US Threatens to Abandon IEA Over Green-Leaning Energy Forecasts
'We will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA operates or we will withdraw,' Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during an interview Tuesday. 'My strong preference is to reform it.'
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Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The GENIUS Act Killed Yield-Bearing Stablecoins. That Might Save DeFi
Congress may pass the most consequential crypto law of the decade this week while drawing a bright red line through one of DeFi's murkiest gray areas: yield-bearing stablecoins. At first glance, the GENIUS Act appears to be a straightforward regulatory win. It will finally grant over $120 billion in fiat-backed stablecoins a legal runway, establishing clear guardrails for what qualifies as a compliant payment stablecoin. But dig into the details and it becomes clear this isn't a broad green light. In fact, under the law's rigorous requirements—segregated reserves, high-quality liquid assets, GAAP attestations—only about 15% of today's stablecoins would actually make the cut. More dramatically, the Act explicitly bans stablecoins from paying interest or yield. This is the first time U.S. lawmakers have drawn a hard line between stablecoins as payment instruments and stablecoins as yield-bearing assets. Overnight, it turns decades of crypto experimentation on its head, pushing DeFi to evolve or risk sliding back into the shadows. For years, DeFi tried to have it both ways: offering 'stable' assets that quietly generated returns, while dodging securities treatment. The GENIUS Act ends that ambiguity. Under the new law, any stablecoin paying yield, whether directly through staking mechanics or indirectly via pseudo-DeFi savings accounts, is now firmly outside the compliant perimeter. In short, yield-bearing stablecoins just got orphaned. Congress frames this as a way to protect U.S. banks. By banning stablecoin interest, lawmakers hope to prevent trillions from fleeing traditional deposits, which underwrite loans to small businesses and consumers. Keeping stablecoins yield-free preserves the basic plumbing of the U.S. credit system. But there's a deeper shift underway. This is no longer just a compliance question. It's a total rethink of collateral credibility at scale. Under GENIUS, all compliant stablecoins must be backed by cash and T-bills with maturities under 93 days. That effectively tilts crypto's reserve strategy toward short-term U.S. fiscal instruments, integrating DeFi more deeply with American monetary policy than most people are ready to admit. We're talking about a market currently around $28.7 trillion in outstanding marketable debt. Concurrently, the stablecoin market exceeds $250 billion in circulation. Therefore, even if just half of that (about $125 billion) pivots into short-term Treasuries, it represents a substantial shift, pushing crypto liquidity directly into U.S. debt markets. During normal times, that keeps the system humming. But in the event of a rate shock, those same flows could reverse violently, triggering liquidity crunches across lending protocols that use USDC or USDP as the so-called 'risk-free leg.' It's a new type of monetary reflexivity: DeFi now moves in sync with the health of the Treasury market. That's both stabilizing and a fresh source of systemic risk. Here's the irony: by outlawing stablecoin yield, the GENIUS Act might actually steer DeFi in a more transparent, durable direction. Without the ability to embed yield directly into stablecoins, protocols are forced to build yield externally. That means using delta-neutral strategies, funding arbitrage, dynamically hedged staking, or open liquidity pools where risk and reward are auditable by anyone. It shifts the contest from 'who can promise the highest APY?' to 'who can build the smartest, most resilient risk engine?' It also draws new moats. Protocols that embrace smart compliance, through embedding AML rails, attestation layers, and token flow whitelists, will unlock this emerging capital corridor and tap institutional liquidity. Everyone else? Segregated on the other side of the regulatory fence, hoping shadow money markets can sustain them. Most founders underestimate how quickly crypto markets reprice regulatory risk. In traditional finance, policy shapes the cost of capital. In DeFi, it will now shape access to capital. Those who ignore these lines will watch partnerships stall, listings vanish, and exit liquidity evaporate as regulation quietly filters out who gets to stay in the game. The GENIUS Act isn't the end of DeFi, but it does end a certain illusion that passive yield could simply be tacked onto stablecoins indefinitely, without transparency or trade-offs. From here on out, those yields have to come from somewhere real, with collateral, disclosures, and rigorous stress tests. That might be the healthiest pivot decentralized finance could make in its current state. Because if DeFi is ever going to complement, or even compete with, traditional financial systems, it can't rely on blurred lines and regulatory gray zones. It has to prove exactly where the yield comes from, how it's managed, and who bears the ultimate risk. The GENIUS Act just made this law. And in the long run, that could be one of the best things to ever happen to this industry.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democrats are trolling Trump and the GOP over the Jeffrey Epstein case
