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Coinbase CEO withdraws support from pivotal Senate vote on landmark crypto bill

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Coinbase CEO withdraws support from pivotal Senate vote on landmark crypto bill

As the Senate Banking Committee prepares to debate long-anticipated legislation that would establish regulation for the crypto industry, the fate of the bill is in limbo after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong declared his opposition in a Wednesday night post on X. 

“We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill,” Armstrong wrote, outlining several blockchain sector critiques, including a key battle with the banking industry over offering rewards for stablecoin holdings. “Hopefully we can all get to a better draft.” 

The legislation, which focuses on market structure issues such as supervisory divisions between different federal agencies, has long been a priority for the crypto industry. The bill would address thorny questions that led to bruising lawsuits under previous administrations, including how to classify and regulate different types of cryptocurrencies. 

After helping elect a wave of pro-blockchain candidates fueled by millions in campaign donations, the crypto industry notched a major win over the summer with the passage of the Genius Act, which established a regulatory framework for stablecoins, or a type of dollar-backed cryptocurrency. But market structure has proven trickier, especially after the banking lobby pushed back against provisions in the Genius Act that allows companies to offer customers yield on their stablecoin holdings, similar to savings accounts. 

After the House of Representatives advanced their version of the market structure legislation, called the Clarity Act, in July, the Senate delayed in taking up the bill. But with the Senate Banking Committee finally set to debate amendments on Thursday morning in the markup process, arguments over the issue of yield, as well as conflict of interest ethics provisions targeted at the Trump administration, could stymie the bill’s progress. 

“There’s a real chance this could blow up in committee,” one crypto lobbyist told Fortune, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive industry dynamics. “People are pretty fired up here.” 

Lack of clarity

For many in the crypto industry, the success of the stablecoin-focused Genius Act over the summer was just an appetizer to the main course: wide-ranging market structure legislation that would finally grant legitimacy to the renegade sector. But after years of fierce debate, the product coming out of the Senate might be worse than no bill at all. 

The most significant wedge issue going into Thursday remains the battle over stablecoin yields. The bank lobby has argued that the Genius Act effectively created a loophole, preventing stablecoin issuers themselves from offering yield to users, but allowing partners and third parties to provide rewards. Those programs have been key to many crypto companies, such as Coinbase, which reported $355 million in stablecoin-related revenue in the third quarter of 2025 and offers yields to holders of its stablecoin, USDC. Bank lobbyists have argued that this could threaten the U.S. financial system by suctioning money out of bank deposits. 

A bipartisan group of senators has offered a compromise in the Clarity Act, which would allow crypto companies to offer yield for stablecoin-related transactions, similar to credit cards, as well as other activity. But it remained unclear whether Coinbase, one of the most outspoken and deepest-pocketed crypto figures in Washington, would support the agreement, with Armstrong’s Wednesday post seeming to indicate it would take a hard-line approach. 

Not every industry leader agreed with Armstrong. Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi posted on X later Wednesday night that he supported the bill. “Walking away now would not preserve the status quo in practice,” Sethi wrote. “It would lock in uncertainty and leave American companies operating under ambiguity while the rest of the world moves forward.”

“It’s still very much in negotiations right now,” said Ron Hammond, who serves as head of policy at the crypto trading firm Wintermute. “But it’s crypto and there’s always last-second drama, and so it seems to be one of the wedges here.” 

Another debate pushed by Democrats is language that would prevent politicians, including the President, from profiting off of crypto holdings or interest. The issue has become a lightning rod due to the Trump family’s deep entanglement with the crypto industry, including its digital asset platform World Liberty Financial, which recently applied for a federal bank license. But Republicans have strongly pushed back against the possibility, with Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) telling CoinDesk on Wednesday that ethics provisions don’t belong in the Clarity Act. 

But a letter sent to Scott and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) from a number of nonprofit watchdog groups, obtained by Fortune, describes the lack of provisions in the proposed bill addressing governmental conflicts of interest as “deeply concerning.” 

If Democrats such as Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who has referred to an ethics provision as a “red line,” pull their support, the bill could be stuck in committee, which needs a simple majority vote, though Republicans hold the edge. 

