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New Marvel Legends Figures Are Bundled With Exclusive Spider-Man MTG Foil Cards

by admin September 28, 2025

Marvel Legends is crossing over with Magic: The Gathering’s new Spider-Man set with a series of action figures bundled with exclusive MTG foil cards. There are four different figures in the collection so far: Battle-Damaged Spider-Man, Agent Anti-Venom, Mary Jane Watson equipped with the Iron Spider costume, and Man-Wolf.

The Spider-Man Magic: The Gathering set launched today, September 26, but these figures/promo codes arrive over the next two weeks.

$40 | Releases October 10

This Spider-Man figure comes with a “Specactular Spider-Man” foil card that can give you a powerful advantage if you decide to sacrifice it. The figure features Spider-Man in a tattered version of his costume, and it comes with web-shooter, web-shield, and web-line accessories.

$40 | Releases October 2

The foil card included with this toy is “Agent Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer” and it can bring back a target creature from the graveyard. This card can also deflect, and the action figure is an accurate replica of the powerful anti-symbiote character–the lore around him is way too much to get into right now. For accessories, Agent Anti-Venom comes with several sets of alternate hands, two blast effects, two smoke effects, tendrils, and a powerful arsenal of weapons.

$42 | Available Now

Now sporting a stylish costume that her former husband Spider-Man once wore, Mary Jane’s “Stark Upgrade” foil card can be tapped to add +1/+1 counters to all creatures and vehicles in your game. The figure features over 20 points of articulation and it comes with an alternate masked head, two “thwip” hands, and four articulated Iron Spider legs.

$59.89 | Releases October 2

John Jameson isn’t just an astronaut and the son of Daily Bugle boss J. Jonah Jameson, he’s also the fearsome Man-Wolf. His foil card features a transformative effect, allowing him to tap into primal powers. For his accessories, he’s armed with his sword Stargod, a bow, and several arrows.

A closer look at the included cards.

Gallery

Ever since it started collaborating with big IP, Magic: The Gathering’s popularity has surged through the roof. The Marvel crossover could be the biggest one yet for the collectible card game, as it focuses not only on Spider-Man and his amazing friends, but also villains like Mysterio, Sandman, and Venom.

The Spider-Man Play Booster Box gets you 30 packs of 14 cards each for a total of 420 Spider-Man-themed MTG cards, and Spidey’s Spectacular Showdown Scene Box will give you three Marvel’s Spider-Man booster packs and two different sets of six scene cards. Other in-stock Spider-Man MTG products include the Spider-Man Bundle and Spidey’s Spectacular Showdown Scene Box.

Magic: The Gathering 2025 Crossover Sets:

Spider-Man is the second major Universes Beyond crossover set for Magic: The Gathering this year. The Final Fantasy set launched in June and is the most popular MTG set ever. In November, Avatar: The Last Airbender joins the MTG universe.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Jensen Huang sat down, speaking as part of the BG2 podcast.

Product Reviews

Jensen Huang says China is ‘nanoseconds behind’ the US in chipmaking, calls for reducing US export restrictions on Nvidia’s AI chips

by admin September 28, 2025

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says China is just “nanoseconds behind” the U.S. in chipmaking and that Washington should stop trying to wall off the market. Speaking on the BG2 podcast, Huang argued that allowing companies like Nvidia to sell into China would serve American interests by spreading U.S. technology and extending its geopolitical influence. “We’re up against a formidable, innovative, hungry, fast-moving, underregulated [competitor],” Huang said, talking about the pedigree of China’s engineers and controversial 9-9-6 working culture.

His comments come as Nvidia hopes to ship its H20 AI GPU to Chinese customers again, following a months-long pause tied to new U.S. export rules. The Commerce Department is understood to have begun issuing licenses for the H20 in August, and Nvidia is already working on a successor chip designed to comply with current restrictions while offering better performance. The company has not confirmed specs, but it would be Nvidia’s second attempt to tailor an AI accelerator specifically for the Chinese market since the original A100 and H100 bans took effect.

