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U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has launched an investigation into the payment of approximately $6.3 million by the stablecoin issuer Tether to the consulting firm Nxum. Nxum was co-founded by former White House cryptocurrency advisor Bo Hines, who holds one-third of the company's shares. On October 22, Blumenthal sent a letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, requesting the contracts between the two parties, cryptocurrency payment records, wallet addresses, and communication content.Tether is accused of paying Nxum $415,000 per month since May 2025 for strategic communications, lobbying, and public relations services. Blumenthal pointed out that Bo Hines, while serving as the executive director of the White House Digital Assets Advisory Committee, still held shares in Nxum and coordinated affairs with the company through encrypted communication applications. He also questioned whether Tether transferred cryptocurrency through the marketing company Notorious and then allocated funds to Nxum shareholders. Tether began directly contracting with Nxum after August 2025 and hired Bo Hines to oversee the newly established U.S. operations. Blumenthal has requested that Tether, Nxum, and related parties respond by November 6, noting that the relevant allegations have not yet formed a legal determination, and Tether has not publicly responded.

Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the White House Presidential Digital Asset Advisory Committee, announced his departure from government service to return to the private sector. He made this decision public last week, and the White House has not yet announced a new head of cryptocurrency policy, with a successor still undetermined.Previously, Harry Jung and Bo Hines had also left the committee. White House officials stated that cryptocurrency policy and the Digital Asset Market Clear Act will remain a focus of the Trump administration, but the personnel vacancies have raised concerns about the momentum of policy advancement.As the midterm elections approach next month, the administration is still advancing rule-making in the digital asset space. After the new Congress is sworn in in 2027, cryptocurrency legislation will require coordination from a White House liaison, with tax legislation expected to proceed ahead of market structure reforms; if the Democrats flip the House of Representatives, the congressional landscape may also bring new variables. Meanwhile, the rule-making efforts of agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Department of the Treasury will continue.

Documents disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicate that the investment advisory firm Unique Wealth has submitted a 13F-HR report to the SEC, showing that it holds approximately $10.4 million in Bitcoin-related positions.The 13F-HR is a quarterly holdings report submitted by institutional investment managers to the SEC, used solely to disclose securities holdings that meet the reporting threshold, excluding directly held crypto assets. Therefore, the aforementioned positions typically represent Bitcoin exposure in the form of securities such as spot Bitcoin ETFs.

During the promotion of the GENIUS Act by former White House crypto advisor Bo Hines, the consulting firm Nxum, which he co-founded and holds shares in, established a business relationship with Tether. Tether paid over 6 million dollars to Nxum, with the related funds distributed among three partners.Although Hines has exited the daily operations of Nxum, he continued to discuss the act with partners via Signal during his tenure. After the GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, Hines left in August and was appointed CEO of Tether's U.S. stablecoin business in September, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest.

According to The Block, there has been another personnel change at the White House regarding digital asset regulation, as Patrick Witt has concluded his term as the White House Chief Crypto Advisor. A White House official stated in an email to The Block on Wednesday that Witt's "detail has expired" and expressed gratitude for his work during the Trump administration, wishing him success in the future. Previously, Crypto In America reporter Eleanor Terrett reported that Witt was an employee of the Department of Defense and held a temporary position on the White House Crypto Council.Witt, in his role as Executive Director of the President's Advisory Council on Digital Assets, led the Washington effort to push for the broad crypto legislation known as the Clarity Act. The House version of the bill was passed over a year ago, after which he was responsible for coordinating negotiations in the Senate. However, the Senate version faces multiple obstacles, including disagreements between the banking sector and the crypto industry on the treatment of stablecoin rewards, as well as how to address the conflicts of interest arising from President Trump's substantial crypto assets. The latter became a major reason why the bill failed to pass its first procedural vote last month, as Democrats were concerned that the relevant provisions would not be enforceable, since decisions on whether to take enforcement action against the president would be made by the Department of Justice rather than the states.Witt is the third high-level crypto official to leave the White House. David Sacks, who was in charge of crypto and artificial intelligence affairs, departed in March, stating that his 130-day term as a special government employee had ended; Witt's deputy director, Harry Jung, also left in July.

An advisor to Zelensky stated that SpaceX has set speed limits on the terminals used by the Ukrainian military.

According to Iranian media Fars News, an advisor from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard stated that they will soon block the "illegal" shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz.

According to BitcoinNews, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed a new draft of digital asset custody rules, which aims to allow investment advisors and regulated funds to custody Bitcoin and other crypto assets under specific conditions, and to provide a formal regulatory pathway for state-chartered trust companies to become qualified crypto asset custodians.According to the proposal, when a certain digital asset lacks qualified custodians willing to provide services, investment advisors may self-custody client assets under strict conditions, including written proof that custodians are unavailable, reassessment every three months, implementation of multi-signature transfers, isolation of client wallet addresses, and acceptance of independent audits. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that current custody rules are primarily designed for traditional financial assets and are no longer suitable for the development of the digital asset market.The report points out that Bitcoin may become one of the main beneficiary assets of this proposal, as its institutional custody infrastructure is relatively mature. However, the relevant rules are still in the proposal stage and have not yet officially taken effect.

Bitcoin News posted on platform X that the SEC plans to propose new rules under the 1940 Act, allowing investment advisors to directly hold related assets when no qualified custodian is willing to custody Bitcoin and other digital assets.The SEC stated that traditional custodians typically refuse to custody such assets, creating a compliance gap in the existing custody framework. The proposal will initiate a 60-day public comment period after its publication in the Federal Register.

On Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new regulations aimed at clarifying the requirements for investment advisors and regulated funds regarding the holding and custody of client cryptocurrency assets, as well as standardizing record-keeping, federal disclosures, industry operations, and audit requirements. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that the current custody rules primarily focus on traditional assets, and the new regulations will provide a regulatory framework for the custody of cryptocurrency assets.The proposal is open for public comment for 60 days and intends to allow self-custody of cryptocurrency assets and the use of state-chartered trust companies as custodians under certain conditions.

U.S. President Trump held crisis consultations with advisors to discuss whether to implement a diesel export ban or take other measures to curb the fuel crisis. The U.S. government has informed foreign allies, including the United Kingdom, that fuel supplies may be disrupted. Trump is evaluating all options available to lower domestic fuel prices.

Former White House economic advisor and founder of Geopolitica Institute Pippa Malmgren stated in an interview published by Bitcoin Magazine that the core of the security agreement between the United States and Greenland is not the ice sheet or minerals, but the space race. She pointed out that missile tracking and satellite ground stations give the Arctic region critical strategic value and believes that Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands will be the next focal points.Malmgren then linked geopolitics to the market, discussing U.S. debt, China's selling of U.S. Treasury bonds, and the future of Bitcoin. She mentioned that the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio has reached 100% and analyzed the government's plan to escape debt through growth, as well as the reasons behind China's reduction of U.S. Treasury holdings.She also discussed the nationalization of cutting-edge AI laboratories and AI security, the evolution of currency from fiat to digital currency, the application of stablecoins and Bitcoin in AI agent scenarios, and topics such as Austin becoming the "new Shenzhen."

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart stated in a video interview with Bitcoin Magazine that trillions of dollars in advisory wealth are currently on the sidelines, and a slight increase in allocation could bring substantial new demand for Bitcoin ETFs. He mentioned that the daily inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs once approached $1 billion.James Seyffart pointed out that strict rules from large brokerages like Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are still limiting financial advisors from purchasing Bitcoin ETFs for their clients, with the target allocation being too low as the main constraint. Many advisors have previously chosen to wait for the bear market to end before entering the market. He emphasized that approximately $30 trillion to $40 trillion in advisory wealth is a long-overlooked data point.He also discussed the cost benchmarks for Bitcoin ETFs, whether ETF fund flows can truly drive Bitcoin prices, who is selling between spot holders and ETF investors, the closing of hedge fund Bitcoin basis trades, and whether Bitcoin ETFs are expected to surpass gold ETFs. He believes the impact of the four-year cycle is diminishing, and Bitcoin is increasingly viewed as a risk asset.

Patrick Witt, the Executive Director of the White House Digital Asset Advisory Committee, defended President Trump's cryptocurrency connections at the Financial Markets Quality conference held at Georgetown University on Wednesday, denying that his personal crypto interests led to the failure of the Clarity Act in the Senate last week. He stated that the Democrats have politicized the issue and questioned why the recently passed housing bill did not require strict government ethics review provisions. The negotiations for the Clarity Act have consistently failed to bypass ethical controversies, which target conflicts of interest in cryptocurrency held by senior government officials, with Trump being a primary target.Witt stated that Trump agreed to two unprecedented ethical provisions: in addition to ultimately being willing to accept rules mandating the divestment of crypto assets or placing them in a blind trust, the White House is also prepared to concede by allowing state attorneys general to sue him if the federal government fails to address ethical violations. He also mentioned that the accusation of Trump having a conflict of interest while controlling crypto assets and leading digital asset policy is "quite ironic," as several senators on the banking committee involved in the discussions hold and actively trade stocks of financial services companies they regulate.Witt's main responsibility is to push the Clarity Act into law, which faced setbacks in the Senate last week. He stated at the CoinDesk policy and regulatory event on Tuesday that the focus is not on the year-end lame duck session, but rather on the core work shifting towards federal regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also accused banking lobbyists of pushing to shelve the bill due to concerns that stablecoin rewards might compete with interest-bearing bank deposits, claiming that this opposition was initiated by large banks and spread to community banks.