The lobbyist who spoke on the condition of anonymity lamented that the bill has lurched to the left in an effort to gain bipartisan support, including through additional provisions that would regulate DeFi, or decentralized finance, as well as the listing process for crypto tokens and oversight responsibilities handed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “They’ve lost their north star,” the lobbyist told Fortune. 

Update: Added comment from Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Mark Carney from Canada aims to reset ties with China during crucial visit | Political Update

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Mark Carney from Canada aims to reset ties with China during crucial visit | Political Update

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived in China for a visit that comes at a pivotal moment in relations between the two countries.

Carney, the first Canadian leader to visit China since 2017, is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

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Relations between Canada and China plunged into a deep freeze after Canadian authorities arrested a key official of Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei as she was transitioning through the Vancouver international airport in December 2018.

China retaliated against the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, which was carried out at the request of authorities in the United States, by detaining two Canadians.

Relations have continued to face challenges.

In 2024, Ottawa, following a line set by Washington, slapped Chinese electric vehicles with 100 percent tariffs, prompting Beijing to impose tariffs on certain Canadian agricultural goods, including canola.

Ottawa has also accused China of political interference.

Against that backdrop, Carney’s visit “marks a recalibration and change in tone and signals Canada’s desire to improve relations”, said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

“This is probably Prime Minister Carney’s second-most challenging trip after his first visit to the White House,” Nadjibulla told Al Jazeera.

Carney is keen to diversify the Canadian economy and reduce its dependence on the US, the destination for nearly 80 percent of Canadian exports.

While Canada has historically been among the US’s closest allies, the relationship has gone south since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Trump has slapped Canada with a 35 percent across-the-board tariff and separate duties on steel, aluminium and lumber, while repeatedly threatening to make the country the 51st US state.

Carney has travelled extensively, including to the European Union and the Gulf – he heads to Qatar after Beijing – to find new markets and investors for the economy. The Canadian leader has said he wants to double Canada’s non-US trade in the next decade.

In a first step towards a thaw with China, Carney met Xi in South Korea during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in October.

“The Prime Minister is being pragmatic, and his trip will focus on specific economic deals – selling Canadian energy and agriculture products,” Nadjibulla said, adding that she did not expect to see the full lifting of tariffs between the sides.

The trip, as a review of the trade agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada, is under way. The USMCA has allowed Canadian and Mexican goods that are covered under the agreement to enter the US tariff-free.

In Canada’s case, that means about 86 percent of US imports from Canada and Mexico are compliant, making the effective tariff rate on Canadian goods about 6 percent, Tony Stillo, director of Canada Economics at Oxford Economics, said in a note on Wednesday.

While Canada clearly would benefit from USMCA continuing, Trump, as recently as Tuesday, said the trade agreement was “irrelevant” to the US.

But if an agreement to extend or modify the USMCA is not reached, it will enter a period of mandatory annual reviews until 2036, after which it would expire, resulting in a “prolonged period of trade policy uncertainty”, Stillo said.

“If the North American trade agreement eventually disintegrates, the three parties could return to bilateral trade agreements to maintain market access to one another, but this would impose costs on North American trade and investments.”

‘Political and narrative win’

While Carney is keenly aware of the stakes, the visit holds significance for China, too.

Beijing is not only on the lookout for new export markets and the removal of trade restrictions, such as the electric vehicle tariff, but a “political and narrative win” as well, Nadjibulla said.

China has often criticised Canada for following the US too closely and will portray Carney’s visit, and any policy changes that may follow, as Ottawa “trying to correct mistakes of the past,” she said.

Beijing’s ultimate hope would be compliance from Canada on sensitive issues like Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Earlier this week, two Canadian MPs from Carney’s Liberal Party wrapped up a visit to self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory, ahead of schedule on the advice of the government.

The lawmakers cited the need to avoid “confusion” in Canada’s foreign policy ahead of Carney’s visit.

Nadjibulla said it was a “worrying” development, adding that Canada would face a “very difficult balancing act” with China.

Music streaming platforms now offer over 250 million tracks.

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Music streaming platforms now offer over 250 million tracks.

There were 253 million music tracks sitting on audio streaming services at the close of 2025.

Yep: over quarter of a billion. Some milestone.

According to new data from Luminate’s new annual report, that was up by 37.9 million tracks YoY – an average of 106,000 uploads per day.