NVIDIA: OpenAI, Future of Compute, and the American Dream | BG2 w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner – YouTube

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China, meanwhile, is accelerating its own plans to become self-sufficient. Huawei’s new Atlas 900 A3 SuperPoD systems, powered by the company’s Ascend 910B chips, are now shipping in volume. The company has laid out an ambitious roadmap through 2027 with next-gen Ascend silicon that aims to match or exceed current-gen performance. These systems are CUDA-free by design and optimized for Chinese-built software stacks, a shift that puts real pressure on Nvidia’s dominance, which, according to Huang, previously held a 95% market share in China.

SEC chair outlines main directions of regulatory work ahead

by admin September 28, 2025

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins recently told Fox Business that the agency will pursue crypto rulemaking and seek an innovation exemption to maintain the U.S.’s leadership in digital finance.

Summary

In an interview with Maria Bartiromo, Paul Atkins clarified that the SEC is preparing an innovation exemption for the end of 2025.
The exemption is designed to allow crypto companies to launch their products without fear of restrictive securities laws being applied to them.
Atkins noted that the SEC and the CFTC are working closely together to provide the marketplace with a stable platform for introducing new products.

Atkins told anchor Maria Bartiromo on Sept. 23 that the SEC is working closely with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to determine the distribution of responsibility between the agencies and bring certainty to the market structure.

Some projects (like single stock futures) were “torpedoed” only because of the uncertainty in whether they should have been supervised by the SEC or the CFTC.

He stated that both agencies will focus on rulemaking in the coming months and aim to establish an innovation exemption by year-end. The SEC chair said that it is not an ad hoc approach:

“We’re trying to give the marketplace some kind of stable platform upon which they can introduce their products,” he said.

The exemption aims to enable crypto businesses to launch their products immediately, thereby avoiding the early bureaucratic and regulatory burdens that typically hinder projects.

Atkins compared to Gensler

During the DeFi and American Spirit roundtable in June, Atkins explained the need for the conditional exemption relief framework in order to encourage developers.

Meanwhile, the SEC is working on new rules that Atkins argues will replace outdated securities laws applied to the crypto space.

The previous SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, treated various cryptocurrencies as unregistered securities. Still, many of the sector’s U.S.-based brands thrived, including Coinbase, Strategy, Robinhood, Ripple, and Circle.

However, many crypto pros insist that Gensler’s cautious approach to the emerging industry left the U.S. behind Europe and the UK in terms of access to cryptocurrency markets and services. For example, Coinbase’s staking service is not available in five states.

For years, Americans have faced challenges in participating in airdrops, buying spot ETFs, perpetual futures, and tokenized securities, as well as accessing the largest crypto exchanges, among other issues. That’s not the scenario in the UK and Europe. Estonia, one of the countries that pioneered nation-level blockchain adoption, offered tokenized securities back in 2019.

‘Make IPOs great again’

As for the plans not directly associated with crypto, Atkins said that he wants to “make IPOs great again.” He stressed that ordinary investors need to diversify their portfolios, but it’s not an easy task in the current circumstances.

According to the SEC chair, the number of public companies has shrunk by 50% in the last 30 years. He explained that going public became too burdensome in terms of regulation, compliance, reporting, and other requirements. That’s why not many companies are seeking to become public.

The fact that the top public corporations are all tech companies increases risks. So, Atkins sees the solution in streamlining and safeguarding ordinary investors’ access to private funds.

In general, Atkins’s appearance on Bartiromo’s “Mornings with Maria” indicated the SEC chair’s effort to allow U.S. crypto companies to self-regulate and provide retail investors with a broader set of investment options.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Elon Musk and Dogecoin: How the Billionaire Became the ‘Dogefather’

by admin September 28, 2025

With Dogecoin making a comeback late last year and early into 2025, some may be pondering: Where did the asset come from? What’s it for? And what’s Tesla CEO Elon Musk got to do with it?

The original meme coin’s boom largely has the world’s richest man to thank. Musk’s obsession with shitposting helped boost the coin to a top 10 cryptocurrency.

It’s been a wacky ride over the past few years, culminating in Musk’s appointment to lead a government agency called DOGE—yes, really. But we’ll explain it all.

