing regulatory setbacks and a China chokehold, Nvidia is less than 5% off its record high from January and is currently sitting at its highest level in four months.

Outside of the company’s report, financial markets got another jolt late Wednesday when the US Court of International Trade ruled against President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. The court said Trump had overreached and ordered the tariffs to be vacated.

S&P 500 futures rose 1.6%, Nasdaq 100 futures added 2%, and the Dow Jones futures climbed 511 points, or 1.2%. This came after a sluggish session where the S&P 500 fell 0.6%, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5%, and the Dow lost 245 points. But by the end of the week, things looked different.

Major indexes are now on pace to end both the week and the month higher. The S&P 500 is up 1.5%, the Dow rose 1.2%, and the Nasdaq gained 2%. The tech sector alone has surged over 10% in May, driven by the AI wave and announcements from companies like Alphabet.

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Vietnam Giant FPT aims to battle regional rivals in AI sector

Vietnam Giant FPT aims to battle regional rivals in AI sector

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FPT Corp., Vietnam’s largest listed technology company, has enabled the government to create a technology sector that can compete with its regional rivals.

To achieve this success, it has collaborated with Nvidia Corp. to create an AI data center in Vietnam and Japan, extending into semiconductor chip design.

The tech company is Vietnam’s seventh-largest publicly traded company, boasting a market value of $6.8 billion. The company employs over 80,000 people and operates in 30 different countries. 

Internationally, FPT counts 130 Fortune Global 500 companies, like Airbus SE, Halliburton Co., and Ford Motor Co., as clients. It has moved the nation beyond building Nike Inc. shoes and Apple Inc. devices, marking a significant milestone in the country.

Binh moves Vietnam from a low-cost economic center to a giant tech center

Truong Gia Binh established FPT, a technology company, four decades ago with a single computer in a room. The computer was borrowed from his then-father-in-law, General Vo Nguyen Giap, who won the admiration of generations of Vietnamese for leading the Vietnam People’s Army to victory over the French and US armies.

Binh’s life follows the story of the victorious North Vietnamese forces. In 1954, his family moved to Hanoi with revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh to support the fight for independence, according to the FPT chairman. They were very poor, so Binh wore clothes passed down from his sisters and witnessed US bombers dropping explosives on the city. 

Binh, now 69 and has met Ho Chi Minh twice, revealed that a shortage of almost everything marked his childhood.

Despite his challenges, he wanted to create a top-tier technology sector in Vietnam. The tech giant has been Vietnam’s way to move beyond being a low-cost economic center, explained Lam Nguyen, managing director of IDC Indochina. 

The Communist government views FPT as a model for helping the country shift from its traditional manufacturing roots to industries focused on areas like AI products, which Bain & Co. predicts could be worth $990 billion globally by 2027. 

During an interview, Binh stated that they were working day and night to take the company to greater heights. He speculates that the company can achieve an annual revenue growth rate of about 20% in the long run. Binh owns almost 7% of FPT Corp., with the government owning 5.71%.

FPT faces significant obstacles in its run to become the leading tech company 

FPT is preparing for global economic turbulence and can fine-tune its business plan for the tough 20% revenue increase this year on risks. DNSE Securities said this in a statement on its website, citing FPT Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Van Khoa at the company’s April shareholders’ meeting. The brokerage said FPT is lowering costs by 30% without harming the core business, citing Khoa.

Still, significant obstacles lie ahead for FPT as it tries to compete with more established tech firms from India and Malaysia. The tech giant also needs to deal with a new wave of tariffs set by President Donald Trump. 

Although FPT is not directly affected by new US tariffs, the company noted that it might face indirect impacts because many of its global customers are influenced by these tariffs.

It may also have to face the country’s ever-attentive police. When pressed on reports about the Ministry of Public Security, which has been strengthening internet regulations in recent years, wanting to hold a majority stake in the company’s internet unit, FPT Telecom, said it has “no further details about it.” 

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Japan's rice crisis deepens as market giants scoop best grain

Japan’s rice crisis deepens as market giants scoop best grain

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Japan’s rice supply debacle continues as the government is now seeking to lower the price of its stockpiled grain, and focus on discretionary contracts for smaller buyers. However, recent comments from agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi have drawn criticism regarding prices, preferential selling, and direct state intervention in the market. 

With state-imposed production limits for farmers, a devastated yen and rampant inflation, Japan’s rice market is still in the throes of what local media is calling the “Reiwa Rice Strife.” On Monday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ended the previous bidding system for selling stockpiled state rice, and introduced “discretionary contracts.”

Stockpiled rice has been released by the state in recent times in order to combat shortage and skyrocketing prices, with the price of the staple grain doubling in only a year for consumers.

Koizumi to release older rice to small businesses, rural areas

Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said at a House of Representatives committee meeting Wednesday: “We want to continue making efforts to distribute stockpiled rice as widely as possible in the region,” intending to focus on smaller businesses after ending sales to large buyers on Tuesday.

Terraced rice fields in Japan. Photo: DeltaWorks.

Of the 300,000 tons up for sale via the new discretionary contracts scheme, much of the newer grain (from 2022) was quickly gobbled up instantly by giant corporations such as AEON and Pan Pacific International Holdings (PPIH).

One local supermarket manager, Tatsuhito Tanaka, was quoted by regional media about the scheme, saying: “I really hope they’ll share the rice with us so that it’s not just the big companies.”

As per regional reports, the remaining 100,000 tons of older (2021) stockpiled rice is set to be contracted out to smaller enterprises over the next few months. The focus will onstensibly be on supporting rural areas.

Farmers say the government is the real reason for the shortage

As Cryptopolitan reported previously, there is much debate over why a shortage of Japan’s prize grain even occurred in the first place. Mass media has been blaming the weather and myriad other factors, but full-time Japanese farmers are directly blaming the government and special interests for subsidizing limits on acreage, engaging in backroom deals, and essentially rigging prices and contracts. As nippon.com reported last year:

“Currently, 40% of paddy fields are not in use, meaning that production is limited to around 6.5 million tons. If Japan stopped this policy of reduced production, and instead exported 4 million tons, it could handle the kind of situation seen this year through a small decrease in the amount exported and no domestic shortages.”

JPY to USD historical data. Source: Trading Economics.

Koizumi’s stance has drawn fire from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, with party member Kaori Ishikawa noting Wednesday that it is not the state’s place to be involved in rice prices. Koizumi responded that this was only an “emergency measure.” State intervention thus far has not lowered the still-rising prices.

From the stance of many, corporate giants are getting preferential treatment, with local supermarkets left to crunch on the remaining, oldest grain almost as an afterthought. Much like the small-scale farmers unable to produce due to Japan Agriculture Cooperatives’ powerful connections to Tokyo subsidies and restrictions.

At the time of writing, the USD is flexing against JPY again, with an exchange rate of 145.81 JPY/1 USD.

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Federal court weighs first legal challenge to Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Federal court weighs first legal challenge to Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs

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A federal court has invalidated the sweeping global tariffs imposed by President Donald J. Trump. According to the Court of International Trade ruling, an emergency law invoked by the White House does not provide unilateral authority to impose tariffs on nearly every country.

The ruling offers a major check on executive power and could have long-lasting implications for the US trade policy.

The Manhattan-based court said the US Constitution grants Congress exclusive powers to regulate commerce with other nations. This is not superseded by the president’s remit to safeguard the economy.

The lawsuit, filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the duties, was the first major legal challenge to Trump’s tariffs.

According to the firms, the tariffs will hurt their business.

Federal court weighs first legal challenge to Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs

The lawsuit is one of seven court challenges to Trump’s tariff policies, along with challenges from 13 U.S. states and other groups of small businesses.

The hearing at the Court of International Trade in Manhattan marks the first time a federal court has addressed the legality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Earlier this month, Jeffrey Schwab, a lawyer from the conservative Liberty Justice Center representing the plaintiffs, argued that the case is straightforward. He stated that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — a 1977 law granting the president authority to regulate commerce during national emergencies — does not empower Trump to impose tariffs unilaterally.

Schwab further contended that Trump’s declared emergency, based on trade deficits, fails to meet the legal criteria of an emergency, which must be brief, rare, and not ongoing. He then noted that the case is so far outside what constitutes an emergency or an unusual and extraordinary threat that this Court can easily rule it is not an emergency.

When the three-judge panel — appointed by Presidents Obama, Trump, and Reagan — asked for guidance on the legal standards to apply in their decision earlier this month, Schwab urged them not to overcomplicate matters. 

“I’m asking this court to be an umpire and call a strike. You’re asking me, where’s the strike zone? Is it at the knees or just below? I say it’s a wild pitch, far off the plate, hitting the backstop — no debate needed.”

The lawsuit was filed in April by a group of small businesses — including a New York liquor distributor, a Utah pipe company, a Virginia electronics store, a Pennsylvania tackle shop, and a Vermont cycling company. These businesses rely heavily on imports from countries such as China and Mexico and argued that Trump’s tariffs represent an unprecedented power grab that would cause irreparable harm.

They maintained that the IEEPA does not grant the president the authority to impose tariffs like those announced, which included a broad tariff rate plus higher rates on certain countries. They described the national emergency Trump cited as “a figment of his own imagination,” pointing out that the US has run massive trade deficits for years without suffering economic damage.

“If such power were granted by statute, it would represent an unlawful delegation of legislative authority to the executive branch without any clear limit on discretion,” the plaintiffs argued.

At the beginning of May, Department of Justice lawyers countered, asserting that Congress does allow the president to impose some tariffs and that Trump’s invocation of a national emergency expands that authority, justifying the broad tariffs. They warned that a court order blocking the tariffs would unlawfully interfere with the president’s constitutional and statutory authority.

“Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction would be an enormous intrusion on the President’s conduct of foreign affairs and efforts to protect national security under IEEPA and the Constitution,” the DOJ stated.

States and businesses take Trump’s tariffs to court in landmark trade dispute

At least six separate lawsuits have challenged Trump’s tariffs, including one filed by California and a coalition of twelve state attorneys general. While many were initially filed in district courts they were gradually transferred to the Court of International Trade.

In April, the court rejected an emergency request for a temporary order to block the tariffs, finding that the businesses failed to prove that “immediate and irreparable harm” would stem from the tariffs.

A three-judge panel conducted the hearing: Gary S. Katzmann, Timothy M. Reif, and Jane A. Restani — appointed by Presidents Obama, Trump, and Reagan, respectively.

Located in a corner of New York’s Foley Square, the Court of International Trade has nationwide jurisdiction over trade disputes. It typically handles niche issues, such as honey customs and mattress imports. Tuesday’s oral argument promises to be the court’s most high-profile hearing in recent memory.

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OpenAI marks a significant milestone with the “Sign in with ChatGPT” service

OpenAI marks a significant milestone with the “Sign in with ChatGPT” service

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OpenAI is looking into ways for users to sign into third-party apps using their ChatGPT accounts. The company is currently testing the waters to see if developers are interested in integrating this service into their apps.

The tech firm preferred ChatGPT to provide this service since it is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s largest consumer applications, with around 600 million monthly active users.

Therefore, with ChatGPT, the company appears keen to try and expand into other consumer areas – such as online shopping, social media, and personal devices.

Another benefit of the “Sign in with ChatGPT” service could help OpenAI compete with other giant consumer technology companies such as Apple, Google, or Microsoft. These companies integrate themselves into people’s lives with all sorts of online services, among them a convenient way to sign in to third-party apps quickly.

OpenAI marks a significant milestone with the “Sign in with ChatGPT” service 

OpenAI previewed “Sign in with ChatGPT” earlier this month for developers in Codex CCLI, OpenAI’s open-source AI coding tool in the terminal. The capability enables developers to attach their ChatGPT Free, Plus, or Pro accounts to their API accounts. The company offered Plus users who signed into ChatGPT $5 in API credits and Pro users $50 in API credits to convince them to try the new service.

OpenAI is planning to link its sign-in system with a range of companies. The tech firm has also offered developer interest forms to developers wanting to try this service in their apps.

The form asked businesses to declare their app’s user base. It listed possible ranges, from small companies with fewer than 1,000 weekly users to large apps with over 100 million weekly users. The form also inquires how developers currently charge for AI features and whether they use the OpenAI API.

In the meantime, in 2023, CEO Sam Altman stated that the company might be able to offer a “sign in with OpenAI” option by 2024. Now, it appears that OpenAI is working on this feature and wants to release it in 2025.

However, it is unclear when the sign-in feature will become available to those ChatGPT users and how many companies have signed up. The request for comment sent to OpenAI was not immediately returned.

OpenAI revealed a new ChatGPT search feature for online shopping services

OpenAI shared significant changes to ChatGPT search, which would improve the web search experience in ChatGPT, enabling more capabilities, such as online shopping, for users on April 28.

According to the latest updates, ChatGPT provides a range of choices to users when they search for products, displays images and reviews of these products, and links to the sites where users can buy the products.

In addition, the company noted that users could ask specific questions using everyday language and receive fast and reliable results. This was after OpenAI tested the feature first in categories including fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics.

To ensure the new features start operating effectively, the firm introduced this update in GPT-4o, the standard AI model for ChatGPT, for ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Free users, as well as for users who are not logged in worldwide. 

This ChatGPT search update is part of OpenAI’s strategy to compete with Google by offering a more personalized way to find products and information online. Notably, online shopping is a key area for Google, but the advertising market for priority placements in Google Search has also affected the quality of its service over the years. 

OpenAI reported that its search feature was growing quickly. Last month, users conducted over a billion web searches using ChatGPT, according to information from reliable sources.

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Justin Sun praises Trump for continued focus on cryptocurrency

Justin Sun praises Trump for continued focus on cryptocurrency

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Tron Founder Justin Sun hails Trump for ‘commitment’ to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. At the ongoing Bitcoin 2025 Conference, Sun expressed his admiration for President Donald Trump’s outspoken dedication to digital assets and blockchain. 

Sun said during a panel discussion that the game has certainly changed for digital assets in the US thanks to the influence of President Donald Trump.

The conference, which is held in Las Vegas, has drawn major players in the crypto industry to the city, including lawmakers, entrepreneurs, and developers. Sun’s remarks were noteworthy in that he linked recent Bitcoin price spikes to policies backed by Trump and to expressions of public support.

While speaking on a panel, Justin Sun claimed that Bitcoin would have never reached an all-new high of $100,000 without Trump. Bitcoin reached $100,000 in December 2024, a month after Trump’s election victory. The rally has continued, and the coin was trading recently above $109,000.

Sun also mentioned being at a high-profile “crypto dinner” hosted by Trump a couple of days ago. He is the top holder of the TRUMP meme coin. In addition to his shares, Sun has also pumped $75 million into World Liberty Financial (WLFI), an entity allegedly very close to Trump’s digital asset plans.

Trump buys Bitcoin as US creates satellites to store BTC in space

In March 2025, President Trump passed an executive order for the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a move solely intended to hedge Bitcoin as part of the US treasury. The reserve is financed directly by Bitcoin seized in criminal and civil investigations — not taxpayer funds.

The hope is to treat Bitcoin like gold, a strategic store of value that the government holds long-term. Trump’s directive also established a new US Digital Asset Stockpile to oversee other cryptocurrencies.

