An Indian tribunal on Thursday suspended restrictions that would have barred WhatsApp from sharing user data with its parent company Meta, delivering a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire in its largest market by users.

The ruling by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal temporarily lifts a five-year ban imposed by India’s antitrust regulator, which had accused WhatsApp of abusing its market dominance through its 2021 privacy policy.

India is the largest market for Meta and WhatsApp. More than 700 million users in India use WhatsApp each month, according to insights from Sensor Tower.

In November, the Competition Commission of India determined that WhatsApp’s “take-it-or-leave-it” privacy update constituted an abuse of Meta’s dominant position by forcing users to accept expanded data collection without an opt-out option.

At the time, the watchdog found Meta was dominant in two key markets in India: a so-called “over-the-top” messaging apps through smartphones, and online display advertising.

While staying the ban on Thursday, the tribunal ordered Meta to deposit about $12.35 million — half of a larger penalty — within two weeks. The court will next hear the case on March 17.

The tribunal, led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, expressed concern that the five-year ban could threaten WhatsApp’s business model, which provides the messaging service free to users.

Meta’s lawyers argued that India’s forthcoming digital privacy law, expected to go into effect later this year, should govern such matters rather than competition rules.

“We welcome the NCLAT’s decision to grant a partial stay on the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) order. While we will evaluate next steps, our focus remains on finding a path forward that supports millions of businesses that depend on our platform for growth and innovation as well as providing high-quality experiences that people expect from WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

The dispute began when WhatsApp required users to accept expanded data sharing with Meta’s platforms or risk losing access to the messaging service. While European users can opt out of such sharing, Indian users cannot — a distinction that regulators found problematic.

The Azuki-backed ANIME token will be airdropped to Binance users prior to its official listing and debut on Jan. 23, 2025 at 14:00 UTC.

The Animecoin community token ANIME will be making its debut on Jan. 23 in a number of major exchanges, including Binance. The token named after the Japanese pop culture phenomenon will be airdropped to BNB (BNB) holders subscribed to the BNB Simple Earn products from Jan. 17 until Jan. 20.

ANIME will be officially listed on Binance starting from Jan. 23 at 14:00 UTC. Trading pair support will available for ANIME alongside USDT, USDC, BNB, FDUSD, and TRY. However, due to its status as a freshly launched token, Binance will be adding the seed tag to ANIME.

For the HODLer Airdrop, Binance will be giving away 500 million ANIME tokens, which is around 5% of the maximum token supply. Animecoin will launch on Ethereum (ETH) and Arbitrum (ARB) with 50.5% of tokens being allocated to the community and more than 20% going to the team, advisors and company.

Aside from Binance, Animecoin is also set to list simultaneously on Bybit and OKX on Jan. 23.

What is ANIME on crypto?

ANIME or Animecoin is the native token of the Animecoin Foundation, the community backed by the Arbitrum Foundation and popular NFT brand Azuki. Dubbed the “culture coin of the anime industry,” the Animecoin ecosystem seeks to combine original IP works, mainstream distribution, and on-chain infrastructure that will grant the anime fandom power to further expand itself.

“The Animecoin ecosystem will provide a collaborative environment to democratize content creation. The Azuki IP will be the first of many native anime IPs providing the cultural energy that drives engagement across the blockchain-powered anime network,” wrote the community in a recent X post.

Additionally, Anime.com is set to be the first platform available on the Animecoin ecosystem.

The ANIME token will be used as a gas and governance token for Animechain, its anime-based web3 network set to go live in the first quarter of 2025. The project will bring in various anime-related content from original and third-party IPs, including games, merchandise, and NFTs.

The Animecoin foundation has prepared a total token supply of 10 billion ANIME tokens and an initial circulating supply of 7.69 billion ANIME.

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free

Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world

Elon Musk has privately downplayed the chances of making a donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, telling an associate it will not be easy to give money to the British party after he joined the US government.

The associate said Musk told them earlier this month that Donald Trump’s inauguration would complicate his ability to donate to Reform because of the tech billionaire’s role running a waste-cutting unit in the new administration.