2018: What the DOGE?

Dogecoin is the biggest and oldest meme coin and the second-biggest proof-of-work cryptocurrency. It was created in 2013 as a joke by developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.

The idea was to poke fun at the huge number of altcoins and crypto projects entering the market following Bitcoin’s rapid ascent, and the coin enjoyed relative obscurity and a low price during its early years.

But then along came Musk. The eccentric billionaire asked Palmer in a 2018 tweet to help with the Twitter bot problem. Scammers had created a number of fake high-profile accounts, including Musk’s, in order to push crypto cons. The scams typically posted fake Ethereum giveaways.

It was the first real interest Musk had shown in Dogecoin.

2019: The pump begins

Musk started to pump Dogecoin the next year. “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency,” he wrote in April 2019, in response to a screenshot of a poll from the official Dogecoin account asking who should be the cryptocurrency’s CEO. “It’s pretty cool.”

The post would be the first of many to cause the asset’s value to rocket upwards. Soon after Musk’s first tweet about Dogecoin, the market cap of the coin hit $400 million and crypto exchange Huobi listed it.

Musk being Musk, however, didn’t stop there: He branded himself Dogecoin’s CEO—briefly—on Twitter before continuing to fire out tweets asking if the coin is “really a valid form of currency” or posting memes associated with the original dog-coin.

2020/2021: Bull run arrives

Musk continued to pump Dogecoin’s price here and there with his tweets, but things really got started during the 2021 bull run. Major exchanges like Coinbase Pro listed Dogecoin and the asset developed a bigger cult following, not to mention growing mainstream awareness.

DOGE gained a market cap bigger than many companies in the S&P 500. And developers exclusively told Decrypt that they had secretly been working with Musk since 2019 to make the coin a valid payment method and a greener, cheaper alternative to Bitcoin.

But things got stranger when Musk called himself the “Dogefather” ahead of a “Saturday Night Live” skit about the cryptocurrency—again sending the asset’s price roaring upwards. DOGE would jump to its all-time high price of about $0.73 at this time.

Musk’s “SNL” appearance ended up being underwhelming for Doge fans, with the SpaceX boss and his mother’s allusions to the coin ultimately pushing its price down. Still, it continued to bring the strange world of meme coins to the mainstream.

Later that year, Musk announced that his rocket company, SpaceX, would launch a satellite to the moon—completely funded by the cryptocurrency.

2022: Tesla/Twitter mania

The Doge mania continued into 2022 when Musk’s car company started accepting Dogecoin for merchandise.

Dogecoin continued to experience price bumps when Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, hinting that it would also become a payments platform that might, eventually, integrate the O.G. meme coin.

Things came back to bite Musk later that year, though, when an American man hit the billionaire and Tesla and SpaceX with a $258 billion lawsuit for allegedly pumping Dogecoin—an asset with “no value at all,” according to the original filing.

But Musk and his lawyers scored a win in 2024 when a judge sided with them and dismissed the lawsuit, calling the tech entrepreneur’s tweets about Dogecoin “aspirational and puffery,” and noting that “no reasonable investor could rely upon them.”

2024-2025: Trump, Musk, and DOGE

Dogecoin had a relatively quiet 2023, but the meme coin has soared over the last year following Musk’s support of Republican Donald Trump’s campaign for the White House.

That’s mostly because Trump said that Musk would lead a government efficiency commission ahead of being voted back into the seat of power; Musk claimed that it would be called the Department of Government Efficiency—an acronym that matches Dogecoin’s ticker.

Whenever Musk mentioned his future political role with the so-called DOGE ahead of the election, the price of Dogecoin jumped.

But before Trump’s election win, Musk revealed what he has probably thought all along: that he isn’t seriously interested or involved in Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or any cryptocurrency. He just likes the meme coin.

“I’m actually not actively involved in crypto,” he said at a rally. “I make Dogecoin jokes and stuff because I just kind of like Dogecoin—because it’s got the best sense of humor and it has dogs and memes, and I love all those things.”

