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James Gunn Talks Batman and 'Brave & the Bold' Status
Gaming Gear

James Gunn Talks Batman and ‘Brave & the Bold’ Status

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What’s going on with Batman and Brave & the Bold, his first movie in this growing DC universe? According to James Gunn, things are going well, but not so well that they’ve found an actor for the superhero just yet.

In a recent Hollywood Reporter story, Gunn explained he’s not actively searching for actors to play the character he considers a big problem in several respects. Still, that hasn’t stopped some from putting their names out there well in advance like Brandon Sklenar; the It Ends With Us and 1923 star has openly shown interest and encouraged his fans to help spread his name out there.

Gunn previously mentioned 1923 on a recent Peacemaker podcast episode, prompting speculation that he was scouting out Sklenar. But he told THR he just likes the show and creator Taylor Sheridan’s work—he considers Sklenar “great” on it, but he’s watching “mostly for fun, definitely not because I need to find a Batman.” He did, however, single out Julia Schlaepfer, who plays Sklernar’s wife on the show: “She’s just so fantastic that I suggested her for something recently.”

As for Brave & the Bold, Gunn revealed to IGN the script is in a pretty good place. But when it comes to its co-lead Damian Wayne, “plenty of things are in flux. Some things have changed on what his situation is with his parentage and all that stuff.” When asked for clarification on what exactly that means, like who Damian’s parents are or if he’ll still be in the movie, he just said “you have to wait and see exactly what’s happening.”

Cryptic, but at least we know the movie still exists. Hopefully, we learn who our new Batman is, and what else to expect from Brave & the Bold, sooner rather than later.

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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The Status Audio Pro X on a window sill.
Product Reviews

Status Audio Pro X review: premium earbuds with seriously impressive sound

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We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Status Audio Pro X: Two-minute review

American audio company Status Audio was hurt by the curse of poor timing with the release of its next-gen premium earbuds and challengers to our best earbuds buying guide. That’s because less than two months after the firm unveiled the Pro X, Apple finally released its latest buds, the AirPods Pro 3, which slightly undercut the underdogs’ latest release in terms of price.

I don’t think Status needs to worry much about competition from Apple, though, because the product distinguishes itself in a few key areas (and, of course, actually works equally as well for Android users).

For one, the Status Pro X has three audio drivers per bud, one more than the AirPods Pro and two more than most earbuds I test. This trio works together to deliver well-defined and high-quality audio that sounds fantastic, making these some of the best earbuds you can try.

The earbuds also look as good as they sound, with the ellipsoid design language carried between the buds and the case to make them look some of the classiest buds I’ve seen. It’s not all for show either as I found the fit reliable.

Status has nailed more of the basics with solid Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), handy touch controls and wireless charging in the case.

The main let-down for me was the battery life, which basically scraped five hours if you’ve got ANC turned on. That’s pretty poor when you look at averages on the market, even for high-end buds, and rules them out for certain use cases.

In fact, the overall feature set is a little bit anemic, and there are a few common perks that aren’t available on the Pro X. It’s clear that the emphasis here is on the audio quality and design, not the handy extras that often justify a higher price.

That’s the one department where the AirPods Pro 3 cleanly beat the Status Pro X; don’t expect any live translation or heart rate tracking here. But Status has Apple beat in the two other main areas, and that’s good enough for me.

Status Audio Pro X review: Price and release date

(Image credit: Future)

  • Released in ‘batches’ every few months from July 2025
  • Costs $299 / £272 / AU$470
  • Pricier than big-name rivals

The first thing to know about the Pro X is that they’re not cheap gadgets; these are pricey buds that bump elbows with some top-notch rivals.

The official retail price for the Status Audio Pro X is $299 / £272 / AU$470, though it’s worth noting that you can pre-order them for $249 / £226 / AU$384. When I say ‘pre-order’, I don’t mean that the buds aren’t out, but (at the time of writing at least) Status is selling them in waves, with one every couple of months. For the purpose of this review I’m taking the RRP as the real price of the buds though.

That price means the buds cost more than the new AirPods Pro 3, which go for $249 / £219 / AU$429 and roughly match the option that tops our best earbuds list, the Technics EAH-AZ100, which go for $299 / £259 / AU$478.

In other words, I went into this review expecting great things.

