Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate, renewed his call for an AI tax on CNBC’s Power Lunch. He argues the government should tax artificial intelligence (AI) instead of payroll.

Yang co-founded the Forward Party and now runs Noble Mobile as chief executive. He said firms skip payroll taxes and healthcare costs by choosing AI over new hires.

Andrew Yang’s AI Tax Push

Yang built his political brand on automation warnings during his 2020 campaign. He proposed a universal basic income plan he called the Freedom Dividend. He also backed cryptocurrency adoption and clearer digital asset rules as a candidate.

His comments echo remarks from March, when he told CNBC’s Squawk Box the government should stop taxing labor. That debate has also drawn similar AI job displacement concerns from sitting US senators.

Yang pointed to Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who floated a 3% AI revenue tax in 2025. Amodei said the levy would apply each time a model generates revenue.

Yang said the same logic should apply broadly. However, he argued it would force firms to weigh AI costs against payroll costs.

What the Data Shows

A CNBC and Generation Lab survey published August 13 polled Americans aged 18 to 34. It found 45% expect AI to hurt their careers, while only 10% expect it to help.

Bridgewater Associates executives Greg Jensen and Nir Bar Dea wrote a New York Times opinion piece. They estimated AI could displace 18% of current US jobs within five years.

The pair used that estimate to back their own AI token tax proposal, echoing Amodei’s earlier idea. Meanwhile, the shift is already visible in customer service. The sector employs roughly 2.9 million Americans, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Yang proposed sending the tax revenue directly to workers as checks. He said retraining programs rarely help displaced workers find new careers. He pointed to past efforts aimed at coal miners and warehouse staff as examples that largely failed.

The post Ex-Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Pushes for AI Tax Over Payroll Tax appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Bybit intercepted more than $700 million in potential user losses between January 1 and June 15, blocking over 30,000 suspicious withdrawal requests and protecting close to 20,000 users, according to a risk and security report it published on August 18.

That compares with $300 million intercepted across the whole of 2025 under what the company then called a new AI-driven risk framework. CryptoPotato reported the earlier tally alongside the 3 million credential-stuffing attempts Bybit said it blocked that year, when its recovery work covered roughly 4,000 users.

The company said the metrics should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or as a comparative ranking of exchanges.

“The cybersecurity arms race has entered an era of minutes,” said David Zong, Head of Group Risk Control and Security at Bybit, who noted that human judgment remains “at the center of critical security decisions.”

AI-Assisted Auditing

Bybit said AI-assisted auditing identified high-severity vulnerabilities at three to five times the rate of manual review, and that automation cut the time from security assessment to testing from about two weeks to two hours.

An automated red-team platform assessed 1,489 public-facing assets and flagged more than 100 high-severity vulnerabilities, with discovery to first penetration test down to under 24 hours. More than 100,000 alerts were processed with AI assistance. Monitoring now reaches 100% of business-relevant on-chain activity, including listed token contracts and the exchange’s cold, warm, and hot wallets. Also, the initial risk reviews averaged 4.7 minutes, with 95% finished within 10 minutes.

Bybit said it handled 10 incidents involving listed token projects with no platform losses, completing emergency responses ahead of other major exchanges in eight and detecting two before the affected projects did.

Lawsuit Freezes $30.5 Million

This comes shortly after Bybit sued North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau, and the Lazarus Group in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, announcing on August 8 that it had secured a preliminary injunction freezing identified stolen assets.

It has recovered about $48.4 million and frozen more than $30.5 million across over 28 exchanges and custodians.

“Our focus has never changed: protect our users first, recover what we can, and make sure the people behind these attacks are held accountable,” stated Ben Zhou, Co-founder and CEO of Bybit.

In February 2025, attackers drained roughly $1.46 billion, by Bybit’s count, after compromising a cold wallet signing process. As reported, the FBI attributed the theft to the Lazarus Group, which US agencies valued at $1.5 billion and traced to more than 41,000 ETH.

Security firm Blockaid counted $1.1 billion stolen across 212 incidents marketwide in the first half of 2026.

The post Bybit Intercepts $700 Million in Potential User Losses During First Half of 2026 appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Arthur Hayes says he is ending his retirement to lead Flop Labs, a new startup building a token for AI agents. The FLOP airdrop lands in Q4 2026, while the blockchain behind it only arrives in Q1 2027.

In other words, the token will exist before the chain it runs on. Almost nothing else about the project is on paper yet.

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FLOP Airdrop Comes Before the Blockchain

Hayes revealed the plan on X (Twitter) on Tuesday, hours after the official Flop Labs account introduced the project. He also rewrote his bio to read CEO of Flop Labs.

Flop Network calls itself a proof-of-useful-inference protocol. In plain terms, AI agents would pay FLOP for computing power and memory. Miners supply that power, while validators check the work, according to the project’s website.

Here is the catch. The airdrop arrives a full quarter before the network’s first block. Until then, recipients would hold a claim on a chain that does not exist.

