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challenge

A photo of MrBeast against a background of dollar signs.
Esports

MrBeast addresses ‘concerns’ as “evil” $500,000 challenge goes viral for wrong reasons

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MrBeast has come under fire, pun intended, for his latest YouTube video in which, a man is trapped inside a room engulfed with flames for a $500,000 prize.

The biggest personality on the internet is often pushing boundaries with his content, not always pleasing everyone on social media in the process. This trend has continued with his latest upload wherein, a contestant is effectively asked if they’d risk their life for half a million dollars.

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In particular, the first segment of the 25-minute YouTube upload is spreading like wildfire, with millions of impressions across various social media platforms. Many are bashing the very premise of the challenge, with others arguing MrBeast is bordering on morphing into a horror movie villain.

Amid the controversy, MrBeast has addressed concerns in multiple comments after the fact.

MrBeast’s fiery $500,000 controversy explained

A video published to YouTube on September 28, 2025 opens on the following premise: “Would you risk burning alive for half a million dollars?”

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What ensues is a single contestant making their way through a series of seven challenges, which MrBeast labelled “Death Traps.” Each obstacle involved fire, to some degree, be it jumping through hoops of fire or swimming underneath water set ablaze.

Throughout the video, MrBeast reminds the audience that the contestant, Eric, is an experienced stuntman. The participant himself also adds he’s “very used to this kind of craziness” through his vocation.

Eric agreed to take part in the risky series of challenges in order to use the prize money to help his cancer-stricken father.

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While the personal stakes were clearly high, it’s clear to see MrBeast and his team took plenty of precautions to ensure Eric’s safety throughout the competition. For instance, the final task was to run through a few meters of fire. Here, we can see Eric is covered in multiple layers of protective clothing, not to mention fire-retardant gel on his skin to prevent serious damage.

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While it’s all obviously inherently dangerous, it’s evident in the publicly released footage how steps were taken to avoid life-threatening harm.

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Regardless, millions across social media have mostly been exposed to a single clip taken from the video without that context. As a result, many are bashing MrBeast once again for having contestants risk their well-being for the sake of financial gain.

MrBeast blasted for trapping man in room on fire

For the most part, the clip gaining traction is from the start of the video. Eric is tied to a chair in a room on fire. He has to free himself from the rope before grabbing bags of cash and getting them safely out of the room.

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Comments on X (formerly Twitter) ranged from labelling the YouTuber as “f***ing evil,” to arguing he needs to be ‘cancelled’ “before someone actually dies and he profits off of it.”

Others called it “dystopian,” joking that MrBeast isn’t far off from the fictional murders seen in the likes of Squid Game.

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Meanwhile, on Reddit, users questioned how the video doesn’t go against YouTube’s Terms of Service.

MrBeast addresses fallout from ‘Risk Dying for $500,000’ video

Given the attention, most of it negative, MrBeast soon responded to complaints online. First came a lengthy comment under the YouTube video itself, assuring they take “safety extremely seriously.”

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According to the comment, all seven challenges were first tested by “multiple stuntmen.” Furthermore, a full rescue team of firefighters and EMTs, with an ambulance and firetruck at the ready, was on site in the case of an emergency.

YouTube: MrBeastMrBeast’s first comment addressing the fiery controversy.

“We also had a pyro team controlling the fires and multiple fire suppression methods on every challenge to ensure we could essentially turn off the fire if there was ever an issue,” the post continued. “None of these systems were ever needed.”

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MrBeast then followed up the next day on X in light of a viral post drawing over 59 million impressions by the time of writing.

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This blew up, if you’re curious obviously we had ventilation for the smoke and a kill switch to cut off the fires. We had professionals test this extensively and the guy in the video as stated is a professional stunt man. I take safety more serious than you could ever imagine.

— MrBeast (@MrBeast) September 29, 2025

“If you’re curious, obviously, we had ventilation for the smoke and a kill switch to cut off the fires. We had professionals test this extensively, and the guy in the video, as stated, is a professional stuntman.

“I take safety more serious than you could ever imagine [sic],” MrBeast said.

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Product Reviews

Major League Baseball will adopt an automated challenge system in 2026

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Next year, baseball reasons will have one less reason to rage at the umpire. Major League Baseball announced today that it will introduce the Automated Ball Strike challenge system in the 2026 season for all spring training, championship season and postseason games. In other words, next year there will be a way for the players to attempt to overturn an umpire’s call about whether a pitch counts as a strike or a ball if they disagree with the initial decision. 