One more thing: the Pro X’s predecessor, the excellent Status Between 3ANC, cost $249 (approx. £249 / AU$399).

Status Audio Pro X review: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Drivers

12mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Battery life (ANC off)

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

Weight

5g (buds) 48g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Waterproofing

IP55

Status Audio Pro X review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

  • Poor battery life
  • Decent noise cancellation
  • Fewer features than rivals

According to Status Audio, the Pro X will last for 8 hours of listening time, with the charging case extending it to 24 hours in total. That figure must be for listening with ANC turned off, because when it was enabled, I got a far shorter listening time: roughly four and a half to five hours. That’s not exactly a competitive stat as it falls below average by a considerable way.

A better feature is the noise cancellation which, while not best-in-class, was solid enough to plaster over annoying background noises. The Ambient mode is one of the better examples of pass-through sound I’ve used, with surrounding sounds fed into your headphones without sounding amplified at all.

You can toggle between these modes using the Status Hub app which also lets you customize the touch controls, choose between one of five equalizer presets (plus a custom mode with an eight-band EQ for the audiophiles), find the buds if you’ve lost them (with location tracking and audio cues), set up multi-point connection and toggle whether your voice is hidden by the ANC when you talk in the phone. Hidden in the app’s settings is a Dynamic EQ mode which boosts bass and treble when the volume is low – it’s turned off by default though.

There are a few features which you may expect at this price point that you’re not getting, including surround-sound audio (see ‘spatial audio’), toggle-able wearer detection, fit tests or the ability to change codec or music stream bitrate. The slender feature set is something we’ve knocked past Status buds for and while there are more here (the Between 3ANC didn’t let you change touch controls, for example, and GPS buds tracking is a great tool), I’d still like to see a little more to justify the price.

In terms of connection specs, the Pro X supports SBC, AAC and LDAC, at 24-bit/96 kHz. In my testing I didn’t have any connection issues between the buds and my phone.

Status Audio Pro X review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

  • Classy look for bud and case
  • Handy touch controls
  • Case supports wireless charging

The Status Audio Pro X are some of the more refined earbuds I’ve tested this year in terms of design. They’re stem-toting buds, although ‘stem’ feels like an odd choice of word for the ellipsoid pillars standing tall from the earbuds.

Despite the size of the stems, which made me worry about the reliability of the ear fit, the Pro X stayed in my ears without any shifting or issues. The touch controls worked well and were easy to use, thanks to the size of the sensor area so you don’t need any precision to pause or skip your music.

The buds have an IP55 rating against dust ingress and jets of water, so don’t submerge them in puddles or sinks if you want them to keep working.

Now onto the case; it’s a small oblong box that weighs about 48g (according to my kitchen scales, though I couldn’t find an official figure from Status Audio). It’s not too huge a case although I did notice it in my trouser pocket. I like how it shares obvious design DNA with the earbuds, though I do feel Status missed a trick by not copying the buds’ two-tone shading.

In a neat addition, the case supports wireless charging, so you don’t need to rely on its USB-C port if you don’t want to.

Something I need to mention is that, during testing, one of the earbud charging connectors in the case stopped working. I wrote this off as an anomalous error and Status were quick to replace the test unit with another one – which didn’t break – but I feel compelled to mention the issue after I discovered a Reddit post in which people shared stories of the same issue happening, albeit in past Status buds.

Status Audio Pro X review: Sound quality

  • 12mm driver + dual balanced armature drivers
  • Equalizer plus loads of presets
  • Max volume should be higher

(Image credit: Future)

Status is putting all its eggs in the ‘sound quality’ basket with the Pro X. The buds have not one, not two but three drivers: a 12mm dynamic driver and two Knowles balanced armature drivers, with the triumvirate designed to individually hit bass, middle and treble respectively.

This gambit pays off: the Pro X sound fantastic and you won’t find much better on the market in the wireless realm. By default the sound profile is neutral, but the aforementioned app presets let you pull oodles of treble or bass out of your tunes – once you work out what each means, due to the lack of a guide (take a guess which has more bass: Status Signature, Status Audiophile or Knowles Preferred? That’s right, there’s no way of knowing – and that’s the only information you’re given). Whatever your taste, you’ll be able to cater your listening to it.