PHOENIX (AP) — Democrats are latching on to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, demanding records be released and trolling Republicans on social media, news shows and in the U.S. House as they revel in a rare fissure between President Donald Trump and his fiercely loyal base. Conspiracy theories over Epstein's death in prison and potential evidence in his sex trafficking case, including an alleged 'client list,' have largely been a fixation for the right, one egged on by Trump himself. But Democrats sensed an opening after the Justice Department said last week no additional evidence will be released, and some of Trump's most influential allies refused to heed his pleas to move on. They're highlighting the dramatic about-face by some Republicans, which has divided the MAGA movement and could weaken a critical following for Trump. The more in-your-face approach also may help Democrats appease elements of the party's own base, who are hungry for a more aggressive confrontation with the other side. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and likely 2028 presidential candidate, was among those who joined in Tuesday. Khanna tried to put Vice President JD Vance — who has previously called for the Epstein files to be released — in the hot seat. Khanna shared an X post from 2020 GOP presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called for the Trump administration to 'release the Epstein files and let the chips fall where they may.' 'A 2028 power move, @JDVance,' Khanna wrote to Vance on X. 'Where do you stand on the Epstein files these days?' Vance and Haley are both possible 2028 Republican presidential candidates. A split in MAGA MAGA followers were incensed after the Justice Department and FBI abruptly walked back the notion there's an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier's trafficking of underage girls. Some called the Republican president 'out of touch,' and many have continued to demand transparency. Trump has tried to downplay the Epstein case's importance and close the book on the controversy. 'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,' Trump told reporters Tuesday. He also said there were credibility issues with the documents, suggesting without citing evidence they were 'made up' by former FBI Director James Comey and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both Democrats. The controversy puts many elected Republicans in an uncomfortable position, caught between a president who demands loyalty and a sizable segment of their base convinced the files will expose a vast conspiracy covered up by elites. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday became the highest-ranking Republican to break with Trump on Epstein, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that 'we should put everything out there and let the people decide." A topic of House debate Some of Trump's rivals have noted the president's own connections to Epstein. 'Wonder why we're not getting that list,' the anti-Trump Lincoln Project posted on X with a photo of Trump and Epstein together. Trump has acknowledged knowing Epstein socially in the 1990s but said they had a 'falling out' many years ago. The debate over the Epstein files even spilled over at a meeting of the House Rules Committee late Monday evening. The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, offered a pair of amendments from colleagues seeking the release of the documents. On the first tally one Republican, conservative Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, voted with the panel's Democrats for the proposal. It was rejected on an otherwise party-line vote. The second amendment was rejected in a party-line vote. 'You guys are tying yourself into knots trying to find a way to avoid dealing with this issue,' McGovern told Republicans. Super PAC highlights about-face by GOP Meanwhile, a super PAC working to elect Democrats to the House is naming and shaming Republicans who once demanded to see records from Epstein's sex trafficking investigation but voted against the Democratic effort to release them. GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Anna Paulina Luna and Cory Mills of Florida are 'complicit' with a Trump administration that's trying to bury documents about the wealthy financier who abused underage girls, the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC said in an emailed memo. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said if the Trump administration doesn't act, then Congress should step in to help resolve what he called a conspiracy that has been aired by the president and his supporters. 'The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,' Jeffries said during a press conference at the start of the week at the Capitol. 'This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, (Attorney General) Pam Bondi and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years,' he said. 'And now the chickens are coming home to roost.' Said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday at the Capitol, 'They should release the files now.' ___ Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bahrain, US private firms sign $17 billion worth of agreements, says court of Bahraini crown prince
(Reuters) -Bahrain's prime minister, Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, witnessed the signing ceremony of several agreements between Bahraini and U.S. private-sector companies valued at around $17 billion during a visit to Washington, the Court of the Crown Prince said on Wednesday in a post on X. Sign in to access your portfolio