The paper trail is just as thin. The project has published one landing page, three application forms, and one overview graphic. There is no whitepaper, no supply schedule, no named chain, and no audit. Meanwhile, Hayes brings roughly 806,000 X followers to a Flop Labs account that counted 570 at launch.

Fair Launch Promises and Missing Details

The pitch leans on the absence of insiders. No presale, no venture capital (VC) allocation, and a 100% fair launch. It echoes Bittensor (TAO), the best-known AI network to launch without investors.

Yet one group already knows how it will get paid. Key opinion leaders (KOLs) will earn FLOP based on their communities’ activity. That role is the most detailed part of the project so far.

Hayes also carries heavy history into this launch. He co-founded BitMEX in 2014 and co-created the perpetual swap, the contract that now dominates crypto trading volume. He pleaded guilty to a US Bank Secrecy Act charge in 2022 and received a presidential pardon in 2025.

BitMEX announced its closure in July after an 11-year run, and BeInCrypto examined why BitMEX shut down. Hayes’ retirement therefore lasted less than a month.

His recent trades add tension. In June, tracking firm Lookonchain tied a $2.09 million Hyperliquid (HYPE) purchase to Hayes days after he sold the token. He denied the disputed HYPE buyback.

The problem FLOP targets is real, however. Deutsche Telekom is helping build AI agent payment rails, and Hayes himself has warned an AI credit bust could reshape markets.

For now, FLOP is a promise attached to a famous name. The next tests are simple. Publish a whitepaper, name the chain, and show what airdrop recipients actually receive.

The post Arthur Hayes’ New Token Will Airdrop Before Its Blockchain Exists: What Do Holders Get? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Bitcoin (BTC) pushed against $65,000 on Tuesday. At the same moment, two Wall Street giants deepened their commitment. BlackRock repeated its call for a 1-2% portfolio allocation, and Citi confirmed its Bitcoin custody service will arrive this year.

The timing is striking. Bitcoin still sits about 50% below its October 2025 peak, yet the firms building institutional access keep expanding.

BlackRock Sticks With Its 1-2% Bitcoin Allocation

BlackRock re-examined Bitcoin in a note published Monday. Digital asset executives Robert Mitchnick and Will Su wrote it after the market’s steep slide. Their verdict? The selloff came from forced selling inside crypto markets, not a weaker long-term case.

The refreshed 10-year analysis matched guidance from June. Back then, the firm first told institutions exactly how much Bitcoin to hold.

A 1-2% slice, funded from stocks, would have improved risk-adjusted returns in a classic 60/40 portfolio.

The authors also pointed to Bitcoin’s low long-term link with stocks and bonds. Periods when it trades in lockstep with equities tend to fade, they argued.

The stance matters because of BlackRock’s scale. It is the world’s largest asset manager. Its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) held over $47 billion in assets by March 2026.

Moreover, BlackRock client buying rebounded in late July, even with the average US spot ETF buyer sitting 22% underwater.

Citi Puts BTC Inside Its New Custody+ Platform

Meanwhile, Citi answered a different question. Where do institutions actually keep the bitcoin they buy? The bank unveiled Custody+ on Tuesday, a platform built for markets that never close.

Digital asset custody goes live later this year, starting with Bitcoin. Clients will hold stocks, bonds, and crypto inside one setup, with no separate crypto systems.

The scale behind the build is real money. Citi says it spends over $2 billion a year on its platform strategy. Its custody network covers more than 100 markets.

“Custody+ is the product of a multi-year commitment to building infrastructure that matches the speed of our clients’ strategies,” Amit Agarwal, Head of Custody at Citi Investor Services, said in the announcement.

The launch also feeds the race among major banks for institutional Bitcoin demand. Fidelity currently leads Strategy’s Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index, which ranks how far big lenders have moved into bitcoin. Citi sits among the chasers.

Bitcoin traded near $64,708 at press time, having pulled back from an intra-day high of $65,058, levels last tested over a week ago.

However, the bigger story sits behind the chart. Institutions have long cited two practical barriers, sizing and safekeeping. BlackRock now supplies the math. Citi supplies the vault.

The post Bitcoin Tests $65,000: Will BlackRock and Citi Fuel the Next Rally? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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How do you capture a new territory and expand your country in 2026? In ancient times, it happened through war, invasion, physically overthrowing a government, and claiming the land. But in modern times, one apparently just needs to post on social media. That is what the POTUS did today. 

Donald Trump and the White House posted an image today showing the Strait of Hormuz as a brand-new US Territory. Perhaps the 51st state. Hormuz is open for all ships – the POTUS claimed, but maritime data would disagree.
To be clear, there has been no transfer of sovereignty. Hormuz remains an international strait between Iran and Oman. Trump’s claim may be political theatre. Or something more strategic, like an attempt to turn US military control into negotiating leverage. 

Hormuz is Nowhere Near Open

Kpler data cited by Reuters showed just six commodity vessels crossed on Monday. Before the war, almost 140 ships would pass through every day. 