Still, the price of Dogecoin boomed higher, hitting a three-year high price of $0.48—though it’s fallen substantially since, as of this writing. Musk has recently praised Dogecoin’s rate of inflation and tweeted out a familiar meme image of a dust cloud with the Doge face engulfing a city.

And President-elect Trump made it official that Musk would lead the administration’s new department, though planned co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy bailed in January due to other political ambitions.

Trump even sold t-shirts showing himself and Musk alongside Doge-esque artwork. And the official DOGE website briefly featured the familiar DOGE meme imagery, boosting Dogecoin’s price in the process.

With Trump back in office, Musk’s DOGE started aggressively interrogating U.S. government spending, grabbing headlines as it accesses potentially sensitive citizen data while upending professional norms in the process.

But Musk departed the government role in May, and a public rift has formed between the two men. Musk made some shocking claims about Trump, and the president has in return said that DOGE should scrutinize Musk’s companies—and that he’d look into having Musk deported.

The public battle hasn’t done any favors for Dogecoin’s price, though it has briefly boosted meme coins inspired by the conflict.

Now Elon Musk is back to focusing on his companies, with recent moves reigniting speculation over whether X might integrate Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies for payments.

And Musk has picked up another connection to Dogecoin of late, albeit unofficially.

Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro—who helped defend him in the $258 billion class action DOGE suit dismissed last year—is now chairman of CleanCore Solutions, a publicly traded firm billed as an “official” Dogecoin treasury company. That’s due to backing from House of Doge, the commercialization arm of the Dogecoin Foundation, which supports development around the coin.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on November 13, 2024. It was last updated with new details on September 28, 2025.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Tomlin speech inspires Steelers to win in Dublin for late Rooney

by admin September 28, 2025

Brooke PryorSep 28, 2025, 03:53 PM ET
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DUBLIN — The night before playing the first regular-season NFL game in Dublin, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin delivered an emotional speech to his team about the significance of the late Dan M. Rooney, a former U.S. ambassador to Ireland and influential Steelers chairman.

Less than 24 hours later, Tomlin and the Steelers held on for an emotional roller-coaster 24-21 win against the Vikings in the Rooney family’s ancestral country in front of thousands of Terrible Towel-toting fans.

“We definitely had a chip on our shoulder,” edge rusher T.J. Watt said. “Mike T. last night gave a speech on the importance of the Rooney family here in Ireland and Mr. Rooney, his ambassadorship here and how important this game means to their family.

“We take a lot of pride in that, and to be able to go out there and play Steeler football was huge.”

Mike Tomlin, Aaron Rodgers and Cameron Heyward are leaving Dublin victorious after finishing off an emotional win over the Vikings. AP Photo/Ian Walton

The Steelers did just that with a mostly dominant defensive performance that included six sacks, two interceptions, 14 quarterback hits and 10 tackles for loss. They hung on through a late surge by the Vikings that brought the Carson Wentz-led team within three points, using a deflected pass by safety DeShon Elliott to seal the win with seconds remaining.

“I know he’s smiling at us today,” Tomlin said of the former ambassador. “It’s just an honor to fulfill his vision, to bring NFL football to Dublin.”

Designated as a Steelers home game, the crowd of nearly 75,000 was mostly Steelers fans, and they were raucous from the minute the gates opened three hours before kickoff.

“I thought the atmosphere was outstanding,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “I come out early. In most NFL stadiums there’s two hours when the stadium opens, and it starts to trickle in. Somebody came back in the locker room at like 11:00 and goes, man, there’s a ton of people out there already. I was like, yeah, we’re not in the states anymore. This is a different type of fan.

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“… A lot of Terrible Towels there, but I felt like there was probably some good old Irish getting in the mix too waving those towels around a little bit. The music was great. The fans were cool. The field was pristine.”

The entire game-day experience was an embodiment of Pittsburgh traditions and the Rooney family’s Irish heritage. During warmups, the Clada House Band, an Irish group, performed live sets between a DJ mixing top-40 hits and songs from Irish artists. The game also featured performances of both the U.S. and Irish national anthems.

