You’ve probably stumbled across those “BlackRock controls the world” conspiracy videos. Turns out, the FDIC might have some concerns too. The agency is clashing with BlackRock over new rules aimed at limiting the influence of big fund managers in small and midsized banks.

At the heart of the issue are passivity agreements—commitments that require large investors to remain hands-off and avoid influencing how banks are run. These agreements are designed to safeguard the financial system, ensuring banks operate independently and are free from external agendas, such as potential pressure from BlackRock to prioritize climate policies.

Vanguard has already agreed to comply with stricter oversight, but BlackRock is pushing back, arguing that the new requirements are redundant, overly burdensome, and overlap with existing Federal Reserve regulations.

The FDIC has given BlackRock until January 10 to comply. Meanwhile, State Street sidesteps the controversy, as it is already subject to stricter regulations as a bank.

In the latest chapter of crypto creeping into traditional finance, stablecoins—digital currencies pegged to assets like the US dollar—have drawn in major players Visa, PayPal, and Stripe. Visa launched its Tokenized Asset Platform to help banks issue stablecoins, PayPal debuted its own token, PYUSD, and Stripe acquired Bridge, a platform specializing in blockchain-based payments.

Why the buzz? Stablecoins run on blockchains¹, slashing transaction costs and processing times compared to traditional banking systems. They’ve become indispensable for payments, remittances, and trade finance. Issuers like Tether have also turned them into a money-making machine: Tether backs every USDT with reserves in safe, interest-earning assets like U.S. Treasuries. With high interest rates, these reserves generate substantial income, making stablecoin issuance a lucrative business².

Are stablecoins the bridge between traditional finance and crypto’s potential? How am I supposed to know, let’s wait and see.

Despite U.S. export restrictions, TikTok parent ByteDance is gearing up to spend a massive $7 billion on Nvidia chips in 2025. ByteDance isn’t breaking any rules, though—it’s using a sneaky lil’ workaround by securing the chips and storing them in data centers in places like Southeast Asia, safely outside China. Resulting in a legal way to sidestep the restrictions and keep the lights on for its AI empire.

These chips aren’t just sitting pretty. ByteDance is putting them to work fuelling Doubao, China’s hottest AI chatbot with 51 million active users. With ambitions this big, ByteDance isn’t leaving its future to chance. It’s also teaming up with Broadcom to cook up two custom GPUs, scheduled to hit production by 2026.

As ByteDance’s strategy reshapes the AI landscape, it’s proving one thing: where there’s a will (and a loophole) there’s a way.

US President Biden has delivered a major blow to Japan's Nippon Steel, blocking their $15bn bid to acquire US Steel over national security concerns. The move, which comes after a deadlock in the Committee on Foreign Investment, underscores Washington’s growing scepticism toward foreign investments in key US industries.

Here’s the kicker though: the United Steelworkers union, fiercely opposed to the deal, argued that Nippon Steel’s ownership would harm American steelworkers and compromise national security. As a result, lawmakers were hesitant to back the sale, even with intense lobbying from Nippon Steel and US Steel execs.

Of course, Nippon Steel isn’t taking this lying down. They’ve hit back, claiming there’s no solid proof of a security risk and accusing the review process of being “manipulated.” But Biden’s decision has left US Steel’s future in limbo.

A Silicon Valley startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, KoBold Metals, has raised $537 million in its latest funding round³, bringing total funding to $1 billion.

Using AI and machine learning, KoBold, analyzes historical and scientific geological data to map untapped deposits of critical metals like copper, lithium, and nickel—vital for batteries and clean energy.

The company addresses a stagnation in the industry: the number of discoveries per dollar of exploration has reportedly fallen sixfold over the past 30 years. KoBold’s tech aims to improve this by targeting a 20% success rate for its exploration projects—well above industry norms and has already identified overlooked mineral-rich areas in Quebec.

KoBold also collaborates with industry heavyweights like BHP and Rio Tinto to turn discoveries into operational mines. Notably, its copper project in Zambia is projected to produce 300,000 tonnes annually by the 2030s, reducing reliance on China for critical minerals.

• 2024: The Deadliest Year for Commercial Aviation, with the recent Jeju Airlines crash that resulted in 179 deaths cementing this.

• South Korea’s Political Upheaval Continues, as the Korean Secret Service prevented the Corruption Investigation Office from arresting President Yoon on the 3rd of Jan.

• On January 1 2024, two separate attacks occurred in the US: In New Orleans, Lousiana, a U.S Army vet drove a rented truck into a crowd killing 14 people in an ISIS-inspired attack; In Las Vegas, an active-duty soldier detonated explosives in a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump Internation Hotel resulting in his own death and injuring 7 others.

• Natural Gas Prices Skyrocket by 50%, year-on-year as Ukraine closes Russian gas route into Europe that has been operating for five decades.

• US Dept. of Treasury Hacked, the Office for Foreign Assets Control and other offices within the US Treasury were accessed by Chinese hackers.

• Starting January 1, ‘Cornhub’(we can’t say the word) has been banned in Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina, joining the growing list of states that can’t access the adult site without age verification.

1. Blockchain: The technology behind most cryptocurrencies, think of it like this, imagine a notebook where every page is a list of transactions, like who paid and how much. This notebook is then distributed to everyone in a big group. If someone tries to change a page, everyone else in the group can see it doesn’t match their copies and the change would be denied, thus, keeping the records safe and honest (in theory).

2. “Making stablecoin issuance a lucrative business”: With USDT’s mkt. cap of $140 bn, even modest yields on this scale translate into significant profits. For example, if Tether earns just 5% annually on $70 billion in Treasuries, that’s $3.5 billion in income.

3. Funding Rounds: Stages where private companies raise capital from investors, like venture capitalists, to grow their business often in exchange for ownership stakes.

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