89 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Elizabeth Lopatto

Elizabeth Lopatto

Senior Reporter

Senior Reporter

    More From Elizabeth Lopatto

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Jim Cramer, explained.

    Our sister pub does a deep dive on Jim Cramer’s whole... thing:

    In the business of Jim Cramer, there is the man and the character. Where one ends and the other begins isn’t really clear. In one sense, he is CNBC’s Mickey Mouse, probably the cable channel’s most recognizable piece of IP. That comes in handy when it wants to upsell to its most loyal viewers. The channel’s investing club, in which Cramer talks more about his picks, costs nearly $400 a year. The CNBC Pro subscription has a slightly more affordable $300 annual fee. Then there are all of Cramer’s books (including Jim Cramer’s Mad Money: Watch TV, Get Rich) and a $20 “United States of Cramerica” shirt.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    The SEC is also targeting venture capital in its crypto crackdown.

    Remember when we talked about how the SEC has showed up on a horse, guns blazing, to regulate crypto? Here’s a nice report on how they’re also coming for the VC firms that poured money into crypto with a new rule change:

    Legal executives at venture firm Andreessen Horowitz wrote that “absent a suitable self-custodial exception, the proposed Rule would effectively ban RIAs from holding and transacting in crypto assets for clients,” while Paradigm wrote that the rule could result in an effective “shadow ban” of crypto.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Yes, Tether absolutely held Chinese commercial paper.

    Bloomberg has some details on the stablecoin. Highlights include: a “sizeable loan” to the Celsius Network, extensive third party loans, and its banking network which, whew buddy. Tether made loans to parties such as Bitfinex — and lent $5.1 billion at one point, a significant amount of Tether!

    I wonder how much Tether has cleaned up their act! Perhaps the team will release recent details to — ahahahahaha just kidding. Let’s see what else comes out.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Good luck, kids!

    Hot on the heels of the SEC regulatory crackdown on crypto, Blackrock has filed paperwork for a Bitcoin ETF, with Coinbase custodying. The SEC has never approved a spot Bitcoin ETF, and is embroiled in a lawsuit with Grayscale about rejecting their attempt at a Bitcoin ETF. (A ruling in that case is expected later this year.)

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Sounds like CoinDesk is about to drop a banger.

    Controversial stablecoin Tether has dropped its objection to a CoinDesk Freedom of Information lawsuit in such a way that I’m like 👀👀👀:

    Tether has nothing to hide and we hold utmost confidence in the accuracy of our financial figures. While the sensitivity that we had to a government agency releasing confidential data—at least as it pertains to Tether’s reserves—is lower now than it was in 2021, we remain vigilant about customer data. While we cannot count on fair coverage from CoinDesk, which often misrepresented Tether’s position in the market in favour of its main competitor, we call upon them to set their bias aside and to not publicly share any past or current customer names and not to thereby put anyone in the community at physical or digital risk.

    This is an unjustified smear of great journalists. I wonder what Tether is afraid of.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Computer says no.

    The spreading AI tools in hospitals are making it harder for nurses to do their jobs well:

    Before giving the oxycodone, Beebe scanned the bar code. The system denied permission, adhering to the doctor’s earlier instructions to begin the longer-acting pain meds five hours later. “The computer doesn’t know the patient is in out-of-control pain,” she said.

    Still, she didn’t act. “I know if I give the medication, I’m technically giving medication without an order and I can be disciplined,” she said. She watched her patient grimace in pain while she held the pain pill in her hand.

    Who gets to regulate crypto, anyway?

    A brief guide to the politics behind the Binance and Coinbase SEC cases.

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Be careful about your PayPal transaction memos.

    We’ve talked before about setting one’s Venmo to private, but even that won’t help if you’re an idiot. This story is about a black market in human body parts:

    Between Sept. 3, 2018, and July 12, 2021, Taylor made 39 electronic payments, totaling $37.355.56, to a PayPal account controlled by Denise Lodge, the indictment said. A memo attached to a transaction on May 19, 2019, read, “head number 7.”

    Another transaction was labeled, “braiiiiiins.”

    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Elizabeth Lopatto
    Some funny goss from the Ripple case.

    Before the Binance and Coinbase cases, the big crypto v SEC case was Ripple. Anyway they’ve released some EMAILS around a speech given in 2018 by William Hinman, which suggests that perhaps Ethereum is not a security, and looooooooooool:

    “As written, the language remains vague as to whether ETH is a security. If you want to make an affirmative statement that it is not a security, the language could be stronger (i.e., just say it). If you don’t want to take an affirmative stance, we suggest using language similar to what you used for Bitcoin re. the disclosure regime to make it more consistent,” wrote former SEC Director of Trading and Markets Brett Redfearn on June 12, 2018.

    Redfearn left comments in a proposed draft of the speech further emphasizing that point, saying parts of it “appear likely to create more confusion about the status of ETH.”

    Ripple has a perspective, of course.