ABS uses a network of a dozen camera to record every pitch thrown. The umpire will still call the pitch a ball or strike as usual, but under the new system, the pitcher, catcher or batter can immediately challenge that decision. Coaching staff and other players cannot offer input on whether or not a challenge is initiated. If the cameras show any part of the ball touching the batter’s strike zone, the pitch will be counted as a strike. All teams will begin a game with two challenge opportunities, and only lose them if they challenge unsuccessfully. For games that go into extra innings, a team will get an additional challenge if it has none remaining at the start of the additional gameplay.  

Baseball has taken a gradual path to introducing this tech. ABS has been tested at the Triple-A level since 2022, and it finally got a chance in the majors during spring training and in the All-Star Game this year. Other sports have also been leveraging electronics to ensure that gameplay rules and scoring are consistent. Football/soccer has implemented a video assistant referee (VAR) system in several leagues, including FIFA and the UK’s Premier league. Tennis is also adopting electronic line calls at Wimbledon and other tournaments. Even the electronic systems are not infallible, but considering how much any high-level athletic endeavor can be won or lost by millimeters, having a backup for the human eye seems like a net positive.



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MLB approves robot umpires for 2026 as part of challenge system
Esports

MLB approves robot umpires for 2026 as part of challenge system

by admin



Sep 23, 2025, 01:58 PM ET

NEW YORK — Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season.

Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.

Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

ABS, which uses Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that’s year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges.

At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

In the first test at the big league All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful in July.

Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining.

MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts and larger bases.

The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete. Not that everyone loves it.

“The idea that people get paid for cheating, for stealing strikes, for moving a pitch that’s not a strike into the zone to fool the official and make it a strike is beyond my comprehension,” former manager Bobby Valentine said.

Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a big league catcher from 1978 to ’87, maintained that old-school umpires such as Bruce Froemming and Billy Williams never would have accepted pitch framing. He said they would have told him: “‘If you do that again, you’ll never get a strike.’ I’m cutting out some words.”

Management officials on the competition committee include Seattle chairman John Stanton, St. Louis CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort, Toronto CEO Mark Shapiro and Boston chairman Tom Werner.

Players include Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit’s Casey Mize, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and the New York Yankees’ Austin Slater, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ as an alternate. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

Bill Miller is the umpire representative.



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California Lawmakers Once Again Challenge Newsom's Tech Ties with AI Bill
Product Reviews

California Lawmakers Once Again Challenge Newsom’s Tech Ties with AI Bill

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Last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a wildly popular (among the public) and wildly controversial (among tech companies) bill that would have established robust safety guidelines for the development and operation of artificial intelligence models. Now he’ll have a second shot—this time with at least part of the tech industry giving him the green light. On Saturday, California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 53, a landmark piece of legislation that would require AI companies to submit to new safety tests.

Senate Bill 53, which now awaits the governor’s signature to become law in the state, would require companies building “frontier” AI models—systems that require massive amounts of data and computing power to operate—to provide more transparency into their processes. That would include disclosing safety incidents involving dangerous or deceptive behavior by autonomous AI systems, providing more clarity into safety and security protocols and risk evaluations, and providing protections for whistleblowers who are concerned about the potential harms that may come from models they are working on.

The bill—which would apply to the work of companies like OpenAI, Google, xAI, Anthropic, and others—has certainly been dulled from previous attempts to set up a broad safety framework for the AI industry. The bill that Newsom vetoed last year, for instance, would have established a mandatory “kill switch” for models to address the potential of them going rogue. That’s nowhere to be found here. An earlier version of SB 53 also applied the safety requirements to smaller companies, but that has changed. In the version that passed the Senate and Assembly, companies bringing in less than $500 million in annual revenue only have to disclose high-level safety details rather than more granular information, per Politico—a change made in part at the behest of the tech industry.

Whether that’s enough to satisfy Newsom (or more specifically, satisfy the tech companies from whom he would like to continue receiving campaign contributions) is yet to be seen. Anthropic recently softened on the legislation, opting to throw its support behind it just days before it officially passed. But trade groups like the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and Chamber for Progress, which count among its members companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta, have come out in opposition to the bill. OpenAI also signaled its opposition to regulations California has been pursuing without specifically naming SB 53.

After the Trump administration tried and failed to implement a 10-year moratorium on states implementing regulations on AI, California has the opportunity to lead on the issue—which makes sense, given most of the companies at the forefront of the space are operating within its borders. But that fact also seems to be part of the reason Newsom is so shy to pull the trigger on regulations despite all his bluster on many other issues. His political ambitions require money to run, and those companies have a whole lot of it to offer.



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Ripple vs. SEC Is Over: Time to Challenge SWIFT?
Crypto Trends

Ripple vs. SEC Is Over: Time to Challenge SWIFT?

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Ripple has finally finished its legal battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, bringing legal clarity to its underlying coin, XRP (XRP). Now observers are asking whether XRP can finally focus on providing a viable alternative to SWIFT.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) has been the backbone of international money transfers since its founding in 1973. However, for several years, critics have said that the system is outdated.

Many in the blockchain industry, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, argue that blockchain technology provides higher throughput and better transparency, making it a superior alternative to SWIFT.

Now that Ripple’s legal battles have calmed down, can it provide a reasonable alternative to SWIFT?

How does Ripple stack up to SWIFT?

Over 50 years ago, SWIFT replaced Telex as the coding system underpinning worldwide financial transactions. The system does not send money itself but rather provides standardized codes and a secure messaging platform through which banks can coordinate money transfers.

A customer will make a money transfer request. Their bank will then send the request to the recipient bank, and that request may go through several other banks in the network. Actual settlement happens through established banking relationships and clearing systems.

SWIFT processes over 53 million messages daily across 40,000 payment routes, 220 countries and over 11,500 institutions.

But there are some major complaints with SWIFT. Transactions can take several days and are rife with fees. Furthermore, the complex network of bank partners means it is more difficult to ensure visibility.

There are also delays and failures. SWIFT said in January 2024 that one in 10 transactions fails, while one in 20 settles late. 

The network has undergone a number of upgrades since its inception, including .

ISO 20022, which aims to provide clearer payment data and more transparency by Nov. 25, 2025. Still, critics claim it is ultimately outdated “legacy” tech running on decades-old XML technology.

SWIFT may have the advantage of ubiquity and clear institutional adoption, but Ripple offers a clear advantage in technological terms, with faster transaction and settlement speeds, as well as lower costs.

In 2018, just a couple of years before Ripple’s years-long legal battle with the SEC would begin, Garlinghouse told Bloomberg, “What we’re doing and executing on a day-by-day basis is, in fact, taking over SWIFT” as banks and remittance companies signed on to use XRP Ledger.

So, with institutional partners signing on and the XRP price on a tear over the last year, what’s stopping Ripple’s ledger from challenging SWIFT?

XRP’s price increased 400% over the year. Source: CoinMarketCap

So, why hasn’t Ripple overtaken SWIFT?

Cassie Craddock, managing director for UK and Europe at Ripple, told Cointelegraph, “We don’t see blockchain as an opportunity to replace legacy rails, rather a way of augmenting and modernizing the existing financial infrastructure, creating opportunities for greater efficiency and interoperability.”

Still, “scaling to the level of traditional providers requires tackling two key hurdles: usability and regulation.”

Regarding regulation, Ripple was, until recently, part of a particularly high-profile court case.

In December 2020, the SEC under Chairman Jay Clayton sued Ripple Labs for failing to register its XRP tokens as securities under US law. The commission alleged that the company and its executives raised capital through unregistered securities sales. What followed was an expensive, years-long court battle.

In 2023, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the programmatic sales of XRP did not require securities registration, but that its XPR sales to institutional investors did. The court didn’t issue its final $125-million civil penalty to Ripple until August 2024.

Related: Ripple vs. SEC: How the lawsuit strengthened XRP’s narrative

By October, Ripple and the SEC had filed respective appeals, but following the election of US President Donald Trump and the realignment of the SEC’s priorities for crypto, both parties finally agreed to drop their case in early August 2025.

The case may have hampered XRP adoption in the US, but during the case, it signed partnerships with institutions in numerous other jurisdictions around the globe. Furthermore, the case gives XRP specifically unique legal clarity — something few cryptocurrencies can boast.

However, legal clarity may not be enough for Ripple to overtake the world’s largest payments network, as banks themselves must be convinced to change how they operate.

Pseudonymous software engineer and blockchain proponent Vincent Van Code said that platforms using SWIFT “process billions daily, but they are rigid, costly, and deeply siloed. A core replacement can take 5–7 years and hundreds of millions of dollars—an enormous operational risk.”

They said that banks don’t change their systems because “every bank already ‘speaks SWIFT,’ making it the safest, cheapest option. Even initiatives like SWIFT GPI are just patches on a nearly 50-year-old foundation.”

Van Code concluded that Ripple has to contend with fragile legacy cores and “uneven” global regulation and assuage risk-averse banks — all while countering perceptions about its underlying token’s liquidity.

“SWIFT’s ubiquity is its moat, and breaking that network effect will take time.”

Craddock said that “institutions need tools that feel familiar,” and that new regulations, particularly the GENIUS Act, are a “step toward clear rules that give institutions confidence to adopt blockchain in a compliant way.”

“Stablecoins like Ripple USD are helping bridge this gap — they’re simple to understand, pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and behave like cash in digital form. That familiarity is why we’re seeing traditional financial players increasingly comfortable using crypto and blockchain tech today.”

Private payments gain ground

It’s unclear whether Ripple can take on SWIFT in the future, overcoming the entrenched business practices of the banking sector and less-than-enthusiastic regulators.

However, crypto is ascendant in the US, where lawmakers are making carveouts for digital assets to fulfill critical roles in the traditional finance system. Congress has clearly expressed its preference for the proliferation of private stablecoins over a digital dollar or central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Congress has not outright banned a CBDC, but it has created a law whereby only the legislature can create one, excluding the Federal Reserve or commercial entities. At the same time, it passed the GENIUS Act, which gives clear rules for stablecoin issuers.

In March, after the SEC dropped its investigation into Ripple, Garlinghouse told Fox News that “the market opportunity is massive” in the US and said that there’s an opportunity to modernize the payment systems from SWIFT.

“The Trump effect is profound […] you’re gonna see that in the adoption of these [blockchain] technologies.”

Magazine: ChatGPT’s links to murder, suicide and ‘accidental jailbreaks’: AI Eye



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MrBeast's Craziest Challenge Yet: Launching a Phone Company
Product Reviews

MrBeast’s Craziest Challenge Yet: Launching a Phone Company

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Globally popular social media star MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is already estimated to be a billionaire, but he doesn’t seem to be satisfied with having made an obscene amount of money from YouTube videos. A new report claims that Beast plans to follow in the footsteps of Ryan Reynolds and get into the telecom business.

Business Insider writes that Donaldson has been mulling launching his own phone company. Citing a leaked investor deck, the outlet reports that the company would be a “MrBeast-branded mobile service” that runs atop an existing telecom network, such as Verizon or T-Mobile.  Such a business is called a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, and functions by essentially branding a segment of an existing network—much like Reynolds’ Mint Mobile (which runs on the T-Mobile network).

If the product does launch, it may be in 2026, according to the viewed deck, although much about the company remains unclear. Gizmodo reached out to Donaldson for comment. An anonymous source familiar with the plans told BI that “the MrBeast team has been moving forward with a wide range of new initiatives and partnerships and has no specific timeline for its mobile-phone project, which isn’t an immediate priority.”

Lately, Donaldson seems to be attempting to expand his empire, and launching a phone business would probably be a good way to do that. The social media mogul’s expanded ambitions were revealed earlier this year when CNN reported that he was hoping to buy TikTok. Such a purchase would have made sense, given Donaldson’s penchant for viral videos. However, as of this summer, there was no clear winner in the bid to buy the popular app, although Donaldson still appears interested in it.

Donaldson has also faced some legal troubles over the past few years, including a lawsuit from former contestants on his Beast Games that alleged “chronic mistreatment” while participating in the show.



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China, Japan, and other countries to challenge USD-pegged stablecoins crusade
NFT Gaming

China, Japan, and other countries to challenge USD-pegged stablecoins crusade

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A lot was said about how the U.S. economy can benefit from USD-pegged stablecoins, especially now, when the GENIUS Act provides a clearer framework for the issuers. But can other countries benefit from issuing stablecoins pegged to their respective national currencies? Yes, they can, and several countries are already joining the race.