“This has always been a dream of his,” tight end Connor Heyward said of Rooney. “Even on the way here to the stadium, you could get chills. I got chills just seeing all the Steelers fans and having this opportunity and then also with the national anthem, like hearing the U.S. national anthem and then hearing the Ireland national anthem. Two opposites, one’s more lit, but it was really cool.”

Just as they do at Acrisure Stadium, the Steelers also played the “Pittsburgh Polka” before kickoff. Later on, the stadium ushered in the fourth quarter with a crowd-led singalong to “Zombie” by the Cranberries, an Irish rock band formed in Limerick.

After the Steelers kicked a field goal to take an 18-point lead later in the final quarter, the videoboards went dark and Styx’s “Renegade,” the Steelers’ defensive anthem, began to play.

Sunday’s win capped a whirlwind three-day trip to the island for the Steelers, who arrived on Friday and promptly took an hourlong bus ride to Carton House for their weekend accommodations. The Steelers practiced at the estate a couple of hours after arriving, using the same fields previously utilized by the Irish national rugby team ahead of matches in Dublin. They also held an extensive walk-through on Saturday.

Earlier in the week, Rodgers expressed a desire to have arrived to Ireland earlier, but he clarified Sunday that he simply wished he’d had a longer stay in one of his three career international games.

Between practices, the team had free time to explore Dublin.

“It was a short trip, but from the moment we landed, the security guys over at the Carton House were hilarious,” Rodgers said. “The Guinness was good in downtown Dublin. It will be a nice flight back with hopefully a yearly return by us or two other teams.”

Though most of the trip was a positive experience, Steelers backup quarterback Skylar Thompson, who wasn’t scheduled to play because he’s on injured reserve, was robbed on Friday night, but he was at the game on Sunday in a sweatsuit.

Asked if Dublin did enough to earn another NFL game, Rodgers was definitive.

“100 percent,” he said. “Yes.”

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

USDH Becomes First Permissionless Quote Asset on Hyperliquid

by admin September 28, 2025

Hyperliquid, a decentralized trading platform active in DeFi, has launched its permissionless spot quote asset feature on the mainnet.

With this feature, any asset can now be used as a quote asset, letting users and projects set up new trading pairs through Dutch auctions. The update introduces additional flexibility to trading and enhances the platform’s decentralization.

USDH Becomes the First Permissionless Quote Asset

The stablecoin USDH is the first asset to gain permissionless quote status. Native Markets deployed USDH, and the HYPE/USDH trading pair is now live. Hyperliquid has confirmed that more trading pairs will follow in the future, giving users and projects the opportunity to experiment with different base and quote asset combinations.

How Permissionless Spot Quote Assets Work

Under this new feature, deployers of stable assets can enable their tokens to act as quote assets, provided they meet the on-chain requirements detailed in Hyperliquid’s documentation. Once an asset has quote status, it can be used in the first spot pair of any HIP-1 deployment.

New trading pairs using existing base and quote assets can also be set up through permissionless Dutch auctions. These auctions run separately from HIP-1 token auctions, allowing new trading pairs to be added without affecting current token distributions. This makes setting up multiple pairs simpler and more organized.

Greater Flexibility for Traders and Projects

The permissionless system gives users more freedom to move beyond preset quote assets and create new trading opportunities. By allowing any eligible asset to serve as a quote, Hyperliquid gives users more control over pair creation and trading experimentation. The Dutch auction mechanism ensures that new pairs are deployed transparently and fairly.

With USDH now live as the first permissionless quote asset, the HYPE/USDH pair has already started trading. Hyperliquid expects more permissionless pair deployments in the coming months. This move shows Hyperliquid’s focus on decentralization and innovation, while giving traders more flexibility in the fast-changing crypto market.

Also Read: Bitwise Files to Launch Hyperliquid ETF with HYPE Token

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Konami Believes in ‘Silent Hill f’ So Much, It’s Becoming a Novel

by admin September 28, 2025

It’s only been a few days since Silent Hill f came out, and in a month, fans will be able to read it.

Konami announced a novel adaptation of the survival horror game releasing October 30. Written by author Kuroshiro, who adapted Midnight Wanderers and NG for the page, this Silent Hill f adaptation will cover the game’s core story and provide new material not featured. As a fan of Kuroshiro’s work, Silent Hill producer Motoi Okamoto recalled feeling “overjoyed when Kadokawa suggested him as the novelization author.”