According to CoinDesk, Taylor Lindman, the Chief Legal Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Crypto Working Group, stated at the CoinDesk Policy & Regulation event held in Washington that the SEC is advancing rules for the custody of crypto assets. The relevant proposal has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, covering investment companies and broker-dealers. She indicated that the rule aims to inform the market about how to hold non-securities crypto assets within broker-dealers without special registration and clarifies that investment advisors can store client assets in institutions such as state-chartered trusts.Once the proposal passes the review by the Office of Management and Budget, the SEC will formally present it and seek feedback from the industry and the public. Lindman also mentioned that the SEC will issue an employee statement in December 2025 as a transitional arrangement, guiding broker-dealers on handling crypto custody matters before the rules are implemented, and will allow investment advisors to store client assets in state-chartered trusts as qualified crypto custodians starting in September 2025.Lindman described the SEC's recent work as "laying the groundwork," including previously proposed rules allowing crypto issuance and exemptions for tokenized securities. She stated that the SEC is working to ensure that existing securities intermediaries and market participants can confidently use blockchain to hold and trade crypto assets. Previously, the SEC's attempts at custody rules under Gary Gensler in 2023 were abandoned, and a leadership supportive of crypto was appointed after the Trump administration took office.

Sihao Huang, who previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), announced his joining of Anthropic as the Head of Frontier Computing Strategy. He stated that he will collaborate with Anthropic's Computing Lead Tom Brown to advance infrastructure expansion, build industry coalitions, and develop plans for the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence.Huang mentioned that during his time at the White House, he was involved in promoting U.S. artificial intelligence policy and related industry infrastructure development, and this new position will bring him closer to the frontier technologies that are continuously influencing significant policy decisions.

Anthropic is marketing a version of Claude called Claude for Financial Advisors to financial advisors, which combines chatbot technology with financial analysis and risk management tools operated by BlackRock, Vanguard, and other companies.According to executives from Anthropic and BlackRock, the system is designed to accelerate research, administrative, and portfolio oversight tasks, allowing more advisors to access portfolio analysis and investment research tools.

According to POLITICO Pro, U.S. President Trump held a closed-door meeting with advisors on Friday regarding the ethical provisions for government officials in the Senate's proposed cryptocurrency bill, the Clarity Act. The bill is set for a crucial procedural vote in the Senate next Tuesday, with Senate Democrats demanding the inclusion of ethical constraints applicable to government officials to limit Trump's ability to profit from his family's cryptocurrency business. It is currently unclear who attended the meeting with Trump and what the conclusions were.Trump's senior cryptocurrency policy advisor Patrick Witt posted a positive signal on X on Saturday, stating, "Today is a bad day for the naysayers of the Clarity Act."The ethical provisions have been one of the key obstacles the Clarity Act faces in the Senate, with significant bipartisan disagreements over whether enforcement authority should be led by the Department of Justice or state attorneys general. The procedural vote next Tuesday will test whether the two parties can reach a compromise on this core dispute before the Senate recesses.

According to Forbes, Patrick Witt, the executive director of the Digital Asset Advisory Committee of President Trump, told Semafor that the window of opportunity for the Clarity Act is closing, and if the procedural vote next week fails, "no one can say when the bill will have another chance."Witt stated that a failed motion vote will not yield the desired results for anyone and called for bipartisan support for the bill: "Join this bill, and let's continue the conversation." The bill is scheduled for a procedural vote on September 15.

According to a report by CNBC citing the latest financial disclosure documents, Kevin Hassett, the Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) at the White House, holds between $1 million and $5 million in Coinbase stock as of the end of 2025. Previously, Hassett served as an advisor to Coinbase from 2021 until January 2025, before joining the White House. Since the disclosure documents only cover holdings up to the end of 2025, it cannot be confirmed whether he still holds these shares.This investment has raised concerns because the NEC plays an important role in the cryptocurrency agenda of the Trump administration. Three days after Trump returned to the White House, a digital asset market working group was established within the NEC, responsible for developing regulatory, banking, stablecoin, and tax proposals for cryptocurrencies. Hassett stated that he has avoided cryptocurrency-related matters after consulting with government ethics officials, and the White House claimed he "has always and continues to fully comply with all ethical requirements." However, former SEC ethics lawyer Kantor pointed out that this holding constitutes a "significant conflict of interest" or at least presents the appearance of a conflict. Coinbase spent millions of dollars in the 2024 U.S. elections, and its CEO maintains direct contact with Trump and senior officials.