Treble is distinct and sparkling, while bass is well-defined and mids remain clear and strong. The quality is high, and you can hear the inflection in vocals and the squeak of fingers on a guitar string. There isn’t as defined a soundstage as on some other high-end buds though, beyond the natural separation that you can perceive when the quality of lines is higher.

The Pro X don’t go quite as loud as I would’ve liked either; a few times when I was listening outdoors they didn’t reach the volume or oomph I’d have liked to combat noisy situations, despite the decent noise cancellation.

Status Audio Pro X review: Value

(Image credit: Future)

  • Let’s be clear, these are pricey buds
  • …but you can save money with pre-order

It’s always hard to defend the value proposition of top-end buds. After all, premium tech simply doesn’t give you value for money; you can buy decent buds for a third of the price that don’t drop the quality by a third – and the gains sonically here are absolutely worthy if you value them, but they’re incremental.

So Status goes a long way to justifying the Pro X’s price with the high-quality audio and premium design, but the question of whether they’re great value for money would be a lot easier to answer if the feature set was more fleshed out.

Should I buy the Status Audio Pro X?

(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyStatus Pro X score card

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Features

The unimpressive battery life and lack of super features hurts the buds

3/5

Design

These look great and fit into ears well.

4/5

Sound quality

The specs don’t lie, and three drivers makes the audio sound fantastic.

4.5/5

Value

Can you expect great value from premium tech? This is pretty good, though the feature set would sway the needle.

3.5/5

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Status Audio Pro X review: Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontallyHeader Cell – Column 0

Status Pro X

Status Between 3ANC 

AirPods Pro 3

Technics EAH-AZ100

Drivers

12mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

10mm driver + 2x Knowles balanced armature drivers

Custom driver, custom amplifier

10mm driver

Active noise cancellation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Battery life

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

8 hours (buds) 30 hours (case)

8 hours (buds) 24 hours (case)

12 hours (buds) 17 hours (case)

Weight

5g (buds) 48g (case)

13.6g (buds)

5.5g (buds) 44g (case)

5.9g (buds) 42g (case)

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.4

Bluetooth 5.2

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Waterproofing

IP55

IPX5

IP57

IPX4

How I tested the Status Audio Pro X

  • Tested for one month
  • Tested at home, in the office and on walks

As I mentioned earlier in this review, I tested two review samples of the Status Pro X due to one breaking, and it means the total testing period for the buds exceeded a month, longer than we usually give buds.

I paired the buds with my Android phone and used apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube and WhatsApp for various types of testing. I listened at home, on various types of public transport and on walks around my neighborhood.

I’ve been reviewing gadgets at TechRadar since early 2019 and have tested many different earbuds in that time.

  • First reviewed in September 2025

Status Audio Pro X: Price Comparison



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Crypto exchange Bullish goes public on the New York Stock Exchange. (CoinDesk/Nik De)
Crypto Trends

Democrats in Congress Call Foul on Status of Trump’s Crypto Czar David Sacks

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President Donald Trump’s top adviser on crypto, David Sacks, is working under a “special government employee” status that’s meant to be for officials serviing an important but temporary duty with the federal government, and Senator Elizabeth Warren penned a letter with other Democrats in Congress asking him whether he’s overstepped that window.

Such an employee isn’t allowed to serve more than 130 days in a year, according to the law, and the Wednesday letter to Sacks asks him to put a number on the days the prominent venture capitalist has worked for Trump in the role as crypto and artificial intelligence czar. Under the rules, any day in which he’s done work counts against that 130, though in some agencies, the limit has commonly been governed by a “good faith” estimate of how long the official expects to serve.

“If you have worked every business day, your 130th day was July 25, 2025,” according to the letter signed by Warren and several other members of the Senate and House of Representatives, including Bernie Sanders. The lawmakers called their review of this timeline since the January 20 start of the administration an “investigation.”

“If you have indeed passed the 130th day mark, you are undermining the careful balance Congress struck in creating the SGE designation. It is only because of your designation as an SGE that you have been able to continue working for and being paid by Craft Ventures during your time in government,” read the letter.

Trump has used the temporary employment status in a high-profile fashion, also employing Tesla CEO Elon Musk in that capacity. The personnel tool is designed to be used to bring expertise into government without having to clear some of the bureaucratic hoops of typical hiring. Earlier this year, other Democrats in Congress pushed a bill that sought to inhibit such employees from using the role to seek financial gain, and Warren also pursued legislation to limit SGEs.

