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Thanks for reading The Briefing, our nightly column where we break down the day’s news. If you like what you see, I encourage you to subscribe to our reporting here.
Greetings! The crypto stampede is on, and hardly a day goes by without the launch of some bitcoin scheme or stablecoin offering. On Sunday, my colleague Yueqi reported that OKX, one of the three biggest global crypto exchanges, was considering an initial public offering in the U.S. Today, Fiserv, one of the companies that manages the plumbing of the nation’s banks, said it was going to offer a stablecoin. Yueqi previewed that development in an earlier story and explained why it set up a rivalry between Circle and Paxos. Competition in stablecoins, which trade one to one against the dollar, is bad news for Circle, which issues the second-biggest stablecoin. But that hasn’t stopped the company’s rampage through the stock market since its IPO earlier this month. Its stock was up nearly 10% today and has soared 750% in just two and a half weeks. That stock surge underlines just what a great bet the crypto industry made on President Donald Trump. After four years in the regulatory doghouse under the Biden administration, the industry spent roughly $250 million to elect Donald Trump along with crypto-friendly, mostly Republican candidates, in November. Circle’s market value grew roughly triple that every trading hour today, and that was one of its weak days. The biggest beneficiary of this market surge might be the Trump family, which now has six crypto ventures, many of them started after he took office for the current term. If there’s a lesson here, it's that campaign donations can have great returns, especially if there’s a way for the president to profit directly from them. The next big moment for crypto could be when Trump signs the Genius Act, legislation that the Senate approved last week and that is expected to get a nod in the House. The new rules would legitimize stablecoins and are the reason why banks, retailers, tech companies and others are pondering launching their own stablecoins. The legislation would integrate crypto into the traditional financial system more than ever. There could be benefits of doing so, no doubt, as well as risks—which are less discussed. Remember this: Stablecoins are supposed to be safe. History shows that many financial crises have begun not with blowups in risky investments, but when assets investors think are low risk, like stablecoins, turn out not to be. You learn something new every day. Today we learned that Elon Musk “does not use a computer.” That’s according to his lawyers, who on Sunday wrote to the judge hearing his lawsuit against OpenAI, responding to an OpenAI email about discovery in the case. OpenAI seemed to think Musk wasn’t going to be releasing any documents. But he has no computer to search, the lawyers explained, implying there were no documents to produce. They had however searched his phone for emails. So here we have a CEO of several companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI-X, who doesn’t use a computer. Perhaps this is Musk’s way of cutting costs—he does everything via email and text on his phone. If Musk can run several companies that way, he might well ask why anyone needs a computer! (One other question: What size phone does he have? Hopefully it’s one of the large-size devices.)—Martin Peers • Wealthfront, the 17-year-old robo adviser that manages millennials’ money, confidentially submitted its paperwork to regulators for an initial public offering, the firm announced Monday. • The U.S. Senate’s latest version of the “big beautiful” budget bill could include a fresh $25 million in funding for artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to a draft of the text, which has not yet been publicly released. Dealmaker was named the “Best in Business” newsletter for its insightful coverage of private technology and the AI hype cycle. Start receiving the newsletter here. | 
