Cheers to longevity for some and death to the others. Art by Grok.
Hot mic remarks strolling the military parade in Beijing last week.
"Biotechnology is continuously developing. Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and you can even achieve immortality." —Vladimir Putin
“[Chuckles] Some predict that in this century humans may live to 150 years old."—President Xi Jinping
Russian President Vladimir's eldest daughter is a distinguished pediatric endocrinologist and genetic researcher with expertise in pediatric growth issues.
In 2024, Vlad established New Health Preservation Technologies, focusing on cellular rejuvenation, neurotechnology, and organ regeneration where his eldest daughter, endocrinologist Maria Vorontsova, has also received state grants to develop in this field.
Cryptos flying like an eagle
The risk capital community has been placing historic bets on AI ‘platform’ companies to fund rock star developer salaries, billions in AI chips, data acquisition, and the creation of very large language models. A whopping $483 billion in VC and Big Tech money has been rolled into building out these critical AI platforms. The next generation of breakout AI startups is now building on the stacks and platforms of the AI Goliaths, and their apps are starting to reinvent how we work and play all over again. To sum it up, the future of AI is so bright that we will all need a new pair of RayBan Meta sunglasses.
“While AI's rise was sustained by decades of infrastructure investment, crypto is on a much faster path to maturity. It has the benefit of building on a more advanced tech stack, allowing it to compound progress with better tools, which is why the market's underlying momentum is now fundamentally different from previous cycles, driven less by speculative hype and more by strategic consolidation.”— Paul Verradittakit, Pantera Capital, The State of Crypto VC in 2025
The momentum is building in AI-blockchain fusion startups, blending AI's ability to crunch massive datasets and generate insights with blockchain's strengths in transparency, immutability, and distributed ownership.
Since 2024, there has been growing interest in AI-blockchain startups like Sentient Labs and Nous Research, which both raised significant funds ($85 million and $50 million, respectively) for projects combining AI with blockchain for data provenance and decentralized computing. Funding in this space reached $516M in the first eight months of 2025 alone, surpassing the total for 2024, with VCs such as a16z, Sequoia, Paradigm, Binance Labs, and Coinbase Ventures leading the charge.
The poetry between the productivity power of AI and the decentralizing power of blockchain is where the true Web3 transformation will come from, and the big money will be made.
Sentient Labs, co-founded by Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal and headquartered in the UAE, closed $85 million in seed funding in July 2024, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Framework Ventures.
Crypto outlook—Investors rotating into higher-beta assets
With regulatory hurdles out of the way (and the Boogeyman all in with both pockets - see below), we anticipate the crypto bull market extending into 2027, with Bitcoin reaching $200,000 within the next year. Bitcoin’s share of total crypto market value started peaking earlier this year, softening its dominance and broadening the upside for ether (ETH), solana (SOL), and into the public stocks like Robinhood (HOOD), Coinbase (COIN), and Circle (CRCL), and the decentralized finance sector in general. Coinbase argues that as the BTC market cap measure declines, renewed investor risk capital historically flows into large-cap altcoins, and then into mid-and small-cap names.
Two big real-world wins for crypto
Two more significant old finance dominoes have just fallen. JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States by total assets, will soon allow its customers to link their bank accounts to their Coinbase cryptocurrency wallets. PayPal, the most dominant player in payment apps with 45% market share, will soon allow US merchants to start accepting up to 100 cryptocurrencies and connect to crypto wallets, including Coinbase and Metamask. PayPal has allowed users to buy and hold cryptocurrencies in their PayPal wallets, and later expanded that ability to Venmo.
Cha-ching. Mira Murati and Thinking Machines Lab are on their way!
Speaking of high-rolling AI company funding, San Francisco-based Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup cofounded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, closed a $2 billion seed round this summer at an astounding $10 billion pre-money valuation, with Andreessen Horowitz as the lead investor, and strategic investments from Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, and Jane Street, among others.
In addition to the Albanian-born Ms. Murati, the founding team includes notable AI researchers such as John Schulman (OpenAI cofounder), Jonathan Lachman, and Barret Zoph, also from the OpenAI ecosystem.
Meta has sold over $2 million RayBan Meta smart glasses. This is how we will command our AI robots—more convenient, less screen time.
AI Agent revenue models
There is no doubt that all our current iPhone apps will eventually evolve into AI agents capable of handling our tasks. So, how is the AI agent business?
Manus launched in early March 2025 as the ‘world's first fully autonomous AI agent,’ which briefly went viral earlier this year in a ‘DeepSeek-like moment’. Cofounder Peak Jisays his AI agent’s annualized subscription sales rate is $90 million. In April, a month after the Manus agent was launched, the startup raised $75 million in a funding round led by Benchmark.
Manuscompetitor, Palo Alto-based Genspark, previously stated that it reached $36 million in annual recurring revenue within 45 days of launching its AI agent, known as Super Agent, in April. This agent handles complex queries, conducts in-depth research, and synthesizes complex information. The company has raised a total of $160 million with top investors including Lanchi Ventures and GSR Ventures.
Apple is actively developing smart glasses to rival Meta's RayBan that integrate Siri and Apple Intelligence to enable hands-free interaction with bots and apps, and reduce screen time by shifting tasks to voice, gestures, and contextual awareness. The launch target date is slated for late 2026. Your iGlasses ;) will feature cameras for visual input, microphones, speakers, and AI capabilities for tasks such as object identification, real-time translation, making calls, playing music, and responding to environmental queries—all hands-free to minimize reliance on the phone.
‘Just as the Mac introduced us to personal computing, and the iPhone introduced us to mobile computing, Apple Vision Pro introduces us to spatial computing. I believe spatial computing is a more profound step. When you've tried it, it's an aha moment, and you only have a few of those in a lifetime. But I think that these are likely to be complementary devices, and not substitutions.’
—Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
Internal studies and roadmaps indicate Apple is exploring AR-only designs for all-day wear, with a 2027 timeline mentioned in some reports, alongside lighter Vision Pro variants (e.g., Vision Air—50% less $). Vision Pro already embodies hands-free principles in spatial computing, but the lighter glasses would make it more accessible, affordable, and everyday-oriented.
Exclusive (and limited) CPRO $ 0.01 sale for Cryptonite Originals
Cryptonite is launching our new network and Daily Rap app in a few months. The mission is to build the first meaningful Web3 social media network that cherishes member privacy above all and rewards content creators for their contributions to the community.
When we were developing our social media app, we studied all the dating sites. They all seemed very random, dismal, and, frankly, over-priced. It quickly occurred to us that if we offered our global members an option to also join our ‘Friend’ network, we could solve most of the current dating app miscues and pains.
Your Cryptonite ID. The best business card you’ll ever hand out. #DeleteLinkedIn, #DeleteBumble.
When a person registers for the Cryptonite app, they will be given the option to join the ‘Friend’ network. To join, you simply add a 300-character statement of what you are ‘looking for,’ which could be anything from new friends, activity partners, or dating opportunities. You would also build your own tag cloud (like the professional one above), describing your personality traits, favorite forms of entertainment, how you move and nourish your body, and soothe your soul.
Once registered via validated ID and photo check, you will be able to filter and search the entire Friend network by both professional status and location, as well as personal tags and interests. Only people within a specified age and location range who are also members of the Friend network can see you on the Friend network. You first see only a summary view of other members and, if intrigued, you can click the ‘friend’ button on their profile and send a brief note. The person then either accepts, allowing you to message and view their full professional profile and connections, or declines, becoming invisible to you.
Target filter and search, no swiping right and left, a focused, validated professional-class membership with more background data and visible connections—All for only $9 in cash or $6 in CPRO coins per month. Let the wedding bells ring!
Heath Ledger (RIP) as the playful and charismatic Casanova in the 2005 Shakespearian-style romantic comedy based on the life of Giacomo Casanova, the notorious 18th-century Italian lover.
Below, we synthesized six key indicators you watch for when first meeting new people on dating apps that might signal Dark Triad traits. These findings are grounded in the study’s emphasis on rapid life history strategies, sociosexuality, and mating success, as well as the broader literature on the Dark Triad.
Excessive self-promotion: Individuals high in narcissism often craft dating profiles that emphasize grandiosity, attractiveness, or superiority. and engage in self-enhancing behaviors.
High Focus on physical appearance or sexual appeal: Men high in psychopathy and sexual desire prioritize physical attraction and sexual innuendos over emotional connection.
Manipulative or strategic communication:Machiavellians may use charming, calculated messages to appeal to others, gain trust, and try to exploit perceived vulnerabilities.
Impulsive or risk-taking vibes: Psychopathic users may suggest spontaneous, high-risk, or unconventional date ideas early on, and take on a carefree, bold approach to dating interactions.
Inauthentic or deceptive self-presentation: Both Machiavellians and vulnerable narcissists may exhibit inauthentic self-presentation, and real-life behavior might not match their profile. They often maintain minimal contact to keep someone interested without commitment.
Lowered empathy or callous responses: Psychopathy and Machiavellianism involve low empathy and callousness, which manifests in dismissive or cold dating app responses, a lack of interest in your emotions, or a tendency to ghost or breadcrumb without regard for your feelings.
Note: Above Cardi B (Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar Cephus), the Grammy Award-winning American rapper, songwriter, actress, OnlyFans star, and entrepreneur, scored an impressive victory over a frivolous lawsuit. Watch the clip and learn what the B in her name stands for (Badass).
The OnlyFans cash cow
While we are digging around here in the dark, might as well note that OnlyFans' owner Leonid Radvinsky just banked his $701 million dividend check for another great year. Revenues for the exotic entertainers site rose 9% to $1.4 billion for the year ending in November 2024, but slowed compared to the 20% rise in 2023, following a 160% surge in 2021 during the lockdowns. During 2024, creator accounts increased 13% to 4.6 million, and fan accounts rose by 24% to 377.5 million.
Blac Chyna: $240 million cumulative, $20 million monthly
Bella Thorne: $132 million cumulative, $11 million monthly
Cardi B: $114 million.million cumulative, $9.5 million monthly
Iggy Azalea: $110 million cumulative, $9.2 million monthly
Sophie Rain: $63 million in 2025 alone; previously $82 million over 18 months
Erica Mena: $54 million cumulative, $4.5 million monthly
Most creators (the bottom 90%): Average $150-$250 per month and $1,800-$3,000 annually.
It won’t be surprising to note that the notoriously sexually oppressed US citizenry shells out two-thirds of OnlyFans’ revenue, as in $863 million out of $1.4 billion commissions received. This also means that OnlyFans helped generate $6.5 billion in cash money for entertainers in 2024.😳
The First Family shamelessly pimps its brand and the Office of the President to cash in big on cryptos. Art by Grok.
The Trump pump
Why is it that David Sacks unloaded $200 million in cryptos (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, all of which have boomed in price) to take over as the White House Czar for Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, and the boss gets to play across the whole crypto crap table? Turns out Mr. Sacks has what some polite people would call integrity, as it was a voluntary act to save distraction from the job.
How’s the boss doing at the crypto table? Price charts are worth a thousand words.
Launched around mid-January 2025, the $TRUMP coin quickly surged over 300% to $75.35 and tanked to around $8.41–$8.68. As a decentralized meme coin, its market cap fluctuates by hype rather than fundamentals. One should think of it as a Trump baseball card, that the Trump family has already made an estimated $500 million selling.
The double pump and dump.
Truth Social, operated by Trump family-controlled Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), was launched in 2022 as the Boogeyman’s anti-Twitter platform. The stock (DJT) debuted at around $70 in March 2024 but has trended downward recently, currently trading at $17.08—75% off its IPO highs. TMTG reported a $20 million net loss in Q2 2025 on $883,300 in revenue. The company holds $3.1 billion in cash equivalents, providing a runway; however, it promotes a one-man-led community that resembles the early ‘00s and shows no signs of scaling its revenue.
The Trump family holds a 22.5 billion WLFI token stake (valued at around $5 billion as of September 2025.
The Trumpkins have aggressively promoted WLFI coin, leading to $500 million in token revenues and $5–$6 billion in paper wealth. WLFI launched publicly on September 1, 2025, after a presale at $0.015–$0.05. It peaked at $0.25–$0.331 on debut but quickly fell 31–36%, trading at $0.21–$0.229 as of early September—a net gain of 4–15 times from presale lows but down 11–36% from the launch high.
If that is not crazy enough, TMTG has just announced its partnership with Crypto.com to launch yet another publicly listed company that will buy and hold $6.4 billion of Crypto.com’s CRO tokens, becoming the latest ‘crypto treasury’ company. The CRO token surged 49% after the announcement, and TMTG’s stock (DJT) jumped 5%.
As we have stated previously, if you want to bet that the price of the $TRUMP meme coins will increase over time, like a baseball card, that's great; we just hope you didn’t buy in when it was selling in the $70s.😫 Otherwise, our general impression is that the Trumpkins have merely coddled together a flock of investment bankers, political hacks, and talking heads playing with the public’s money, to compete in two of the most highly competitive markets on the planet—social media and DeFi applications and services. Furthermore, the crypto ventures have already delivered significant realized profits (hundreds of millions) and paper profits in the billions to the Trumpkins, which dampens their hunger to succeed. When you roll this all together, Buyer Beware!
The only thing that has proven thus far is that the Trump brand is a powerful asset, and the First Family will shamelessly exploit it to add to their billions.
The Geek AI PAC
A group of Silicon Valley VC funds, AI companies, and entrepreneurs launched ‘Leading the Future’ PAC to advocate for industry-friendly AI policies. The key individuals involved include OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, who combined contributed $100 million to the cause, and Palantir Technologies co-founder and Managing Partner at 8VC, Joe Lonsdale, who also contributed $50 million. These executives are part of a broader group of backers that also includes firms like Andreessen Horowitz (which contributed $50 million and is led by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz) and AI search company Perplexity.
The group plans to advocate for industry-friendly AI policies and oppose policies that it believes will ‘stifle innovation,’ according to a press release announcing the launch, which says their purpose is to:
Advocate for industry-friendly AI policies that support innovation and faster development.
Oppose strict regulations or policies believed to stifle innovation, including fragmented state-level AI rules.
Promote U.S. AI leadership to drive economic growth, national security, and global competitiveness (e.g., against rivals like China) through sensible federal guardrails.
The new group plans to operate a network of state and federal PACs, suggesting it will be active in the 2026 midterm elections.
Plotting AI manipulation and trading killer drone parts
Vlad, the Rocket Man, and Chairman Xi met up in Beijing last week to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The affair included a massive military parade showcasing China's arsenal, including the DF-5C hypersonic missile, its stealth attack drones (e.g., GJ-11), undersea drones, and AI-integrated systems, and emphasized unity among the three nations.
The leaders also held bilateral talks, including a small-group tea meeting and lunch between Xi and Putin, where they referred to each other as ‘old friends.’ Over 20 agreements were signed between Russia and China, focusing on economic, technological, and strategic cooperation; however, specific details of the full agenda were not publicly disclosed
Rocket Man—Burning out his fuse up here alone.
The Russia-China media-AI pact integrates China’s AI advancements with Russia’s cyber expertise, alongside Huawei’s 5G projects. China’s ‘AI plus’ plan aims to attract participants in the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from the Global South and beyond, encompassing over 150 countries, and influence their infrastructure, trade, and technology initiatives. US-led alliances countering China's influence, such as the Quad (comprising the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India) and AUKUS (comprising the U.S., the UK, and Australia), include joint development of AI and protection of critical infrastructure.
Known devious intentions against the West include:
Focus on sophisticated cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.
Target US critical infrastructure (e.g., power grids, communication networks).
Undermine democratic processes (e.g., elections, public opinion).
Weaken national security and erode public trust in the US and other free nations.
Our survey last week revealed that our concern was shared by 23% of readers who voted that the greatest cultural downside to superintelligence would be political manipulation. So there you have it.
Poll result from last week. The check mark for ‘Political manipulation’ was our vote. Vlad and Xi are proving us right.
The Russia-Ukraine war represents a paradigm shift to reliance on killing drones that now account for 60-80% of battlefield deaths and injuries on both sides. Modern drones simply make conflict deadlier, more precise, and harder to resolve, prolonging stalemates through constant surveillance and auto-strikes.
An Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drone used by Russian forces in airstrikes against Ukraine.