Summary

  • USD-pegged stablecoins strengthen the U.S. dollar; hence, other countries are trying to galvanize their local currencies through issuing stablecoins.
  • If the dominance of the USD-pegged stablecoins is downplayed, it may siphon away deposits from local banks.
  • Japan and China are working on their national stablecoins, while the European Union is busy creating a CBDC on Ethereum and Solana.

USD-pegged stablecoins as a medicine for the U.S. economy

The U.S. has rejected plans to develop a central bank-issued digital dollar. Critics of the digital dollar cited privacy issues–the central bank shouldn’t have that much control and data over transactions that people make. 

Instead, the government encouraged the private and public companies to issue stablecoins–private blockchain-based money backed by real assets 1:1, usually by U.S. dollars or the U.S. Treasury bills. Most stablecoins out there are pegged to USD (99% of all are pegged to USD), so each of them has a value equal to one U.S. dollar. Stablecoin issuers don’t generate yield directly on stablecoins, but they do earn interest by holding U.S. Treasury bills that back those coins. 

🌐INSIGHT: U.S. dollar dominance on-chain: USD is the most widely tokenized currency, while no euro stablecoin ranks among the top 20 by supply.

Source: Token Terminal 📊 pic.twitter.com/1cBRwDe8BV

— CryptosRus (@CryptosR_Us) August 24, 2025

While it may look like the government gave away its benefit of control and favored the market, actually, it creates new growth opportunities for the companies that issue stablecoins and buy American dollars and t-bills as they must back their stablecoins 1:1. This condition is required by the GENIUS Act signed by President Donald Trump on July 18, 2025. 

As stablecoins are circulating freely across the globe and are very popular in the Global South, where local currencies are losing value against USD, these countries’ residents eagerly use USD-pegged stablecoins for remittances and as a savings asset. Their demand for the USD-pegged stablecoins boosts the demand for USD and t-bills as issuers have to back their stablecoins with these assets.

Explaining how stablecoins work for the U.S. economy, BitMEX exchange co-founder Arthur Hayes wrote in his newsletter, using the biggest USD-pegged issuer Tether as an example:

“The business model of Tether is very simple. Receive dollars, issue a digital token that rides on a public blockchain, invest the dollars in T-bills, and earn the [net interest margin, which is the Federal Reserve-set interest rate]. [The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott] Bessent will ensure that issuers that the empire will tacitly support by law can only hold dollars in a chartered US bank, and or treasury debt securities. No funky stuff.”

Hayes stresses that most countries — except mainland China — use American social media apps. If these platforms begin supporting USD-pegged stablecoin transfers, it could trigger major capital outflows from the Global South and sharply boost demand for the U.S. dollar. More than that, it may effectively replace local banks with the U.S.-controlled digital currency. 

On Aug. 26, Trump vowed to impose substantial tariffs on countries that try to “discriminate against American Technology” through digital taxes and digital market regulations. It means that fighting against the implementation of stablecoin transactions on, say, WhatsApp would be a costly move for other countries.

“With the Dollar backed stablecoins, you’ll help expand the dominance of the US Dollar […] It will be at the top, and that’s where we want to keep it”

What he means is:

with Dollar backed stablecoins, the Global South will pivot towards digital Dollars over local currencies,… pic.twitter.com/ZIFQio5cA4

— L0la L33tz is more fun on Nostr (@L0laL33tz) March 20, 2025

When the U.S. is printing dollars, it devalues USD reserves held by countries abroad. No wonder lately many countries have preferred to buy more gold. The conjunction of American stablecoins and the power of American Tech may turn the USD into a stronger currency than it is now. 

The downside is that it will make exporting from the U.S. too expensive. Given that Trump wants to boost the U.S. manufacturing and exports, a strong dollar may not be the way to go. Some might argue that the growing value of the American dollar makes the U.S. national debt even a bigger problem, but demand for stablecoins drives the demand for t-bills, gradually paying off the debt.

China gets closer to launching a yuan-pegged stablecoin

China is one of the few countries that has its own powerful social media giants, like WeChat. Launching a yuan-pegged stablecoin may see an effect similar to what the U.S. is doing. China’s economy is heavily export-driven. In that context, stablecoins could become a more attractive tool than yuan-based bank transfers, offering instant and low-cost remittances.

Thus, Chinese authorities decided not to wait until American stablecoins would replace the yuan. In 2021, China launched digital yuan, a CBDC that didn’t gain much traction, however, losing popularity to services like WeChat Pay and AliPay.

In May 2025, Hong Kong adopted the Stablecoins Bill, which allows the issuance of stablecoins backed by Chinese assets. On Aug. 20, it was reported that the State Council of China is working on launching a yuan-pegged stablecoin for international trade.

In the event that yuan-pegged bank-issued stablecoins become reality, they may counterpoise the American dollar-pegged stablecoin invasion. Given that the renminbi’s market share dropped below 3% (the USD share is above 47%), China has something to go after.

Yen-pegged stablecoin will soon be launched in Japan

Monex Group is a Tokyo-based financial company. It made headlines on Aug. 26, when it revealed ambitious plans to launch a yen-pegged stablecoin. Monex is trying to repeat America’s formula. As Japan lacks social media resources that the U.S. and China have, the yen stablecoin has somewhat limited prospects in this race. 

Nevertheless, the company aims to back its coins with Japanese government bills. Stablecoins are set to serve for cross-border remittance and corporate trades. The project may get a boost from Coincheck, a crypto exchange owned by Monex Group. More than that, Monex chairman Oki Matsumoto claims Monex is going to acquire several European crypto companies, which will widen Monex’s stablecoin platform. The stablecoin launch is scheduled for the fall of 2025.

European Union’s efforts

European Central Bank economist Piero Cipollone cited the growing USD-pegged stablecoins as the reason for rushing a launch of the digital euro. In the growing de-dollarization narratives, the digital euro may come as a possible replacement for the U.S. dollar.

On Aug. 22, 2025, it was revealed that to speed up the launch of the digital euro, the EU is considering using a public blockchain, namely Ethereum and Solana, instead of creating a private blockchain controlled by the central bank.

The news was met with criticism from the crypto community. According to multiple commenters, if launched on Solana or Ethereum, the digital euro will be the worst variant of a CBDC. Transaction data will be available on public blockchains, while the central bank will have even greater control over transaction data.

There are several euro-pegged stablecoins in circulation; however, combined, they make up only 0.2% of the entire stablecoin market. Given that Europe doesn’t have products like Meta or WeChat that could boost the adoption of Euro stablecoins dramatically, it’s not clear how strong it can be in the ongoing race.





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Crypto Trends

US Trading App Webull Launches Crypto Service in Australia to Challenge Incumbents

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In brief

  • Webull has launched crypto trading for Australian users, with access to 240 digital assets and a 30 basis point spread through Coinbase Prime.
  • Experts say Australian exchanges charge double the spreads of international peers for major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
  • The launch follows Webull’s Monday announcement of resuming U.S. crypto trading after suspending services in 2023 during its IPO process.

U.S. trading app Webull launched crypto services for Australian users on Wednesday, offering access to hundreds of different digital assets in a move experts say will force local exchanges to slash fees or risk losing customers.

The launch through Coinbase Prime adds Australia as Webull’s third crypto market, alongside the U.S. and Brazil, with the company promising a 30-basis-point spread, according to a statement.

Industry experts predict the entry will trigger competitive pressure across Australia’s crypto exchange market, where fees have remained stubbornly high compared to international markets.



Pratik Kala, head of research and portfolio manager at Apollo Crypto, told Decrypt that “Australian exchanges have much higher fees and spreads compared to our international peers; in some cases, more than double the spread even for liquid pairs like Bitcoin and Ethereum.”

“Australian exchanges list a small fraction of coins—Webull’s entry with 240 coins will expand overall options for Australians,” he said, with competition expected to “expand overall options for Australians.”

Webull announced Monday that it resumed crypto trading in the U.S. after suspending services in 2023 during its public listing process, part of what CEO Anthony Denier called a “full-throttle” global expansion into digital assets.

James Volpe, founding director of uCubed, told Decrypt that Webull faces “entrenched competition from established players in Australia who will work hard to defend their market share.”

“Competition in such a young market tends to create competitive fee structures and additional service features for users,” he added.

He said new entrants “raise the bar for incumbents,” pushing more competitive fees and better user experiences, but cautioned that “the key” for investors is understanding risks tied to custody and centralized platforms.

“The greatest challenge,” he said, “is the shift toward non-custodial and decentralized technologies, giving users control over their identity, custody of assets, and lowering trading costs.”