Most of this music was far from popular:

  • Almost half of the 253 million files (120.5 million) hosted by audio platforms received fewer than ten streams last year.
  • Almost three-quarters of it (73%) received fewer than 100 annual streams.
  • And nearly nine-tenths of it (88%) received fewer than 1,000 annual streams.

We’re obviously a long, long way from Apple‘s promise to deliver “1,000 songs in your pocket” with the iPod.

As AI-generated music proliferates, are we now just a few short years from the likes of Spotify hosting “1 billion songs in your pocket”?

And wouldn’t such a tidal wave of content inevitably swamp digital services – while hurting artists, songwriters, and the perceived value of music amongst consumers?

Universal Music Group CEO and Chairman, Sir Lucian Grainge, certainly thinks so… and he’s keen to stop it happening.

Last week, Grainge delivered a stark warning about AI-generated content overwhelming streaming platforms in his 2026 New Year address.

“Validating business models that fail to respect artists’ work and creativity, and promote the exponential growth of AI slop on streaming platforms, is a grave disservice to artists, songwriters and all of us who work in music,” Grainge wrote.

This warning wasn’t theoretical.

Last year, Spotify removed over 75 million ‘spammy tracks’ from its platform, while rival Deezer reported receiving 50,000 fully AI-generated tracks per day by November – accounting for 34% of all daily uploads.

Yet despite this aggressive purging of content the total amount of music in the global audio-streaming ecosystem continued to soar in 2025.

Discussion around tracks that attract fewer than 1,000 streams per year is, of course, particularly relevant here.

Luminate‘s new numbers help illustrate why – with UMG’s encouragement – audio streaming services moved towards ‘artist-centric’-style payment models a couple of years ago… and why these models are now increasingly being stress-tested by AI.

In early 2024, Spotify introduced a threshold requiring tracks to attract at least 1,000 plays in a 12–month period to qualify for royalty payouts.

At the time, Spotify said 99.5% of streams on its platform went to tracks exceeding the 1,000 annual streams threshold. Under its new policy, it said, each of those tracks would earn more — with payouts previously going to sub-1,000-stream tracks redirected back into the royalty pool.

Deezer’s artist-centric model, launched in partnership with Universal and Warner, achieved a similar aim – providing a “double boost” in royalties to artists with a minimum of 1,000 streams per month and 500 unique listeners.

In his latest 2026 memo, Sir Lucian Grainge credited UMG’s ‘artist-centric’ initiatives with accurately predicting – and stemming – “the dramatic increase in the volume of irrelevant uploads, including the rise of AI ‘slop’.”

Yet the topic remains divisive.

Some argue that it’s time for Spotify’s 1,000-per-year minimum stream payout threshold to be raised even higher.

Others – including TuneCore owner Believe – contend such models represent an unfair system “centered around taking compensation from rising artists to allocate it to top and established artists.”

The new Luminate report, which you can download here, calculates that there was “an average of 106,000 new ISRCs [tracks] delivered to streaming services each day in 2025,” up +7% from the 99,000 delivered daily in 2024.

Source: Luminate’s 2025 Year-End Music Report
Where the growth is really coming from

One of the most striking revelations in Luminate’s new data is the dramatic shift in who’s uploading music.

Tracks distributed by major music companies – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and their affiliated ‘indie’ distribution arms – accounted for just 3.8% of ISRC deliveries to DSPs in 2025.

That surprisingly small market share was less than half the size of the equivalent major market share figure in 2024 (8%), says Luminate.

Conversely, independent and DIY distribution represented a staggering 96.2% of daily uploads last year – a figure that some in the industry increasingly link to the explosion of AI-generated content and automated upload systems.

Source: Luminate’s 2025 Year-End Music Report

While 88% of tracks received 1,000 or fewer plays in 2025, Luminate’s data shows these tracks contribute almost nothing to actual streaming consumption (as illustrated by the chart below).

Just 541,000 tracks in the 1 million-50 million annual streaming bracket – representing barely 0.2% of all available music – accounted for half (49.4%) of total global audio streaming consumption last year.

Tracks played between 1 million and 10 million times alone generated 1.35 trillion streams.

Amid the deluge of low-engagement content, Luminate’s data does reveal some encouraging signs.

An additional 1.9 million tracks reached the 1,000+ streams threshold in 2025 compared to 2024.

At higher tiers, 6,800 additional tracks reached at least 10 million streams (65.6K total), and 1,000 more tracks hit 50 million+ streams (5.0K total).

However, the number of tracks reaching 1 billion streams actually declined slightly to 29 in 2025 from 33 in 2024 – suggesting that while the middle tier is growing, superstar-level success remains intensely concentrated.

Music Business Worldwide

US and UK to withdraw personnel from Qatar military base

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US and UK to withdraw personnel from Qatar military base

TSGT Scott Reed, USAF Aerial view of the Tanker Ramp at Al Udeid Air BasevTSGT Scott Reed, USAF

Al-Udeid is the largest US military base in the Middle East

The US and UK are reducing the number of personnel at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, as US President Donald Trump considers whether to take action against Iran over its crackdown on anti-government protests.

Officials have told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that the partial American withdrawal was a “precautionary measure”. The BBC understands some UK military personnel are also being removed.

A Qatari government statement said the measures reportedly being taken by the US were “in response to the current regional tensions”.

The Foreign Office has also temporarily closed the British embassy in Tehran, which will now operate remotely, a government spokesperson said.

The US embassy in Doha has advised its personnel to exercise increased caution and limit non-essential travel to the Al-Udeid air base.

According to rights groups, more than 2,400 anti-government demonstrators have been killed in the recent violent crackdown by the Iranian authorities.

Regarding the removal of military personnel, the Qatari government said it would continue to “implement all necessary measures to safeguard the security and safety of its citizens and residents as a top priority, including actions related to the protection of critical infrastructure and military facilities”.

A UK Ministry of Defence spokesperson declined to comment on reports that UK personnel were being withdrawn “due to operational security”.

Al-Udeid is the largest US military base in the Middle East and about 10,000 personnel are based there, as well as about 100 UK staff. It is not clear how many will be leaving.

Earlier this week, Trump warned the US would take “very strong action” against Iran if the authorities execute protesters. Iran has said it will retaliate if attacked by the US.

On Wednesday, he said his administration had been told “on good authority” that “the killing in Iran is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions”.

When questioned by a reporter, Trump said that these were “very important sources on the other side” and that he hoped the reports were true.

The US president was also asked whether military action was now off the table, to which he replied: “We’re going to watch and see what the process is.”

Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar

The Reuters news agency, citing diplomats, reported that while some personnel had been told to leave the Al-Udeid air base, there was no immediate sign of large numbers of troops being bussed out like in the hours before an Iranian strike last year.

Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned Donald Trump to “not repeat the same mistake that you did in June,” adding: “You know, if you try a failed experience, you will get the same result.”

As well as the temporary closure of the British embassy in Tehran, the US Mission to Saudi Arabia has advised its personnel and citizens to “exercise increased caution and limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region”.

Italy and Poland have published statements urging their citizens to leave Iran, while Germany has issued a notice to air operators recommending that flights do not enter Tehran, citing potential risk from “escalating conflict and anti-aviation weaponry”.

Iran’s government has accused the US of seeking to “manufacture a pretext for military intervention”, with the parliament speaker warning that if the US attacked, both Israeli and US military and shipping centres in the region would become legitimate targets.

The latest protests in Iran began at the end of December following the collapse of the currency and as the country deals with soaring living costs.

They quickly widened into demands for political change and became one of the most serious challenges to the clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had so far confirmed the killing of 2,403 protesters, as well as 12 children, despite an internet blackout. More than 18,434 protesters have been arrested during the unrest, the group also reported.

Amnesty International said there were “mass unlawful killings committed on an unprecedented scale”, citing “verified videos and credible information from eyewitnesses in Iran”.

The organisation urged UN member states to recognise the “crimes committed by security forces” in the protests.

Challenging the Client

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Challenging the Client



Client Challenge



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Iran Readies to Carry Out Execution of Protest Demonstrator

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Iran Readies to Carry Out Execution of Protest Demonstrator

new video loaded: Iran Prepares to Execute Protester

Iran prepared to execute Erfan Soltani, 26, on Wednesday. Soltani would be the first protester to be executed in the latest wave of antigovernment unrest. President Trump said that “the killing in Iran is stopping,” but did not elaborate on his statement.

By McKinnon de Kuyper

January 14, 2026

Comparison of Skillsets: Fighter who sparred with both Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz shares insights

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Comparison of Skillsets: Fighter who sparred with both Jaron Ennis and Vergil Ortiz shares insights

Unbeaten welterweight contender Delante Johnson, who has sparred Vergil Ortiz Jr and Jaron Ennis, believes that one has ‘more tools in his bag.’

The two undefeated super-welterweight operators have been on a collision course since their days at 147lbs but, even now, it would seem that their all-American clash remains a few steps away from materialising.

Nevertheless, there is still hope that at some point later this year the pair will finally lock horns in what promises to be a truly captivating affair.

Ortiz has established himself as the more proven contender at 154lbs, particularly with points victories over Israil Madrimov and Serhii Bohachuk.

It was then a two-round demolition job against Erickson Lubin, which took place in November, that cemented the 27-year-old as one of his division’s most formidable punchers.

Ennis, meanwhile, was able to outshine his domestic rival at welterweight, becoming a unified world champion following his sixth-round stoppage victory over Eimantas Stanionis in April 2025.

After that, ‘Boots’ made the decision to move up in weight and faced Uisma Lima, who he ruthlessly dispatched in one round last October.

Since then, a fight between Ortiz and Ennis has been teased by Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn, who promotes the latter, as a genuine possibility for this year.

Fans hold out hope, however recent comments from Ortiz’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, and his manager, Rick Mirigian, do not bode well for the fight’s chances.

If it does, Delante Johnson, who spoke with YSM Sports Media, is as good a man to rate the pair as any. After multiple rounds of sparring with both Ennis and Ortiz, he was asked to compare and contrast.

“I feel like Vergil has good timing, and he’s strong. And he has good head movement when he’s being aggressive, walking somebody down.

“But I feel like ‘Boots’ has more tools in his bag. He can switch from [orthodox to southpaw], he’s got speed, power, [and] he’s got really good timing.

“His footwork is real good and he’s crafty and smart.”

Whether the recent performances of Ortiz have changed Johnson’s mind, it remains to be seen, but the American nonetheless seems more convinced by the flashy skills of Ennis.

Skin grafts that glow can detect inflammation without the need for blood tests

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Skin grafts that glow can detect inflammation without the need for blood tests

Blood sampling is painful and invasive, plus it only tells you what’s going on in the patient’s body right when the sample is taken. So, how about this? Permanent skin grafts that glow green when specific biomarker chemicals are present in the bloodstream.

Currently being developed by scientists at Tokyo City University and The University of Tokyo, the technology isn’t necessarily aimed at use in human patients. It could also find use in research, such as in lab-trial animals that aren’t able to verbally express what symptoms they’re experiencing.

The basic idea is that when bloodstream-borne chemicals are present in a given part of the body – chemicals such as proteins that indicate inflammation, for instance – a skin graft in that area will respond by fluorescing. No intrusive blood samples will need to be taken, and the fluorescence signal will continue for as long as the inflammation lasts.

For their study, the scientists created a skin graft that incorporated human epidermal stem cells. Those stem cells were genetically engineered to grow into skin cells that respond to inflammatory signaling by expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). In other words, when exposed to inflammation-associated proteins, the skin cells visibly glow green.

The graft was integrated into the natural host skin of lab mice, beneath which inflammation was subsequently induced. Not only did the engineered skin respond by fluorescing green, but it proceeded to do so for 200 days as the engineered stem cells continuously regenerated the epidermis.

A diagram of what the researchers call the “living sensor display”

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

Additionally, while the initial tests involved the monitoring of inflammation, the researchers believe that the technology could ultimately be utilized to monitor other symptoms by detecting other biomarkers.

“Unlike conventional devices that require power sources or periodic replacement, this system is biologically maintained by the body itself,” says Prof. Shoji Takeuchi of The University of Tokyo.

A paper on the study – which also involved collaborators from RIKEN and Canon Medical Systems Co. – was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: The University of Tokyo

Six Flags Entertainment announces issuance of $1 billion in senior notes maturing in 2032

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Six Flags Entertainment issues $1 billion in senior notes due 2032

Supporters of Kneecap protest court appeal in solidarity with Palestine

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Supporters of Kneecap protest court appeal in solidarity with Palestine

Supporters of Irish-language punk-rap group Kneecap rallied outside London’s Royal Court of Justice.

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