サイレントヒルfのノベライズを発表させていただきました。ゲームをプレイした方はもちろん、ゲームは遊ばないけど本は読むというホラー小説読みの方も、小説でサイレントヒルfの世界をご堪能ください。

執筆されるのは黒史郎先生。… https://t.co/XSo5I9utVz

— 岡本基 (@obakemogura) September 28, 2025

This is the one of the few novels for the Silent Hill franchise without illustrations. Save for books based on the 2006 and and 2012 films, the series’ literature has been light novels based on specific games and films, art and guidebooks, or manga telling an original story. Okamoto hopes this new novel appeals to game fans or horror book lovers “who [don’t] play games but enjoys reading books.”

Developed by NeoBards Entertainment, Silent Hill f centers on 1960s high school Hinako Shimizu as she navigates the fictional, fog-covered town of Ebisugaoka. The game’s received a warm reception so far and is part of Konami’s larger push to revive Silent Hill, which has included a remake of Silent Hill 2 (and its 2026 film adaptation Return to Silent Hill), a remake of the first game, and the brand new Silent Hill: Townfall.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

What Is Aster? The Decentralized Exchange on BNB Chain That’s Taking on Hyperliquid

by admin September 28, 2025

Decentralized exchange Aster has caught traders’ attention thanks to its eye-watering 1,001x leverage options, support from Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and a soaring token.

Due to its focus on perpetual futures trading, Aster is considered a rival to Hyperliquid—which has been one of the most successful crypto projects of the year. During its first week, it flipped Hyperliquid in daily revenue but remained behind in terms of trading volume.

Thanks to its explosive start, according to CoinGecko, its Aster token surged to a $3.2 billion market cap as the 50th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization—not bad for a week’s work.

So, what exactly is Aster? What even is a perpetual future? How does Aster match up against Hyperliquid? And what’s next? Here’s a look at the popular BNB Chain exchange.

What is Aster?

Aster is a decentralized exchange that supports multiple chains, including Solana, Ethereum, and Arbitrum, but is most closely tied to BNB Chain. It specializes in perpetual futures trading, although it also offers spot trading. The project is backed by YZi Labs, the crypto investment firm of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who co-founded Binance.

Perpetual futures allow traders to speculate on the price of cryptocurrencies without owning the underlying asset—be it Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other available token. Traditional futures require an expiration date, while perpetual futures do not. That said, traders still have to select if they want to short (meaning the price will drop) or long (the price will rise) the selected asset.

On top of this, perpetual futures have become closely tied to highly leveraged trades—with Aster’s max leverage set at a whopping 1,001x.

Aster exploded in popularity in September 2025, with the debut of its token that soared 2,000% in its first seven days to $3.8 billion market capitalization. At the time of writing, it has settled at a more than $3 billion market cap, which makes it the 50th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Aster vs. Hyperliquid

With its success, Aster has naturally been compared to Hyperliquid—which has established itself as the leading decentralized exchange specializing in perpetual futures.

At the time of writing, in late September 2025, Aster’s weekly trading volume sits at $3.32 billion, behind Hyperliquid at $5.39 billion. That said, according to DefiLlama, it has surpassed the rival exchange in daily revenue on multiple days since its launch.

So what’s the difference? First, Aster operates natively on four networks, lowering friction for traders to get started, while Hyperliquid has its own blockchain powering the exchange. That said, Aster does have aims to eventually launch its own layer-1 network.

Another major difference is that Aster appears to have a stronger focus on privacy, with the launch of Hidden Orders allowing for private trades to be placed. By contrast, Hyperliquid’s highly transparent model has been, in part, its strength as it caught headlines due to whales placing eye-popping bets.

However, CZ told Farokh Sarmad of Rug Radio—Decrypt’s sister company—in a video interview in May that Hyperliquid’s transparent model may not be optimal for big trades.

“The current model where everything is fully transparent may or may not be the best model,” the Binance co-founder said. “Yeah, you can see a big whale place a $300 million short. But the guy who really wants to do a $300 million short doesn’t want you to see it.”

