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Tesla has announced that its redesigned Model Y SUV is coming to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in March, with a starting price just shy of $60,000.

The news comes just two weeks after Tesla first revealed the new-look Model Y and said it was coming to China and other Asian markets, also in March. Thursday’s announcement means the company is effectively launching the revamped SUV simultaneously around the globe — a departure from the multiple-month gap between the Asian and North American launch of the Model 3 sedan refresh in late 2023 and early 2024.

The redesigned Model Y is being launched at a crucial time for Tesla, which delivered fewer vehicles in 2024 than it did in 2023. Tesla has repeatedly warned investors that it is in between “two major growth waves” coming off the success of the Model Y, and promised that it will roll out mysterious new models meant to be built on existing production lines. Those models will likely be cheaper than Tesla’s current offerings (which start in the low $40,000 range), but it’s not clear by how much.

CEO Elon Musk has implied that those new models, plus the so-called Cybercab that was teased last October, will help bridge the company’s evolution from an automaker into a robotics and AI player.

But at the same time, Tesla’s vehicle lineup has been aging. Tesla has now refreshed each of its core vehicles — the Model S and 3 sedans, and the Model X and Y SUVs — but has only launched one truly new model in the last four years, the Cybertruck. While it became the best-selling electric truck in the U.S. in 2024, the Cybertruck did little to boost the company’s bottom line last year, and it does not seem to be the runaway hit Musk hoped for.

The new-look Model Y could offer some relief, though it is coming in at a higher price point than the existing versions. The starting price for the so-called “Launch Series” special edition, which is an all-wheel drive variant, is $59,990. That gets buyers a 320-mile range battery and it includes Tesla’s most advanced driver assistance software, which it calls “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” — typically an $8,000 option. The older Model Y currently starts at $44,990 for a 337-mile rear-wheel drive version.

The most noticeable changes to the new Model Y come on the exterior, where the bubbly front fascia has been ditched in favor of a more cinched nose with a thin light bar that stretches across the hood. The rear of the vehicle also now has a light strip that stretches the full width.

Inside the refreshed SUV, Tesla has added a configurable light strip that rims the cabin. There’s a new rear-passenger touchscreen, and some quality-of-life upgrades like powered rear seats and an improved suspension.

1Fuel’s pre-release is turning heads as Shiba Inu and Pepe look to storm ahead of Dogecoin.

It’s the aftermath of Trump’s presidential inauguration and meme coins are again in the spotlight, but not quite in the way many would expect. Market analysts foresee bullish runs for both Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE) amidst recent downturns. Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE) is facing intense rivalry as it grapples with maintaining control.

Away from this dynamic, 1Fuel (OFT), a new token, is forging a niche for itself. 1Fuel’s presale is gaining attention, with tokens selling for $0.017 and analysts predicting a 100x run.

SHIB and PEPE

SHIB saw a steady price rise between August and December 2024. However, since the start of 2025, the token has not been at the top of its game. In the last 14 days, SHIB has declined by 13.0%. 

Similarly, PEPE’s current market valuation could be better. The token currently trades at $0.000015, with weak momentum. However, in light of analysts’ forecast for a bullish swing, there is cause to believe that PEPE could perform well in the coming days.

Regardless of their recent market downturns, SHIB and PEPE are eyeing opportunities to overshadow DOGE. 2025 has been a year of price fluctuation for Dogecoin as it staggers between $0.31 and $0.43. DOGE has suffered a near 10% decline in the past week. This development gives its holders something to think about, especially with new cryptocurrency options like 1Fuel offering unique opportunities.

1Fuel: An upcoming cryptocurrency exchange

Unlike meme coins, 1Fuel is seeking to establish a solution that the entire blockchain can benefit from. Constructed with ease of use and accessibility at its core, 1Fuel seeks to simplify cross-network trades. Challenges with multiple wallets and high transaction fees will become a thing of the past with 1Fuel.

The token’s capacity to synchronize effectively with decentralized systems using advanced infrastructure also gives it a unique edge. This could position it as a top cryptocurrency exchange contender for investors on the lookout for a balance of innovation and usability. 

Additionally, 1Fuel’s pre-release continues to gather traction. Investors have been purchasing the 1Fuel tokens, selling now for $0.017, accumulating approximately $1.4 million with over 147,000,000 coins sold.

It may not be long before 1Fuel propels itself from an underdog to a major player given its emphasis on flexible cryptocurrency operations and returns.

Conclusion

The strive for dominance among meme coins intensifies: Dogecoin grapples with current downturns as Shiba Inu and Pepe strive to capitalize on this. Holders of these tokens may shift their gaze to 1Fuel as a promising alternative for their portfolios. 

For more on 1Fuel, visit their website, Telegram, or X.

Bitcoin continues to trade at record levels.