Though Musk met Farage in December at Mar-a-Lago, the pair did not meet again when the Reform leader travelled to Washington, DC, for Trump’s inauguration, said two people familiar with the matter.

Musk has dramatically intervened in UK politics in recent months, proclaiming Reform as the country’s “only hope” and frequently criticising Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Last month, Farage said the X owner and Tesla boss was giving “serious thought” to a donation to Reform. The UK’s lax rules on political donations allow foreign-owned entities — such as Musk’s X subsidiary in the UK — to give unlimited amounts to British parties.

But the pair have since clashed over Musk’s support for the far-right agitator and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson, who is in prison for contempt of court in relation to Robinson’s libel of a Syrian refugee.

Earlier this month Musk called for Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform, posting on X that the veteran politician did not “have what it takes”, and suggesting alternatives, including Rupert Lowe, another Reform MP.

Farage has cultivated ties with Trump, appearing at his rallies in the past. Though he was not invited to the Capitol Rotunda for Monday’s ceremony, he did attend several parties around the event, including an official post-inauguration ball.

Musk did not attend an inauguration party hosted by Brexit-backing businessmen Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore — allies of Farage — in Washington on Friday, sending a close associate instead.

Musk has been tasked by Trump with leading the cost-cutting “Department for Government Efficiency”, or DOGE, which will sit inside an existing federal agency.

There is no US law preventing Musk from contributing financially to Reform, and he still may decide to make a donation. However, a financial gift by a senior figure within the Trump administration to a British opposition party would potentially generate diplomatic tensions between the US and UK, which are close allies.

Speculation that Musk could make a donation of up to $100mn following a media report in November has given the UK rightwing party momentum as it rises in the polls and attracts some low-level defections from the Conservatives, the UK’s largest rightwing party and official opposition. 

A spokesperson for Reform confirmed that Musk had not made a donation to date, and said: “We have a good relationship with Elon Musk and will continue to do so.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Those gains leveled out some by mid-afternoon US Central Time. Worldcoin’s WLD tokens were the tallest green candle for the day on Wednesday, with a 12% daily surge.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE (8.6% gains) and Raydium’s RAY (8% gains) were the second and third most bullish tokens for the day. A few places down on the leaderboard was Fartcoin. Traders probably don’t want their Hyperliquid anywhere near that.

So why was the Worldcoin price pumping on Wednesday?

Why Did Worldcoin Price Pump on Wednesday?

President Donald Trump announced in a press conference on Tuesday that he wants the government to make a $500 billion grant in an AI project led by OpenAI.

Of course, OpenAI is doing more than large language models with ChatGPT. In fact, its Worldcoin project may be more ambitious. OpenAI founder Sam Altman plans to dominate biometrics with cryptographically secured iris scans. The project pays participants in WLD tokens.

On Tuesday, Trump announced he wants the government to invest $500 billion in a new OpenAI project called Stargate, so the artificial intelligence sector can go on a hiring spree.

That statement probably had something to do with this cryptocurrency’s big moves on Tuesday and Wednesday. But investors should be wary about a thing or two related to this trade.

DOGE-Loving Musk Opposes Gov Grant

To begin with, Stargate and Worldcoin are not exactly the same thing, and they are only loosely related through OpenAI. So, an investment in Worldcoin at this time may be more based on the recent news cycle than long-term market leverage.

Moreover, Elon Musk, the key influence in the new White House other than the president himself, opposes the newly announced plans to invest $500 billion in a project led by OpenAI. So, these plans may not come to fruition.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk wrote in a post on X. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.” A grant from the White House of that size to a single private company would certainly be questionable on the grounds of government efficiency.

Worldcoin isn’t the only splash the White House has made in cryptocurrency this week. Dogecoin’s price erupted 15% within minutes Tuesday after the website for the Department of Government Efficiency went live. Meanwhile, analysts are rife with bullish Dogecoin predictions.

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc’s Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

Crypto trading and lending platform Nexo is set to introduce a $5,000 minimum limit to use its services as the firm evolves into a digital assets wealth manager targeting the mass affluent market.