On top of this, Aster’s maximum leverage is a dizzying 1,001x while Hyperliquid tops out at 40x. To put that into perspective, the highest that the centralized exchange Binance offers is 20x, and you have to pass certain requirements to do so.

The future of Aster

Aster has gotten off to a hot start, but it has big plans to keep building.

A move to a dedicated layer-1 network will be the most significant change to the decentralized exchange, and will be a notable move away from BNB Chain—which is tied to Binance, which CZ co-founded.

Exact details on this move are still fairly under wraps, with Aster’s official docs simply saying “coming soon.” Aster Chain is currently in an internal testing phase, the exchange’s CEO Leonard told Cointelegraph. Leonard said it is being designed to “preserve trade privacy.”

What users are likely most excited for, though, is the possibility of an Aster airdrop.

After its token generation event, a portion of the token supply was airdropped to those that had participated in previous airdrop campaigns. On October 17, the airdrop claim period will close and any unclaimed tokens will go back to the community rewards pool—which accounts for 53.5% of its total supply.

As such, users are anticipating another round of airdrops to take place sometime after the October claim period closes. And some traders are already attempting to farm it.

Whether you’re farming the airdrop, eagerly anticipating the new layer-1 network, or just trading with insane leverage, Aster has a lot in store for users. Whether it ultimately has the same kind of long-term impact as Hyperliquid remains to be seen, however.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Bitcoin advocate Ian Calderon runs for California governor

by admin September 28, 2025

On September 23, Ian Calderon joined the Gubernatorial Elections in California. He vowed to ensure that Bitcoin would be on the state’s balance sheet if he were elected. However, many in the Bitcoin community are skeptical.

Summary

Calderon has a multi-year track record of advocating for crypto and Bitcoin in the California legislature.
Calderon is trying to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats.
The announcement of his gubernatorial campaign sparked mixed reactions from the crypto community.

Who is Calderon?

Calderon, a Democrat, drew scrutiny last week with his pro-crypto stance. Critics say his Bitcoin narrative is a PR stunt. Yet, others found Calderon’s bid noteworthy, as it signifies the rising bipartisan support for Bitcoin.

Calderon served three terms in the California Legislature before quitting in 2020. He was the first millennial elected to the Legislature and the youngest majority leader in the history of the California State Assembly.

Among his Bitcoin-related initiatives is one aimed at pulling crypto out of the gray zone. After all, Calderon is the author of the 2018 bill AB 2658, which created California’s Blockchain Working Group. It aimed to explore the potential use of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, collaborate with policymakers to define the legal status of cryptocurrencies, and assess possible risks.

Between 2020 and 2022, he contributed to the Blockchain Working Group’s roadmap and began working on a bill aimed at making Bitcoin a legal tender in California.

Calderon saw the bill as groundbreaking legislation for the entire country. He said in 2022:

“It’s important that we’re making this effort in California because of the national implications it will have. The goal here is to have a national model piece of legislation that can work anywhere in the country.”

It’s worth saying that despite Calderon’s claim about Bitcoin as legal tender, the bill doesn’t contain the words “Bitcoin” or “cryptocurrency.” Instead, it provides a pretty vague definition of “virtual currency” meant as a means of payment for goods and services. Calderon offered to launch pilot programs to tackle the bill’s legal ambiguity for the local cities. The bill has not seen much progress since November 2022.

Calderon’s platform

Calderon’s announcement was accompanied by a video clip in which he outlined the problems he plans to tackle as governor. He mentions growing gas and grocery prices and the housing crisis:

“Childcare costs are out of control, paychecks aren’t keeping up with the cost of living, gas prices are the highest in the nation, and now, buying a home is becoming out of reach.”

Additionally, Calderon notes that too many homes in California are owned by corporations and foreign investors, “preventing local families from attaining full ownership opportunities.”

Calderon presents himself as a Democrat who believes in common-sense solutions and does not always agree with his party. The complete list of his initiatives is available on his campaign’s website, Ian For Governor.