An executive order was also to review the government’s digital asset holdings. And though Senator Cynthia Lummis reported that the government owns something like 200,000 BTC, the entire report has yet to be released after a security review by the White House.

The crypto-friendly wave on Capitol Hill keeps rolling. According to long-time Bitcoin advocate Senator Cynthia Lummis, the US Senate will consider the BITCOIN Act next week. The bill is intended to codify the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and permit the federal government to purchase as many as 1 million BTC over five years.

The bill encourages broader acceptance of Bitcoin throughout federal infrastructure and payment systems. This aligns with Trump’s general crypto stance: to relax crypto laws, court blockchain investment, and protect minors’ rights.

Lummis said it wasn’t just about Bitcoin and advancing America’s financial independence.

The Senate is also considering a Stablecoin Bill, a legislation that would be the country’s first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework. Some analysts say such common-sense leadership has the potential to bring long-awaited legal clarity and financial confidence to US crypto markets through the BITCOIN Act and the Stablecoin Bill.

The US Senate seems to be getting close to passing its landmark stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act — a battle its champion Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said has been incredibly hard-fought.

“It has been extremely difficult,” Lummis said during a fireside chat with Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “I had no idea how hard this was going to be.”

Trump drives US Bitcoin strategy forward

With Trump’s support and Congress already legislating, the US is quickly becoming the No. 1 place in the world for cryptocurrency innovation. Classic Chinese crypto players like Justin Sun are toasting the move — and doubling down on US crypto investments.

The market likes what it sees. Bitcoin is in the $109,000 range today, and Ethereum is rising. Big exchanges and mining operations are moving on American turf, citing stable policy and rising institutional interest.

One thing is apparent as the world looks on: under President Trump, Bitcoin will no longer be just a form of digital money — it will be the national strategy.

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Former Meta executive warns against artists’ demands for AI copyright laws

Former Meta executive warns against artists’ demands for AI copyright laws

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Former Meta executive Nick Clegg said forcing AI tech companies to ask for permission before using copyrighted content to train AI models would destroy the industry. He spoke during the Charleston Festival in East Sussex. He argued that AI is already capable of creating its art.

During a recent interview with The Times of London, Clegg, the former UK  Deputy Prime Minister, engaged in a heated debate over AI copyright laws. He commented when parliament members voted against proposals allowing copyright holders to see when their work had been used to train AI systems and by whom. 

Creatives urge the government to balance copyright laws 

Music legends like Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney have urged the UK government not to change copyright laws to favor big tech firms. The creatives warned that the proposal to change copyright protection laws risks destroying the livelihoods of more than 2.5 million people who work in the creative industry.

Clegg argued that the demands of artists and prominent creative figures to require tech firms to seek permission before using copyrighted materials to train AI models are unworkable and implausible. He continued to point out that AI systems have already used a significant portion of the data readily available online,

The former UK  Deputy Prime Minister suggested that people should have a straightforward way to opt out of using their content. He viewed the idea of AI companies having to seek permission as something that collides with the physics of the technology itself.  He added that the idea would kill the UK’s AI industry overnight if applied in the UK alone.  

Describing copyright as the lifeblood of their profession, the UK creative community wrote an open letter to Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the UK, warning that the proposed changes to copyright laws would threaten Britain’s status as the leading creative power.

The open letter said that the UK creative community would lose immense growth opportunities if it gave away its work to a small group of powerful tech companies. The letter reiterated the UK’s position as a creative powerhouse and the hopes that technology will embody the country’s values.

Dua Lipa among artists urging Starmer to rethink AI copyright laws

David Furnish, Coldplay, Tom Dixon, and John Pawson, among hundreds of others, represented the UK creative community as signatories to the open letter. The letter urged Starmer to support Baroness Beeban Kidron’s amendment to the Data Bill. The Data Bill would give the UK creative transparency over the copyright works used to train AI models.

According to the letter, transparency would allow creators and creative businesses to hold AI firms accountable for stealing creative works. The letter urged the government to accept the amendment and allow AI developers and creators to develop licensing regimes enabling human-created content. 

Elsewhere in the U.S., Hollywood recently wrote a letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in which more than 400 creatives, including director Guillermo del Toro and actor Cynthia Erivo, signed to urge the U.S. government to uphold existing copyright protections against AI. 

Many prominent creative figures in Hollywood signed the letter in response to Trump’s administration’s request for public comments on the White House’s AI Action Plan. The plan aimed to secure and advance the country’s position in the AI industry.

Silicon Valley tech companies and OpenAI wrote separate letters arguing that they should be able to train AI models using publicly available content under the fair use doctrine. The doctrine allows for the limited reproduction of material without permission from the copyright holder.

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Sui Network releases post-mortem on $260M Cetus hack

Sui Network releases post-mortem on $260M Cetus hack

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The Sui network has released a post-mortem report regarding the cause of the $260 million Cetus hack that shook up its ecosystem last week. 

According to the post-mortem report, the main reason for the Cetus incident was a problem in a math library used by Cetus, not a weakness in Sui or Move. 

Move is a programming language for creating smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, and Sui is a Layer-1 blockchain project.

However, based on the report, the effect on users is still the same. As a result, Sui Network revealed that they needed to adopt a more effective approach and improve their efforts to support the ecosystem’s security. 

Apart from this, the report also highlighted that the network was designed to allow for safer smart contract development, making the first significant incident for a dApp a “deeply sad” moment for the team. 

Sui team takes effective measures to strengthen the network’s security

Last week, the $223 million crypto hack hit the network’s largest decentralized exchange and liquidity provider, Cetus Protocol. Luckily, the network managed to freeze $162 million while Cetus put out a $6 million bounty to reclaim the other $60 million of stolen funds.

The Cetus team earlier stated that they were collaborating with the Sui Foundation and other groups in the ecosystem to recover the remaining funds. The Sui Foundation confirmed that many validators had identified the addresses linked to the stolen funds and were blocking transactions on those addresses until further notice. The Cetus team was looking for ways to recover those funds and return them to the community.

In addition, to enhance the network’s security, Sui has decided to invest an extra $10 million in security efforts. The network will use this money for audits, bug bounty programs, and formal verification. The team also aims to work with the developer community to finalize these security strategies. 

Concerning the incident, the team mentioned that it marks a coming-of-age experience, which, according to them, is something every major blockchain has unfortunately faced. They further supported their claim with the argument that no design or programming language can prevent humans from creating bugs. 

Therefore, the Sui team has urged community members to use this incident as a lesson to learn from it to strengthen vital code on the network and assist builders in taking the necessary steps to come back stronger. 

Following the CoinMarketCap report, SUI’s price currently trades at $3.49, reflecting a 3.07% decrease in the past 24 hours.

Growing cases of cybersecurity raise serious concerns in the crypto world

On May 22, the Cetus DEX experienced a hack that was thought to have happened due to a smart contract code issue, resulting in the loss of around $223 million in user funds. 

Based on the information from the Extractor Web3 security notification tool team, $63 million of the stolen money was moved to the Ethereum network. They also reported a wallet address ending in “AF16” that the hackers used to launder 20,000 Ether worth about $53 million. 

The recovery efforts and the freezing of assets, organized by various projects, platforms, and validators in the Sui ecosystem, received mixed reactions from the crypto community. 

Following this, one user commented that the action was good news for the victims. However, according to the user’s argument, if the 114 validators could freeze wallets whenever they wanted, it raised serious concerns about the network’s ability to resist censorship. The user then concluded that Sui was far from decentralized.

Notably, the Cetus hack is the latest incident affecting crypto and Web3 in the first half 2025. On top of that, cybersecurity still remains a big concern in the crypto world, with many leaders in the industry urging the sector to self-regulate and strengthen defenses to avoid more regulatory attention. 

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