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Crypto Trends

California’s $500 Billion Pension Fund Split Over Bitcoin Exposure

by admin September 4, 2025



In brief

  • CalPERS candidates were split on crypto investments, ranging from outright rejection to cautious consideration.
  • The fund holds 410,596 MicroStrategy shares valued at $165.9 million, creating substantial indirect Bitcoin exposure.
  • One challenger wouldn’t “close the door entirely” on crypto, while another called blockchain technology “promising”

California state pension fund CalPERS recorded mixed reactions from board candidates on crypto investments during Wednesday’s forum, despite the system holding shares in Bitcoin treasury company Strategy, previously known as MicroStrategy. 

The six candidates vying for seats on the California Public Employees’ Retirement System Board of Administration expressed divided views when asked whether Bitcoin should be included in the $506 billion fund’s portfolio.

CalPERS holds 410,596 Strategy shares valued at $165.9 million according to its Q2 13F filing, giving the pension system substantial indirect Bitcoin exposure through the company.



The forum opened with tensions as incumbent David Miller attacked challenger Dominick Bei during opening statements, saying “cryptocurrency should not have a seat on our board and never should,” while referencing Bei’s Bitcoin education nonprofit, Proof of Workforce.

CalPERS “owns shares in the largest bitcoin holding company in the world, MicroStrategy,” Bei rebuked, questioning why the fund maintains substantial indirect exposure while candidates oppose direct investment.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy holds over 636,505 BTC worth over $70 billion, making it a popular vehicle for institutional crypto exposure without direct purchases.

Miller attempted to reconcile this apparent contradiction, saying “investing in a business that’s working with Bitcoin transactions is a very different game than direct investment in buying Bitcoin.”

Kadan Stadelmann, Chief Technology Officer at Komodo Platform, told Decrypt that “Bitcoin is certainly not too volatile for pensions, especially in light of inflation.” The market has “clearly chosen Bitcoin as a store of value,” he said.

He noted CalPERS is “basically too scared to invest directly into Bitcoin” and has “a duty to hold Bitcoin in self-custody so the public is actually holding bitcoins, and not promises from middlemen.”

Meanwhile, challenger Steve Mermell declared “Hell no!” when asked about crypto’s place in CalPERS. 

He compared crypto to past financial disasters such as Orange County bankruptcy and Enron, calling it “opaque” and saying “it has no place in a pension system.”

Challenger Troy Johnson took a more nuanced stance, acknowledging concerns while remaining open to future consideration. 

“I’m very wary of hyper-sensitive investments like crypto,” he said, but added he wouldn’t “close the door entirely on it.”

The split extended to how candidates viewed blockchain technology versus direct crypto investment. 

Incumbent Jose Luis Pacheco rejected the possibility of Bitcoin as an investment while calling blockchain “an emerging technology with promise,” suggesting CalPERS “should study this opportunity through partnerships and research.”

Meanwhile, other state pension funds have increased their crypto exposure, with Michigan’s state pension tripling its Bitcoin ETF holdings to $11.4 million in Q2, Wisconsin’s Investment Board holding over $387 million in Bitcoin ETF shares, and Florida’s retirement system maintaining 240,026 Strategy shares worth $97 million.

The November election will determine whether CalPERS continues its current approach of indirect crypto exposure or potentially opens discussions about direct digital asset investment.

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September 4, 2025 0 comments
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Promotional images of Lego Voyagers.
Gaming Gear

I could look at Lego Voyagers for hours, but that’s not the only reason why this co-op adventure might be the next Split Fiction

by admin September 1, 2025



A spiritual successor to the excellent Lego Builder’s Journey, Lego Voyagers takes the serene puzzle action of its predecessor to new heights with a focus on two player co-op play. A celebration of friendship and creativity, I went hands-on with roughly half an hour of the game as part of an early preview session ahead of Gamescom 2025 and enjoyed every second.

For starters, it’s easily one of the best-looking Lego games ever made – capturing the look and feel of the popular building toy perfectly. Its world is crafted entirely from real-life Lego pieces, rendered with loving attention to detail. The way that tiles fit together with a tiny visible gap or at slightly uneven angles is not only impressively realistic, but lends the world a pleasantly tactile appearance.

It’s life-like, but beautiful too. Everything is bathed in soft atmospheric lighting that bounces off the plastic surface to give it an almost dream-like glow that’s incredibly warm and cozy. Even those with no affinity for Lego will be able to appreciate that Voyagers is one stunning game.


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(Image credit: Annapurna Interactive)

You and your companion play as tiny little bricks (part 3005 for all the real Lego pros out there), complete with a cute animated eye. These unassuming protagonists are simply adorable, cutely rolling around the screen like characters from a stop-motion animation.

Rather than speaking, your character sings, triggered by the press of a button, adding to the gentle and melodic background music and occasionally helping you solve the many puzzles.

Like Builder’s Journey, this is ultimately a game about the joy of getting from A to B, so your objective is simply figuring out how to progress. You can attach yourself to almost any visible stud (that’s the round bit on the top of a Lego brick) in the game with a satisfying click, so it’s sometimes as easy as jumping between a few exposed points up the side of your obstacle.

There are more complex encounters, too, that require attaching yourself to loose bricks. Once stuck, you can roll around with them for easy transport, then hold a key to place them in order to construct bridges or towers.

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As this is a co-op-only experience, you can expect lots of moments where teamwork is a necessity. One puzzle, for example, had my co-op partner triggering catapults to send valuable bricks my way, while another had them activating switches to keep vital platforms accessible.

If you’ve tried the likes of Split Fiction or It Takes Two, then you know roughly the kind of design to expect here, and I certainly felt that it scratched my itch for a new co-op adventure. As with those games, Lego Voyagers will feature a Friend’s Pass system in addition to full local co-op that lets a buddy join your game at any time for free.

(Image credit: Annapurna Interactive)

There are plenty of diversions along the way, too, clearly intended to evoke feelings of companionship. I never thought I would get emotional over two plastic bricks sitting on a swing staring into the sunset, but the excellent presentation means that it’s surprisingly poignant and effective.

This is on top of a host of amusing and creative ways to interact with the world, such as bizarre-looking flowers that shoot up into the air like a firework as you brush past, the little bucket piece you can wear as a hat, or being able to stick yourself to the scuttling crabs represented by red horizontal clip tiles – look up Lego piece 60470 and you’ll see the vision!

Although I ultimately didn’t get to see much of the world in my brief preview session, there’s something surprisingly somber about it. The areas you explore are full of industrial debris, abandoned train tracks, and hints of something much larger than you.

It’s all very mysterious, and I’m eager to see whatever Lego Voyagers has in store for me and a friend when it launches for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 15.

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September 1, 2025 0 comments
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My favourite tech at Gamescom is this "falcon-shaped" split gaming keyboard
Game Reviews

My favourite tech at Gamescom is this “falcon-shaped” split gaming keyboard

by admin August 23, 2025


I want to tell you about my favourite thing from Gamescom. It’s not the Xbox Ally X, it’s not an active sim racing brake pedal, and it’s not even that 720Hz tandem OLED monitor. It’s a keyboard – a very special keyboard with one glaring flaw. Let me explain.

The Falcata is another of Asus’ keyboards named after a sword (Falchion, Claymore), and in this case it’s a falcon-shaped sword that was used in the Iberian peninsula. I had no idea that “falcon” was a valid shape for a sword, but there you go. The keyboard itself isn’t Falcon-shaped (thankfully), instead it’s kind of normal 75 percent keyboard sized. It does look a little odd though, with a loop of USB wire up top connecting the left side to the right.

That’s because the keyboard splits in half when given a tug, allowing some interesting possibilities. The left side houses all of the internals, so you can use it fully standalone as a keypad, giving you a huge amount of mousing space even if you have a small desk. You can also keep that right side connected, but separate the two halves, angling them outward for a more comfortable typing position. The bonus here is that a convenient space opens up between the two halves, which is ideal for a steaming mug of tea.

Here’s what the keyboard looks like when you use a proper camera to take a photo, instead of relying on a camera phone in a weirdly lit press area on a boat. | Image credit: Asus

Beyond the split ergonomic design, the Falcata is quite a comfy keyboard for typing. The big difference here is the inclusion of four layers of sound dampening poron and silicone, quieting the keyboard while also making its report deeper and more satisfying. There are also PBT keycaps, which last longer than ABS alternatives and tend to have a bit more texture to them, and detachable wrist rests for each side.

The Falcata is also very capable when it comes to gaming, with a laundry list of “best mechanical keyboard 2025” features: magnetic (Hall Effect) switches, rapid trigger (keys react instantly to being pressed or released rather than only when passing set depth thresholds), SOCD (pairing keys so that pressing one automatically disables the other, useful for side-strafing in FPS titles), 8000Hz polling (rinses your battery life to minimise input latency). And yup, this keyboard has 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, so there is a built-in battery. You can also use the keyboard wired if you prefer, with 8000Hz being an option both wired and via the 2.4GHz connection.

The magnetic switches in the Falcata look just like this, but smaller.

You can see some of the four layers of sound-dampening poron and silicone here.
Image credit: Eurogamer


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Setting up your keyboard can take a second or hours, depending on your requirements, but you don’t need to install software to do this with the Falcata. Instead, you can access web software to rebind keys, adjust the RGB lighting or make macros. This is a continuing trend these days, and as someone that is contractually obligated to clutter up my computer with thousands of peripheral drivers and software, I feel very grateful.

Now here’s the bit where I lose the otherwise-interested reader: the Falcata costs £376 or $420, which is about 50 percent higher than even I expected. That’s a ludicrous price, even for the high-end specs and features offered, but sadly ergonomic keyboards like this do come with a massive mark-up. The keyboard isn’t yet out, so I hope there’s room for that price to come down before launch – or a cheaper wired model to be commissioned. Regardless, it’s likely that we’ll see more affordable imitators before too much longer. And maybe one of those keyboards will be my favourite piece of tech from Gamescom 2026.

Disclosure: Asus paid for flights and accommodation to Cologne for Gamescom so that we could see their new products in person.



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August 23, 2025 0 comments
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Crypto Trends

Bitcoin Options Traders Split Ahead of Fed’s Jackson Hole Meeting

by admin August 21, 2025



In brief

  • Options data indicates that Bitcoin traders are split, with nearly equal bullish and bearish block trades.
  • Experts suggest markets will be closely watching for Powell’s tone if there’s no clear decision surrounding rate cuts.
  • They also said crypto’s bullish market structure remains intact in the long term.

Bitcoin traders are entering a high-stakes standoff ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. 

With conflicting macroeconomic signals and mixed investor sentiment, the directional bias remains unclear for U.S. equities and crypto.

The July CPI report, delivered earlier this month, provided a bullish signal with rate cut hopes, prompting a crypto market rally that pushed Bitcoin to an all-time high in the first two weeks of August. 



Subsequent PPI data release, however, has elevated inflation concerns, further aggravating ambiguity over whether the Fed intends to cut rates this year, including next month.

Bitcoin has dropped from 8% from its August 14 all-time high of around $124,128 to $114,170 following a sharp decline over the past seven days, CoinGecko data shows.

Despite Bitcoin being near record highs, “the market is pricing in roughly an 85% chance of a rate cut at the September FOMC meeting,” John Haar, managing director at Swan Bitcoin, told Decrypt.

“Powell is likely to keep his comments relatively neutral in order to keep his options open,” Harr added.

To cut or not to cut, that is Powell’s question

While bond traders remain adamant that a cut will arrive in September, the uncertainty has led to a split in investor expectations and betting in the derivatives market.

The “block bullish and bearish trades were nearly equal,” Adam Chu, Chief researcher at GreeksLive, an options trading platform, told Decypt. 

Even with marked trading volume, “short-term implied volatility declined,” Adam said, indicating “institutional investors are not very optimistic that this meeting will bring about significant volatility.”

In any case, the market’s reaction hinges on Powell’s tone. 

“It’s clear that many investors are hoping for a rate cut,” James Gernetzke, CFO at Exodus, told Decrypt.

Gernetzke believes that while a rate decision may not become clear until future data is released, investors should still “take note of his tone—this will matter just as much as the specifics.”

“Bitcoin and crypto assets are sensitive to global liquidity conditions and should respond favorably to any further signal the Fed will continue on its dovish path,” Gerry O’Shea, head of global market insights at Hashdex, told Decrypt.

A hawkish tone, however, could spark a renewed sell-off in equities and crypto. 

But Gernetzke also offered a nuanced view, noting that this crypto market cycle is “atypical due to regulatory tailwinds” and institutional adoption, which “could soften the blow of a hawkish Powell.” 

O’Shea echoed that sentiment, arguing that any negative near-term decision on rates wouldn’t impact the long-term investment case for crypto, supported by institutional adoption and favorable policy from the White House.

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August 21, 2025 0 comments
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