There have been more than 170 business days since Trump took office. Since then, Sacks has been running the president’s aggressive pro-crypto agenda, which has so far celebrated one major new law to regulate U.S. stablecoin issuers — leading to a White House signing ceremony that Sacks attended.

He’s also acted as the boss of the administration’s day-to-day crypto adviser, which had originally been Bo Hines until he left to work for Tether as its top U.S. executive. Patrick Witt replaced Hines as executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, and he told CoinDesk he’s still working closely with Sacks.



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A knight stands in the middle of an Oblivion symbol ablaze with fire.
Game Reviews

Oblivion Remastered Drops To Mixed Review Status On Steam

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When The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion got its fancy new remaster earlier this year, fans of Bethesda’s open-world RPGs, myself included, were elated at the return of this vintage classic.

Sadly, the enthusiasm wasn’t made to last. As seems befitting of its origins as a Bethesda-developed game, Oblivion Remastered is plagued by bugs and crashes on PC, especially following its 1.2 update which has ticked off enough players to see its Recent Reviews status on Steam sink to the dreaded pale orange “Mixed” designation. Recent reviews cite quizzical issues with performance across the board, crashes, unfair difficulty scaling, and frustration with Unreal Engine 5, a sentiment only becoming more and more common.

“I stopped counting the crashes,” reads one review taking aim at crashes encountered whenever trying to sleep or skip time in the game. “I really want to recommend this game,” starts another, “but I can’t due to technical issues and performance.” The same review cites the “few and far in between” patches the game has received, and the recent 1.2 update certainly hasn’t helped. “Started playing at launch with mods,” writes another reviewer, “and the game was perfectly fine to me. Came back this week and can’t for the life of me find out how to fix the “gpu crash dump triggered” crash.”

Frustration over performance is certainly one of the louder sentiments among Steam reviewers, especially with the remaster exhibiting the well-known stuttering issues seen in other Unreal Engine 5 games. But as another reviewer points out, not all the issues are unique to the new version. “Old 2006 Oblivion bugs have been faithfully ported over to the 2025 remaster,” they write. “I was shocked to find issues, look them up online for [a] workaround, and [saw] these were the exact same bugs from the 2006 game.”

Speaking for myself, the wildly inconsistent framerate and stuttering have definitely meant that I’ve spent considerably less time with the gorgeous remake of Bethesda’s 2006 open-world RPG than I was hoping to. Bummer!



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Sentiment signals could spark the next rally
NFT Gaming

Bitcoin, gold, Swiss franc vie for safe haven status as US dollar falters

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The ongoing economic and geopolitical tensions have fueled demand for safe-haven assets, with Bitcoin, gold, and the Swiss franc being in the driver’s seat. 

While Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has pulled back recently, it remains much higher than the year-to-date low. Also, Bitcoin ETFs continue to add assets this year, with their cumulative inflows rising by $54 billion since January last year. 

Summary

  • Bitcoin, gold, and the Swiss franc have jumped this year.
  • The US dollar index has plunged by over 10% from the year-to-date high.
  • The three assets have become safe-haven assets amid heightened risks.

Geopolitical and economic risks are high

The U.S. economy shows signs of stagflation as consumer and producer inflation continue rising. The year-over-year U.S. consumer inflation rate (CPI) grew from 2.4% in June to 2.7% in July. The core CPI, excluding food and energy, accelerated to 3.1%.

U.S. job growth is also slowing, according to data released on Friday. The economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, while the unemployment rate moved to 4.3% — the highest level since the pandemic. 

Economists expect that the upcoming inflation report will show that the headline consumer price index rose to 3% in August, continuing a trend that has been going on for months.

Therefore, economists expect the Fed to cut interest rates by 0.25% in the upcoming meeting. Cutting rates in a stagflation risks pushing inflation higher in the coming months.

Demand for safe-haven assets has also jumped as trade relations between the U.S. and other countries worsen. For example, India is reportedly aligning itself with China due to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

The other significant risk has been the threat to Federal Reserve independence. Trump has considered firing Fed chair Jerome Powell, and has recently fired Lisa Cook in his bid to achieve lower interest rates.

Bitcoin, Swiss franc, and gold have soared

BTC, gold, and Swiss franc | Source: crypto.news

These risks explain why the U.S. dollar index has plunged, moving from the year-to-date high of $110 in January to $97.73 today. 

At the same time, the gold price has recently surged to a record high as ETFs have added substantial inflows in the past few months. China’s central bank has bought gold in the last eleven consecutive months, bringing its holdings to $74 million troy ounces. Goldman Sachs analysts see the gold price hitting $5,000.

The Swiss franc has also become a safe haven as it surged by 13% against the U.S. dollar. Investors love the low-yielding franc because of Switzerland’s stability, neutrality, and low public debt. 



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An image of Hornet from Silksong engulfed with rage.
Product Reviews

Hollow Knight: Silksong sinks to ‘Mixed’ Steam review status among Chinese gamers over its bafflingly bad translation, with Team Cherry promising to improve it

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As reported by Eurogamer, Hollow Knight: Silksong has not met Chinese players’ expectations the way it has globally, with a 42% positive “Mixed” review status from nearly 20,000 Chinese language users, who say that the game’s localization was abysmally, uniquely poor.

Team Cherry has already responded to the issue, promising to work on the Chinese localization. “We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong,” wrote the game’s publishing and marketing lead, Matthew Griffin. “We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.”

To our Chinese speaking fans:We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong.We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.Thanks for your feedback and support.September 5, 2025

The reception among Chinese speaking reviewers sharply contrasts with Silksong’s reviews in all other languages it’s available in, with an overall 80% “Very Positive” rating among over 80,000 reviews worldwide. Of about 16,000 negative reviews worldwide, 11,800 of them are in Simplified Chinese.


Related articles

Some commenters on Griffin’s post have tried to elaborate on the specific issues at hand. Tiger Tang, who led the Chinese localization of 2020 RPG Omori, wrote that the main issues in Silksong’s localization are creative, not grammatical. “The current Silksong CN translation reads like a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game’s tone,” said Tang. “This isn’t about effort, but about taste and direction, and speaking from experience likely can’t be fixed without replacing the translator.”

Others in the comments noted the same bizarre, anachronistic quality Tang mentions, while it also reportedly devolves into total gibberish in places. Kotaku cited criticism from translation expert Loek van Kooten, who called Silksong’s Chinese dialogue the equivalent of “a high-school drama club’s Elizabethan improv night.” Silksong had two people credited for its Chinese localization, versus the first game’s team of six.

In a final twist, one of those two translators, Hertzz Liu, appears to have been leaking details about the much-anticipated Silksong on social media. A June comment on the r/Silksong subreddit by user Infinite-Lake-7523 includes a screenshot of a Q&A on the Chinese site Tieba from a user named “Hertzzz.” Infinite-Lake-7523 ironically thought this was a hoax, but said Herzz(zz) estimated a pre-Christmas release date and shared some of their plans for the localization.

Is it still a “review bomb” if people are understandably upset over a defective product? The current Chinese translation of Silksong sounds like that infamous “restoration” of Ecce Homo. With issues this extensive and structural, I would expect Team Cherry to commit to an entirely new Chinese localization, but that will likely take some time.






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Tether halts USDT freeze on legacy chains, adopts ‘unsupported’ status
NFT Gaming

Tether halts USDT freeze on legacy chains, adopts ‘unsupported’ status

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Tether will no longer freeze USDT on Omni, BCH SLP, Kusama, EOS, Algorand, and other legacy chains. The assets, however, become “unsupported,” entering a financial limbo without official issuance or redemptions.

Summary

  • Tether halts its planned USDT freeze on legacy blockchains, including Omni, BCH SLP, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand.
  • Tokens on these networks become “unsupported,” with transfers allowed but no official issuance or redemption.
  • The update follows community feedback and aligns with Tether’s broader strategic focus on active, high-demand chains.

On August 29, USDT issuer Tether announced a significant revision to its transition plan for legacy blockchains. Originally, the company had planned to freeze USDT tokens and halt redemptions on networks including Omni Layer, Bitcoin Cash SLP, Kusama, EOS, and Algorand starting September 1, 2025.

Following extensive feedback from user communities, Tether opted to abandon the freeze while still discontinuing official issuance and redemption. This leaves tokens on these networks in an “unsupported” state, where transfers between wallets remain possible but the assets no longer carry the same backing or operational support as USDT on active chains.

“While users will still be able to transfer the tokens between wallets, Tether will discontinue direct issuance and redemption on these blockchains. This means the tokens will no longer be officially supported as other Tether tokens,” the USDT issuer said in the statement.

A strategic pivot, not a retreat

Tether’s decision to walk back the freeze suggests that pushback from developers and users on networks like EOS and Algorand presented a reputational risk that outweighed the technical simplicity of a clean break.

The revised approach, which Tether states “aligns with its broader strategy,” is a pragmatic compromise. It allows the firm to shed the operational burden of supporting low-traffic chains while avoiding the public relations nightmare of effectively destroying user assets.

However, while the issuer pares down its support on one front, it is aggressively expanding on another. Just one day prior to this announcement, Tether revealed plans to launch a native USDT on Bitcoin via the RGB protocol.

The move can be seen as Tether’s strategic bet on Bitcoin’s foundational security. Unlike wrapped assets on bridges, which introduce counterparty risk, RGB leverages Bitcoin’s own scripting and client-side validation to make USDT an intrinsic part of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Tether already distributes the stablecoin across Ethereum and Tron, each with over $80 billion in circulation, and on smaller platforms like Solana, Avalanche, Celo, and Cosmos.



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Decrypt logo
GameFi Guides

AI Titans Back $100 Million Super PAC to Boost Industry’s Status in Washington

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In brief

  • Top AI firms and tech leaders, including Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, unveiled a $100 million fund to back pro-AI candidates.
  • The fund, which mirrors crypto PAC Fairshake, will target races in California, New York, Illinois, and Ohio this year before moving to federal contests and the 2026 midterms.
  • Supporters say the effort is needed to secure U.S. leadership in AI and to push back against policies that could slow innovation.

A handful of America’s most powerful AI companies, investors and tech entrepreneurs announced Monday the creation of a $100 million political spending fund aimed to support candidates “aligned with the pro-AI agenda” in state and federal races over the next two years. 

Leading the Future shares much DNA with similar political spending operations used by the crypto industry. The AI fund is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, one of the core contributors to Fairshake—-the $300 million pro-crypto PAC that successfully upended the 2024 election. Both Leading the Future and Fairshake are also helmed by the same political strategist, Josh Vlasto. 

Other backers of Leading the Future include OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Perplexity.



Leading the Future plans to get involved in primary and general elections at both the state and federal level, and will oppose candidates who do not support a “pro-innovation” agenda ensuring the United States’ global dominance in AI, the group said. 

The organization intends to, through a network of super PACs and nonprofits, begin spending this year on state races in California, New York, Illinois, and Ohio—hotbeds of AI development in the United States. It will then expand to federal races ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

A source familiar with the fund’s operations told Decrypt that the success of pro-crypto political spending groups like Fairshake offered a blueprint for AI leaders to now follow.

AI and crypto, though, while both emergent tech industries with deep pockets, are two different beasts in the policy arena. Going into 2024, crypto was struggling, with a slew of scandals plummeting the industry to an all-time low level in political salience. A historic political spending spree reversed those fortunes entirely, partly by directing ire squarely at easily identifiable enemies like then-SEC chair Gary Gensler and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

AI, on the other hand, does not currently have its own version of a Gensler or Warren to target. The industry is a firmly ascendant cause in the second Trump administration, and no contingent of the Democratic Party has staked out positions in opposition, as once occurred with crypto. 

But crypto’s remarkable political spending success story didn’t just influence election outcomes. It also appears to have put substantial pressure on lawmakers to quickly pass legislation favorable to the industry. Amid hyper-partisan tensions in Washington, Congress passed a major crypto bill at breakneck speed, with crucial support from Fairshake-backed candidates.

When asked whether any lawmakers currently in office should be considered “anti-AI”—or if not, what the purpose of Leading the Future then is, a spokesperson for Andreessen Horowitz referred Decrypt to an X post made this morning by Collin McCune, the venture firm’s head of government affairs. 

“Policymakers in Washington and our state capitals are weighing thousands of proposals right now that could make it impossible to build,” McCune said. “The only way to counter entrenched interests and outdated thinking is to make sure builders have a voice at the table.”

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