He barely mentions Bitcoin in the video; however, on the day when he announced his governor bid, Calderon took to an X to state that it’s time to make California an undisputed leader on Bitcoin.

California has always been a leader on technology. It’s time for us to get back to our roots and make California the undisputed leader on Bitcoin.

— Ian Calderon (@IanCalderon) September 23, 2025

Reaction

A long-time ally, Dennis Porter, the Satoshi Act Fund CEO, has been teasing his 200,000-plus follower base with an important announcement for days.

When it turned out that he just wanted to inform his followers that Calderon is running for governor of California, many of his followers said the announcement wasn’t worth the hype.

Some of them equate Democrats with a war on crypto and don’t believe Calderon is a genuine Bitcoin supporter.

Most of them are unaware of Calderon’s track record as a Bitcoin advocate. Seemingly, the fact that the biggest crypto bills of 2025 were bipartisan doesn’t matter to them either.

Is this really “it”? Dennis…. I love what you do, but the hype was uncalled for.

— G$ (@Gendog52) September 23, 2025

Other critics recalled Calderon’s uncles, Ron and Tom, who were involved in California political life. In 2016, they were convicted on public corruption charges.

The adverse reactions stemming from Porter’s announcement spread on the comment sections of the announcements made by Calderon himself and several crypto influencers.

The latter includes The Wolf of All Streets podcast host Scott Melker and Wendy O, who is the host of the biggest female-run Bitcoin YouTube show, “The O Show.” Some expressed support for Calderon’s ambitions but urged him to stop his affiliation with Porter.

Dude… If you want to be serious drop working with @Dennis_Porter_ you might be a good guy but this guy hyped everyone up over a big announcement. It wasn’t a political announcement…

— ²¹²Johyo | CroCrash (@Johyo_cro) September 23, 2025

Nevertheless, many other people greeted an openly pro-Bitcoin candidate from the Democratic Party, hoping that Calderon could oppose fellow Democrats who go against Bitcoin.

This is the point of the announcement. Democratic pro-bitcoin voices can push back on the elizabeth warren camp in ways the GOP can’t. As bitcoiners isn’t this what we want?

— Gordon Perkins (@peconicgp) September 23, 2025

Competition

The fight for a governor’s seat in 2026 is already considered a tough contest. Calderon is facing several noteworthy candidates, including Congresswoman Katie Porter from the Democratic Party and Republican Fox News contributor Steve Hilton.

Given that the election will take place on Nov. 5, Calderon may approve himself at some point. Yet, it is hard to say if his participation in the race makes a difference.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

The ‘Stranger Things’ Brothers Tease Their Paramount Plans

by admin September 28, 2025

2025 will end with the end of Stranger Things, after which creators Matt and Ross Duffer will be at Paramount. While the pair are knee deep in putting the finishing touches on their Netflix hit, they talked up what’s to come once they’re exclusive to the Mission: Impossible and Transformers studio.

Movie-wise, the brothers intend to focus on original things, but they also told Variety they wouldn’t mind tackling a known property owned by Paramount. However, they stressed any IP they took on would have to be ones they “really responded to,” not just something that’s popular or would make a good headline. They didn’t offer more specifics in terms of criteria, but Matt brought up “botched” properties where “someone swung and missed, [and] then you have an opportunity to do it properly.”

When they’re not tackling movies, the Duffers hope to find and foster new talent, akin to what Shawn Levy did for them by backing Stranger Things. They don’t want to get as big as Bad Robot, though, so they’ll just focus on “identifying really talented people and then just helping them get their vision made and then mostly staying out of the way.”

As for the Duffers’ TV ventures, they intend repeat what they did with Stranger Things and make event shows in the eight-to-10 episode range. Shows with 20-episode or more seasons are “fatiguing,” said Matt, and neither brother grew up a fan of that model. But they want to continue making shows with shorter seasons and a “when it’s done” model, with Matt calling the traditional way “a diminishing return. I like the buildup.” Brother Matt also acknowleged that it’s strange the two even ended up in TV to begin with when they grew up on movies and aren’t really fans of television—but hey, look forward to the last run of Stranger Things episodes beginning November 26.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments