Canada’s Election Crypto Showdown: Politicians Love Blockchain (When It Votes for Them)

As campaign trails heat up, crypto’s suddenly every candidate’s favorite buzzword—right next to ’economic growth’ and ’transparency.’ Brace for empty promises wrapped in blockchain jargon. Bonus jab: Watch them promise to ’fix crypto volatility’—right after they take donations in stablecoins.

Friday

• 17:00 UTC (1:00 p.m. ET) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will hold the latest of its crypto roundtables, this time focusing on custody issues.

• (The New York Times) Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had another group chat where he shared details about an impending military strike in Yemen. Unlike the Signal chat which included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Hegseth himself set this group up, and included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, the Times reported. NBC later reported that the information about the strike came from a message sent by an Army general through "a secure U.S. government system."
• (Reuters) The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to lay off a fifth of its employees, or 1,250 people, it told its staff according to Reuters.
• (AP News) The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it would lay off 1,500 employees, but this move has been paused by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
• (The New York Times) Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat representing Maryland, met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia was wrongfully sent to El Salvador to be imprisoned without a trial or hearing, and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s administration tried to stage the photos of his meeting with Van Hollen by placing glasses "with cherries and salted rims" for photos, the Times reported.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

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See ya’ll next week!