Weekly Roundup 09/25/26 (Post Clarity rulemaking, Sherrod Brown is back, RIP BitMEX, Coldcard white hats, is EA a cult?) (EP.741)

Days after the Clarity Act stalled, the CFTC began crypto rulemaking in coordination with the SEC, but the rules’ contents remain unclear. Caroline Pham called the agencies’ recent roundtable their first of its kind in more than 15 years. The process could clarify prediction markets, tokenized-securities market structure, and whether L1 and L2 protocols are securities or commodities; the hosts were unsure whether it would address developer protections or crypto-ATM fraud. The NYSE and Blockchain.com agreed to explore tokenized stocks and ETFs and a 24/7 digital trading venue, while BlackRock launched three on-chain portfolios for non-U.S. investors combining stocks, bonds, and Bitcoin.

Fairshake plans to spend $30 million in Ohio’s Senate race as Sherrod Brown seeks to unseat John Husted. The hosts characterized Brown as a longtime crypto antagonist; Polymarket showed him leading at the time, and one host expected him to win, arguing that AI and data centers mattered more to voters than crypto. They cited a claim that 70% of Ohio residents oppose data centers. Nick Carter’s review of the 25 largest hyperscale data centers found noise complaints clustered near population centers, especially at sites with large on-site generators. About half a dozen sites drew complaints; they were generally within 500 yards of population clusters and typically exceeded 400 MW. Carter identified xAI’s Colossus 2 in Mississippi as the worst case, citing 80 temporary generators, lawsuits, and independent complaints. He said siting and sound barriers can help and predicted political pressure could shift on-site generation to remote locations or alternative power sources.

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Polymarket, alleging unlicensed gambling in New York, following a similar case against Kalshi two months earlier. Polymarket US raised fees closer to Kalshi’s, changing its taker-fee coefficient from 6% to 0.069%; the hosts described the change as a 15.8% price increase and roughly 20% more fees retained. One host said prediction markets had been meant to improve decisions through useful information but had largely become more efficient sports betting. A Wall Street Journal report cited $5 billion in trades on Kalshi and repeated $5,500 trades concentrated in an Ether-price market, without alleging wrongdoing. The hosts questioned whether the market would settle into a duopoly or monopoly, since customer-acquisition costs and access to a DCO could favor a few platforms if sports-betting-style markets dominate.

The hosts said BitMEX, which helped pioneer or popularize the perpetual swap, had shut down. One speaker noted its controversies, including a BSA violation, but said that, as far as they knew, it had never lost customer funds. The Celsius estate sued BitMEX over losses tied to the COVID liquidation; the speaker called the claim a stretch and argued that the liquidation fund belonged to its owners. In the second wave of the Coldcard hack, white hats proactively recovered 40% of the Bitcoin moved, and 52 BTC were evacuated. Wyoming established a Crypto Recovery Trust through which affected users can claim recovered funds. The hosts compared this process to a possible response to vulnerable Satoshi coins; one speaker argued that someone with a quantum computer would have a moral obligation to rescue them and warned that AI could accelerate quantum computing.

Axios reportedly described an unofficial White House memo calling effective altruism a cult, describing Dario as a cult leader, and advising caution. One speaker also called the movement a cult, citing what they saw as quasi-religious beliefs, unusual social behavior, and a polyamorous element, and pointed to the Zizians as an offshoot group. The speaker argued that consequentialists might justify immoral short-term actions for longer-term aims, while presenting ideas such as false-flag attacks or agent swarms as speculation, not established events. The hosts also disagreed about AI leaders’ political influence: one compared their role to physicists before the atomic era and argued that technical expertise does not entitle a small group of Silicon Valley technocrats to set society’s priorities. Speakers differed over whether an Anthropic-reported scientific discovery was a major advance; one suggested Anthropic might internalize discoveries made with its models and move toward biotech, while another questioned whether many enterprise tasks require frontier models.

Binance invested $100 million in Circle and agreed to promote USDC across its platform for five years, including incentives for USDC balances. A speaker said the investment was reportedly discounted and subject to a two-year lockup but was unsure of those terms. The hosts saw the deal as a move into territory dominated by Tether, after Binance’s BUSD failed to gain traction. Strategy bought 950 Bitcoin for $75.7 million, its first large purchase in a few weeks.