So, yes, Hormuz might be technically open, but it’s not operational. Among the six ships that crossed, no VLCC crude supertankers or LNG carriers were recorded crossing. 

Oil prices clearly reflect that. Brent crude oil has jumped nearly 15% in August. And global pressure is reaching a boiling point. 

Then there is Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Price Could Care Less About Hormuz, More About Fed Action

BTC trades near $64,700, almost exactly where it stood a month ago around $63,900. During that period, oil surged, Hormuz talks broke down, and US Treasury yields climbed.

Bitcoin, for the most part, didn’t care. The slight uptake on BTC price this week came from positive ETF flow returning to the US spot and confirmation that the Fed won’t likely increase interest rates. 

But there is also little room for easing interest rates. Continuous Hormuz disruption (despite Trump’s claim of liberation) keeps oil elevated, which feeds inflation and higher bond yields, reducing the Federal Reserve’s room to ease.

So, the US President can call Hormuz American territory. Oil traders clearly care about who actually controls the ships.

Bitcoin, for now, seems more interested in the Fed.

The post United States of Iran: Trump’s Delusion or Strategy? Bitcoin Doesn’t Care appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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The Wall Street banking behemoth announced earlier today that it’s preparing to take another step into the cryptocurrency industry, highlighting plans to launch digital asset custody later in 2026.

Bitcoin will be the first asset supported by the new service, which will sit alongside the bank’s traditional custody business under its newly unveiled Custody+ platform.

The press release published on August 18 indicated that Custody+ will act as a suite of near- and real-time services designed to accommodate financial markets increasingly moving toward continuous trading and faster settlement. Given one of the key differences between traditional financial assets and crypto – namely, the fact that the latter operates 24/7 – Citi explained that the crypto-focused part of the business will launch later this year.

“Digital assets already operate on near-instant settlement, 24/7. Citi expects to go live with digital asset custody later this year, starting with the custody of Bitcoin. This is being built on Citi’s common digital asset architecture, and we will offer a one-stop custody experience. Clients will access traditional and crypto custody capabilities within the same framework for an integrated experience.”

This initiative provides a more concrete timeline of Citi’s plans regarding the cryptocurrency industry, as it said last year that it was preparing to launch such custody in 2026 without a clear timeline.

Aside from starting with BTC, the banking giant failed to disclose which digital assets are scheduled to follow suit.

Citi has dabbled in the industry for years. It ramped up its efforts in 2021 by adding up to 100 people to its cryptocurrency team. Meanwhile, other US institutional behemoths, such as Jane Street Group, have increased their ETF exposure to BTC.

The post Wall Street Giant Citi to Launch Bitcoin Custody Later This Year appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed Regulation Crypto Assets on Tuesday, opening a legal route for token sales to US investors and a formal exit from securities treatment.

The exit question sat at the center of the SEC’s long court fight with Ripple over XRP. Tuesday’s proposal would replace years of litigation with written conditions.

What the New SEC Crypto Rules Offer Token Issuers

The proposal creates two exemptions from Securities Act registration:

• A one-time option covers raises of up to $5 million across four years.
• A second track allows up to $75 million every 12 months.

Both routes require plain narrative disclosures for investors.

Projects using the larger exemption must also publish financial statements and file ongoing reports. Federal rules would override state registration requirements for these offerings and certain secondary trades.

The structure loosely recalls the initial coin offering (ICO) era, when projects raised billions from the public before enforcement closed that channel. This time, dollar caps and disclosure duties frame the activity from day one.

The package builds on the joint token taxonomy the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued on March 17.

That interpretation explained how a non-security crypto asset can enter and leave an investment contract, the legal wrapper that pulls a token sale under securities law. Public comments stay open for 60 days after Federal Register publication.

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The Question XRP Made Famous Gets a Written Answer

The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, arguing its XRP sales amounted to unregistered securities offerings. Judge Analisa Torres ruled in 2023 that XRP itself was not a security, though certain institutional sales crossed the line. The case closed in August 2025.

That outcome left a puzzle every project since has faced. A token could escape securities status in court, yet no rule told issuers how to get there without a judge.

The proposed safe harbor supplies the missing mechanism.

Once a team completes or permanently ends the managerial work it promised buyers, the asset would no longer sit under an investment contract.

“In line with the Commission’s earlier interpretative guidance, this proposal would also allow for a safe harbor once an issuer has completed or permanently ceased all essential managerial efforts that it represented or promised it would take under an investment contract,” SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins said in the release.

Markets showed little immediate reaction. XRP trades near $1, little changed over the past day, with a $62.7 billion market cap that ranks sixth overall. The token still sits well below its July 2025 record of $3.65.

Attention now turns to the comment window and to Congress, where the CLARITY Act, a bill setting market structure rules for digital assets, still awaits a Senate vote. The safe harbor’s final conditions will determine whether issuers that built offshore actually bring token sales back to the US.

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