According to checkonchain data, Wednesday’s $130 billion bitcoin (BTC) volume was one of the highest in its history. Trade volume has soared since President Trump won the U.S. election at the start of November, doubling from a daily average of $65 billion.

The futures market (the total traded in futures contracts) yesterday saw $110 billion worth of volume. This was the fifth-highest futures trade volume recorded, only bettered on a handful of days in November and December last year.

The spot market saw roughly $15 billion of traded volume, which is approaching an all-time high. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs saw around $5 billion worth of trade volume, which is around half the all-time high seen in March 2024.

It is worth noting that options volume has not been included in the $130 billion daily volume figure, but it too is growing rapidly. According to Glassnode data, the total amount of options contracts traded in the last 24 hours is more than $3 billion.

With bitcoin is vying to be a global settlement layer, the more volume and liquidity that can be generated, the greater the asset’s chance of onboarding institutions that want to settle in billions of dollars at a moment’s notice.

• Perplexity AI has released a mobile app for Android
• The Perplexity Assistant offers voice, text, and camera-based interactions for tasks such as booking rides and identifying objects
• The assistant integrates with apps and leverages real-time information and task automation

AI conversational search engine Perplexity is going mobile on the Google Play Store with a new Android app. Peeplexity’s app pitches itself as a kind of digital Swiss Army knife that can manage tasks for you, including making reservations and identifying objects through your phone’s camera. Best of all, the app is free and speaks 15 languages.

By leveraging Perplexity’s own search engine, the assistant can also tap into real-time web information, so it’s not just regurgitating pre-programmed answers. This should, in theory, make it smarter and more versatile than many of its competitors. To juggle all of those abilities, Perplexity can maintain context across multiple tasks. That means it won’t double-book you and will remember what you like and don’t like.

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Donald Trump has raised the pressure on Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell to cut borrowing costs, setting up a potential clash between the two men less than a week before the US central bank meets to set interest rates.

During an appearance in the Oval Office on Thursday to sign several new executive orders, Trump said he knew rates “much better” than the Fed, and he would like to see them come down “a lot”. 

The US central bank is widely expected to hold its benchmark rate between 4.25-4.5 per cent next week, marking a pause after three consecutive cuts since September.

The Fed has signalled a slower pace of cuts this year with some officials concerned that Trump’s plan to raise tariffs, slash taxes and crack down on immigration will hinder efforts to beat back inflation to 2 per cent. 

“The concerns [at the Fed] are not just about tariffs, but also a recognition that fiscal policy is not going to help bring inflation down,” said Mahmood Pradhan, economist at Amundi.  

But the Fed’s more cautious posture puts it on a collision course with the new US president.

Trump on Thursday said he expected the Fed to listen to his demands and would speak to Powell “at the right time”.

“I think I know interest rates much better than they do, and I think I know them certainly much better than the one who’s primarily in charge of making that decision,” Trump said. “If I disagree, I will let it be known.”

Trump elevated Powell to Fed chair during his first term in office, but was often critical of him, especially for not cutting rates quickly enough in 2019. The president indicated on the campaign trail last year that he would not try to remove Powell from his position before his term expires in 2026.

“If the Fed continue to keep rates where they are and he thinks that it would be great to get a boost out of lower rates, then there’s a real chance of conflict,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a centre-right policy institute.

Some economists have said that if Trump’s policies push up prices it could compel the Fed to hold back from further cuts or even raise borrowing costs.

“If the administration do stuff that really starts to push up the rate of inflation, the Fed mandate is quite clear — they will push up rates. And they will get it in the neck [from Trump] if they do,” said Mark Blyth, economics professor at Brown University. 

Trump used a speech to executives in Davos earlier on Thursday to say he wanted rates to come down “all over the world” — and told the Opec cartel to bring down oil prices to make that happen.

He touched on the theme again in his Oval Office remarks to reporters a few hours later.

“I’d like to see oil prices come down, and when the energy comes down, that’s going to knock out a lot of the inflation. That’s going to automatically bring the interest rates down,” Trump said.

He also on Thursday raised new doubts about Washington’s commitment to Nato and called for more defence spending by the US’s allies in the treaty.

“They’re not protecting us,” he said of the Nato countries. “We’re protecting them. So I don’t think we should be spending, I’m not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them. But they should up their 2 per cent [of GDP on defence spending] to 5 per cent.”

Trump’s Nato comments came a day after newly sworn in secretary of state Marco Rubio “reaffirmed the US commitment” to the group, according to a record of his conversation with the alliance’s secretary-general Mark Rutte.

Among the other executive orders Trump signed on Thursday was one creating a national cryptocurrency stockpile and another to authorise the release of federal files on the assassinations of president John F Kennedy, ex-attorney-general Robert F Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

“The American people deserve transparency and truth” about the killings, said Trump. “A lot of people are waiting for this for years, for decades, and everything will be revealed.”