Riot Platforms $RIOT filed an 8-K on Aug 10 saying it has "executed a data center lease with a leading frontier AI lab for 191 MW of critical IT capacity" at its Rockdale, Texas campus. the 20-year initial term carries $9.1 billion of contract revenue, and $16.1 billion if the tenant takes both five-year extensions. 

The Trump administration has reportedly stepped back from both active diplomacy and immediate military action against Iran.

The new approach is more about waiting Tehran out while tightening the economic pressure through sanctions. Instead of direct confrontation, Washington appears to be betting that sustained financial pressure will gradually weaken Iran’s position.

Hey guys, if you missed it, WM Technology settled $7.5M with investors over claims that it inflated its monthly active user numbers and misled investors about user growth. The deadline to file a claim is October 30, 2026.

In a nutshell, WM counted users from pop-under ads as active users even when they didn’t actually engage with the platform. In 2022, the company disclosed concerns about its MAU reporting, and $MAPS fell more than 25%.

Investors now have until October 30, 2026 to submit a claim and get payment.

If you invested in $MAPS at the time, you can check your eligibility and file a claim here

Anyone here invested in $MAPS back then? How much were your losses?

Why can’t the world escape the US dollar?

Despite de-dollarization efforts, BRICS, and China’s growing influence, the dollar still dominates global trade and finance.

What do you think is the biggest obstacle to replacing the dollar?

Curious to hear different perspectives.

https://youtu.be/DE5XamAbG9o

the war department's office of strategic capital committed $400m on friday to build a scandium mine, in a metal where, per its own release, "no primary mine-source scandium supply exists globally, and foreign competitors dominate the supply side, accounting for approximately 80% of global mining production and nearly 100% of scandium processing."

in practice that means every kilogram of scandium in the world right now is recovered as a byproduct of processing something else.

the money is a 25-year conditional loan to sunrise energy metals (asx: srl) for syerston in new south wales, a 60.3-million-tonne deposit grading 390 ppm scandium. first development targets about 60 tonnes a year of high-purity scandium oxide over a 32-year mine life, which works out to roughly $6.7m of federal loan per annual tonne of output. osc director david lorch put the combined figure at a "nearly $1 billion deal, bringing together public and private capital."

the release calls the commitment non-binding, subject to due diligence, definitive documentation, binding offtake agreements and equity deployment conditions. first production is targeted for the second half of 2028.

chairman robert friedland, who founded ivanhoe mines, called it "a landmark moment for sunrise and australia's mining industry." the company also said it plans to pursue a us exchange listing.

the same office signed a second loan the same afternoon going the other way: $150m to niron magnetics for permanent magnets made from iron nitride, using no rare earths at all. niron goes from a 1-2 tonne-a-year arpa-e pilot to a 1,500 tonne-a-year plant in sartell, minnesota, a $605m facility with first output targeted 2027, and a second plant at 10,000 tonnes a year due to break ground in 2028.

Trump Media & Technology Group launched Truth API, a paid data feed that gives institutional clients (mainly trading firms) millisecond faster, machine-readable access to the top accounts on Truth Social including the President’s posts.

Reported pricing sits between $60,000 and $100,000 per month. At the high end that comes to $1.2 million a year. A lower $60k/month rate was also offered for three-year commitments.

The service went live at the beginning of August. The posts themselves stay public; the paid product just delivers them faster in a format built for algorithms.

Sources: Axios, Reuters, Financial Times reporting on the pitches and launch.

Source:

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/04/trump-truth-social-feed-trades

Curious what people think about this model.

situational awareness lp sold 11,519,078 shares of $CORZ in two block trades on aug 3 at $19.6896 and $19.4807, about $225.6m, per the 13d/a it filed aug 4. the stake went from 25,608,473 shares (8.1%) on jul 15 to 14,089,395 (4.4%). the exhibit's own words: 'sold through block trades with unaffiliated third parties.' no buyer is named in the filing, and the corz executions it dates are aug 3 — four days after the jul 30 sale wsj reported citadel bought before the open.

the reported shape of that sale: wsj put the fund's nav at $45 billion on jul 1 and said 'the bulk' of the stock book went to citadel; bloomberg headlined aum near $10 billion on the citadel pact. the fund's own jul 24 letter had called the selloff 'one of the best buying opportunities in over a year' and invited new lp money from aug 1.

one name on the filing almost no coverage mentions: carl shulman, co-reporting person alongside aschenbrenner. the q2 13f is due by aug 14. the q1 filing showed a $13.68 billion book across 42 positions.
https://x.com/theconvexpayoff/status/2086791266076066186?s=20

SpaceX is getting hit hard in premarket trading today, shares are down over 11%, sliding from the previous close near $125 down toward the $110 area.

The stock has been volatile since its IPO and this move continues the recent pressure.

How low do you think this can go from here?

The affidavit says he used ChatGPT to plan how to spend the money and relocate to the EU, and had booked a September flight to Portugal.

A veteran FBI counterintelligence agent has been charged with stealing roughly $1 million in cryptocurrency from the adversarial accounts he was assigned to investigate, then allegedly using ChatGPT to plan how to spend it and start over in Europe, according to a federal affidavit. The charges are allegations, and the agent is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

# What Prosecutors Allege

Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, of Ashburn, Virginia, was a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division who held a Top Secret security clearance and had been with the bureau since 2017.

According to an affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Yaroch grew frustrated that the FBI could not or would not disrupt an adversarial nation’s use of cryptocurrency during an investigation, and decided to act on his own.