Despite such hurdles, he acknowledged “while the institutional backing and infrastructure via Coinbase may provide an edge, success here depends on building trust and demonstrating value in an increasingly sophisticated market.”

Webull supports trading through individual accounts, SMSFs, trusts, and company structures, positioning crypto as part of traditional investment frameworks with 24/7 customer support.

Volpe said this may boost crypto’s role in wealth management, but “true integration” hinges on “education, regulation, and investor confidence.”

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GameFi Guides

US Prosecutors Challenge ‘Unusually Lenient’ Sentence in HashFlare Mining Fraud

by admin



In brief

  • Legal experts say prosecutors face uphill battle appealing “unusually lenient” sentence for Estonians who ran a $577 million crypto Ponzi scheme.
  • Judge Lasnik sentenced defendants to time served, rejecting prosecutors’ 10-year prison request due to concerns about foreign defendants’ treatment.
  • HashFlare fraud hit 440,000 victims worldwide through fake mining contracts, with $400 million seized for compensation.

Federal prosecutors have moved to overturn what one legal expert called an “unusually lenient” outcome in one of the largest crypto frauds ever tried in the region.

The government on Tuesday appealed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals the “time served” sentences handed down to Estonian nationals Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme.

The notice challenges both the sentencing hearing decisions and Judge Robert S. Lasnik’s written “Order on Sentencing” issued on Tuesday.

The appeal targets Lasnik’s decision to sentence Potapenko and Turõgin to only three years of supervised release and $25,000 fines each, rejecting prosecutors’ request for 10-year prison terms in what authorities called “the largest fraud ever prosecuted” in the Western District of Washington.

Ishita Sharma, a blockchain and crypto lawyer and managing partner at Fathom Legal, told Decrypt that “the chances are high for the sentence to be upheld” because “the Ninth Circuit generally defers to a district judge’s discretion unless it finds the sentence was clearly outside the bounds of reasonableness.”

Sharma said the Ninth Circuit will weigh whether the judge “properly calculated and considered the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines,” the “consistency” of the ruling with national norms for large fraud cases, and if leniency “undermines general deterrence” in economic crimes.

Navodaya Singh Rajpurohit, legal partner at Coinque Consulting, shared the same view, telling Decrypt that while the sentence may seem “unusually lenient,” Judge Lasnik clearly articulated his reasoning around “time already served, immigration risks, and restitution concerns.”

The legal expert noted Judge Lasnik’s “reasonings are genuine there could actually be problems if they are retained in us,” referring to the systemic concerns about foreign defendants’ treatment that formed the foundation of the sentencing decision.

While “prosecutors can argue it downplays the fraud, but history shows the Ninth Circuit rarely reverses sentences when the judge ties them to specific, well-reasoned order,” he said.

The HashFlare defendants pleaded guilty in February to defrauding 440,000 victims worldwide through fraudulent crypto mining contracts from 2015 to 2019.

They showed customers “fake online dashboards” with fictitious returns while lacking the mining infrastructure they promised, instead using investor funds for luxury purchases and buying Bitcoin through exchanges to pay early withdrawers.

Judge Lasnik has described the case as “one of the most difficult sentencings the Court has encountered during 27 years on the federal bench.”

He noted that all parties agreed the defendants should serve any prison sentence in Estonia through a treaty transfer, but is “taking too great a risk by assuming that office [Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs] will approve defendants’ treaty transfer rather than reject it,”

Lasnik warned that without treaty transfers, the defendants would “face a significantly longer and harsher term of imprisonment” than American white-collar criminals receiving identical sentences, followed by “indefinite detention” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement before deportation.

However, Sharma noted that the sentence’s “leniency in the face of a massive fraud raises serious concerns about consistency and deterrence.”

The defendants forfeited approximately $400 million in assets for victim compensation.

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Dogecoin Live News Today: Latest Insights for Doge Lovers (August 26)
NFT Gaming

Dogecoin Price Analysis as $DOGE Remains Stable Despite Whale Dumping, Maxi Doge Rises to the Challenge, and More…

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Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

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August 27, 2025 • 10:00 UTC

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$DOGE Defies Gravity as Whales Dump; Maxi Doge Powers Up

August 27, 2025 • 10:00 UTC

Dogecoin just pulled a classic meme move, surging to $0.21 despite a jaw-dropping $200M whale dump to Binance.

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