The move, which comes into effect in February, is part of the firm’s 2025 growth strategy and recent rebranding, according to a press release on Tuesday.

“Guided by principles rooted in traditional finance and the personalized excellence of private white-glove services, we are committed to delivering sustainable wealth solutions for generations to come,” Nexo co-founder Kosta Kantchev said in a statement.

Nexo is one of the few crypto borrow and lend platforms to have survived the bear market of 2022-23, and collapse of many centralized crypto finance firms at that time. Looking ahead, Nexo won an initial approval to operate as a licensed entity in Dubai in March of last year.

Nexo has over $11 billion in assets under management, has issued $8 billion in crypto credit, and paid out over $1 billion in interest, the company said.

[Update: date in story changed to February]

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Electric vehicles myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Brussels has promised to help Europe’s embattled car industry potentially by using pan-EU subsidies to boost demand for electric vehicles.

Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president of the European Commission, told the Financial Times at the World Economic Forum in Davos that officials were still “shaping” options for an incentive programme.

“It makes sense to see how we could figure out in a pan-European perspective, how to facilitate the measures instead of going through national subsidies,” Ribera said. She warned against a “race where we could be confronting one national model versus another one”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday divulged that the commission was considering an EU subsidy programme that he had proposed. The German government scrapped its own scheme abruptly in 2023, leading to a plunge in EV sales.

Many EU member states offer incentives for EVs, but the terms vary widely and several member states offer no purchase subsidies at all, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

One challenge for Brussels would be designing a scheme that would conform with WTO rules while avoiding the subsidies flowing to Chinese carmakers, whose share of the market is fast growing.

Ribera admitted there was a “complicated balance” to be struck between rapid electrification and “a mismatch with the capacity of the European brands to provide in terms of quantity and quality what we would like to see moving on our roads”.

The commissioner, who is responsible for the EU’s “green industry” strategy, said a possible incentive scheme would be one of several measures to support a sector deemed vital for Europe’s economy. Europe’s carmakers “needed a comprehensive view on how to update their capacities and to catch up in what is already being demanded worldwide,” Ribera said. By contrast, US President Donald Trump vowed this week to end “unfair subsidies” for EVs.

Ribera, a socialist and former deputy prime minister of Spain, ruled out delaying the 2035 deadline for ending new sales of internal combustion engines because the car industry wanted “predictability and clarity”.

“It doesn’t make sense to open again the discussion when that provides some certainty and would punish the first movers that took it seriously without any potential advantages to those that still need to move,” she said.

But she said she was open to flexibility on the annual EV sales targets and the fines carmakers face for missing them. Ribera said there was an “open conversation” with carmakers about alternative commitments they could make in terms of investment.

Carmakers have complained that paying fines will only hamper their EV investment plans while buying credits from Chinese EV makers helps Chinese competitors.

Ribera said it was important to “ensure that this legislation is being applied in such a way that facilitates what is the main goal” of phasing out petrol and diesel engines.

She also said she was open to extending technology transfer requirements for foreign carmakers who wish to establish manufacturing facilities inside the EU. Brussels said last year it would require foreign companies that received EU grants for battery development to share some technology with local partners.

There is a “good lesson to be drawn” from China, which set strict joint venture and tech-sharing requirements when European carmakers set up factories there 30 years ago.

Beyond the car sector, Ribera said she was willing to broaden the available measures the commission could take to benefit European industry.

Ribera said she would look at local content requirements to shield European turbine manufacturers which are facing fierce competition from Chinese companies.

Shares in European wind turbine makers took a battering from Trump’s first policy announcements, including suspending new offshore project leasing.

Ribera insisted the EU would stay the course on decarbonisation, despite Trump’s move to abandon the 2015 Paris agreement on emissions reductions, of which she was one of the architects.

The devastating fires in Los Angeles showed that the US was already suffering the effects of climate change at great cost, she said.

“The world is much larger [than the US] and there are many other partners and players that do understand why it is important to remain united,” she said.