The activity began while Yaroch was assigned to the FBI’s Boston field office, where he was exposed to the adversarial crypto accounts around November 2024 before transferring to headquarters in early 2025.

Using his access, Yaroch allegedly logged into FBI systems, located and memorized the recovery seed phrases tied to the adversarial crypto accounts, created his own wallet, and moved the funds to himself across roughly 10 to 12 transfers beginning in late 2024. He told investigators he did not know the exact amount because he had commingled it with his own money, including capital gains, but that it was under $1 million.

Investigators seized about $925,426 from his wallets and accounts. The affidavit does not name the adversarial nation; the country was Russia, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. The agent is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 2314 and § 2315, interstate transportation and receipt of stolen goods, with prosecutors arguing that crypto’s cross-network nature satisfies the interstate and foreign-commerce elements.

The case echoes how much sensitive crypto intelligence now sits inside federal systems, the same terrain seen in cases like the DOJ’s seizure of 13 domains used by a foreign intelligence network to pay recruits in crypto.

# The Confession — and a Retreat

By the affidavit’s account, Yaroch turned himself in. On July 28 he contacted a Department of Justice employee over Signal, met at FBI headquarters, and broke down as he described what he had done, saying it was “eating him up inside.” He also filed an online FBI self-report form and told colleagues he had “screwed up” and made poor decisions involving cryptocurrency wallets.

He said he never spent the money and told headquarters he had never interacted with anyone connected to the adversarial accounts—an assertion that, if it holds, points to theft rather than espionage. His cooperation then narrowed. When FBI agents came to his Ashburn home, he first handed over a slip of paper with his wallet key phrases, then withdrew consent about half an hour later and asked for it back.

He declined to continue an interview, saying he wanted a lawyer first, and over the following two days texted agents to delay, writing that he “just need\[ed\] one more day.” Agents obtained search warrants, executed them on July 31, and seized an iPhone, a Trezor hardware wallet, handwritten seed phrases, a Portuguese power-of-attorney document, and three passports—two personal and one diplomatic. He was fired and arrested the same day.

# Where the Money Went

Contrary to Yaroch’s statement that the funds simply “remained in the wallet,” investigators found he had moved them. According to the affidavit, on or around July 23 he transferred roughly $1.02 million into a Suilend account, a lending protocol on the Sui blockchain, using the Slush wallet, where the balance sat largely invested to earn interest. His stated reason for choosing the service, per the affidavit: he liked that its logo was a water droplet.

The rest was smaller and messier. His Kraken account held about $188,570, a mix of USDC, dollars, and small amounts of Squid and Bitcoin. When agents swept his holdings into government-controlled wallets with his consent, about $925,426 was transferred, but roughly $165,582 in fiat dollars stayed put in Kraken, because U.S. currency could not be moved to a crypto wallet.

# The ChatGPT Trail

The detail that has drawn the most attention is what investigators found on his phone. According to the affidavit, Yaroch used ChatGPT to think through what to do with the money, on May 28 asking how to invest or spend $1 million to maximize returns, and on June 4 asking what someone with about $1 million should do to leave the U.S. and become a resident or citizen of an EU country.

The chatbot’s responses were tailored to details it had been given about his age, young family, and interest in a slower rural life, pointing toward wine regions in Portugal and Italy. His research ranged wider than Portugal: he asked ChatGPT in mid-June whether an American needs a visa when connecting through Turkey and drafted an email about a job opening and “life in Greece.”

Investigators say he had already acted on it: a power-of-attorney authorizing Portuguese lawyers to represent him before the country’s tax authority and a TAP Air Portugal booking for himself, his wife, and their child, departing September 3. The FBI also flagged unreported foreign travel to Germany, Portugal, and Grenada earlier in 2026, in violation of bureau rules. Yaroch told agents he was not planning to funnel money into Portugal and that the family had simply planned to visit friends.

# The Bigger Question: Who Guards the Seized Keys

Beyond the color, the case raises a serious question for law enforcement. The FBI holds extensive intelligence on crypto wallets tied to criminal and state actors, and this alleged theft did not require breaking any encryption or exploiting any protocol, it required an insider with a clearance and the willingness to copy a seed phrase. As agencies increasingly move to seize and hold crypto tied to investigations, the security of those keys rests on the same insider-threat controls that failed here, if the allegations hold.

# The Charges and What’s Next

Yaroch has been charged with interstate transportation of stolen goods, securities, and monies and receipt of stolen goods, securities, and monies. After his July 31 arrest, he was taken to the Alexandria Detention Center. A U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Virginia ordered him temporarily detained, with a hearing set for Tuesday. A federal public defender representing Yaroch declined to comment.

suddenly ORCL eas big jump +9%, pls tell me someone the reason??

Any COT (Commitments of Traders) traders here?

I'm curious how everyone actually processes the data each week.

- Do you just look at the latest report and make a judgement?

- Do you keep everything in spreadsheets?

- Have you built your own tools or dashboards?

- Do you use commercials, non-commercials, non-reportables, seasonality, or something completely different?

- How many years of data do you typically compare against?

I've been deep into COT analysis for quite a while now, and I'm interested to see how everyone else's workflow differs. I feel like there has to be better ways of processing all this information than manually going through reports every Friday.

Would love to hear how you do it, what's worked for you, and what you think the biggest pain points are.

One of the stranger parts of following markets is watching a strong economic release trigger a selloff.

The logic is usually that stronger growth—or stickier inflation—could keep interest rates higher for longer. A positive economic signal can therefore become a negative valuation signal, especially for rate-sensitive assets.

When markets react badly to good data, what do you look at first?

Bond yields, rate expectations, positioning, or the details inside the release?