Chinese companies have beensupplying drone parts and components to Russian firms for use in the Ukraine war, often circumventing sanctions. For instance, Chinese firms provided over $63 million in essential materials, including engines, control systems, navigation equipment, and other dual-use items, to sanctioned Russian drone manufacturers between 2023 and 2024. Overall, Chinese exports of high-priority dual-use goods to Russia surged to $1.9 billion in the first half of 2025, reaching a record high, despite denials from Beijing. These supplies have enabled Russia to scale up production of drones, such as the Shahed series, with some models consisting entirely of Chinese components.
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Ask a Wizard—How to get into the vibe?
Vibe coding refers to software development where individuals, often without programming skills, use AI models like OpenAI’s and GitHub Copilot, Replit, Cursor, or Loveable to generate code and build applications primarily through plain or intuitive ‘vibes’ rather than rigorous, structured coding.
This approach gained prominence as a buzzy startup category. VCs have poured capital into companies such as Swedish startup Loveable, Anysphere, and Replit at multi-billion dollar valuations. However, real-world data breaches at the app Tea and security gaps in customer projects at Replit illustrate how vibe coding accelerates shipping, but often at the expense of security.
This month, we turned to Cryptonite Wizard, long-time gaming developer and entrepreneur, Kenneth Hurley, to see if he has got the vibe yet.
AI tools + hard-earned wisdom
‘The word ‘vibe’ implies a lack of rigor, as if coding is just about chasing a gut feeling. In reality, building robust software—especially for complex systems like decentralized networks or game engines—demands structure, foresight, and a grasp of fundamentals. When I’m designing systems at Genius Ventures, I’m not ‘vibing.’ I’m making deliberate choices based on years of experience, weighing trade-offs like scalability, security, and maintainability.
Using AI effectively isn’t about throwing away knowledge or winging it. It’s about pairing tools with expertise. For junior engineers, AI can be a fantastic learning aid. It lowers the barrier to experimenting with ideas, like prototyping a game feature in Unreal or Unity. However, without a solid grounding in fundamentals—such as data structures, design patterns, or basic debugging—relying on AI can lead to shallow solutions.
Let’s retire ‘vibe coding’ and call it what it is: AI-accelerated development. This term acknowledges the role of AI as a productivity booster while emphasizing the importance of knowledge and intentionality. As architects and engineers, we should embrace AI to streamline our workflows—whether it’s generating serialization code for JSON/XML or exploring decentralized protocols like IPFS. But we must pair it with the hard-earned wisdom of systems thinking.'
Poll results from last week. The check mark for ‘More jobs’ was our vote, supported by the history of innovation. However, we do concede jobs are running behind at this point.
Fewer managers and direct reports
According to Crunchbase, as of June 20, 2025, at least 57,422 workers at U.S.-based tech companies had been laid off this year. Technology executives have recently become more candid about the impact of AI on employees. Alphabet and Microsoft are on public record saying that AI is producing roughly 30% of the code on some projects, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in June that AI handles as much as 50% of the work at his company. In our poll last week, 49% of our readers think the next round of innovation will lead to fewer jobs.
At the heart of this downsizing is the elimination of the middle manager. Google has eliminated more than one-third of its managers overseeing small teams. The goal is to lower the percentage of the workforce that has a manager, director, or VP title. ‘To be more efficient as we scale up, so we don’t solve everything with headcount,’ says Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
The ‘Next Silicon Valley’ is still Silicon Valley
In the first half of this year, roughly 68% of all U.S. startup funding went to California-headquartered companies, per Crunchbase data. In dollar terms, California’s 2025 haul was $94.5 billion. An anomaly? The two most valuable public companies today—Apple and Nvidia—are based in Silicon Valley, and all five of the most valuable US unicorns—SpaceX, OpenAI, Stripe, Databricks, and Anthropic—are based in California.
‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John
Elton’s second concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall premiered his newly minted album Honky Château in its entirety. This live debut of ‘Rocket Man’ two months before its release as the album’s first single is striking in its freshness and its ability to nearly replicate the studio arrangement on stage. The line-up of Davey (guitar), Dee Murray (bass), and Nigel Olsson (drums) immediately established itself as the ‘classic’ Elton band, solidifying Elton’s studio and stage presence through his most prolific period.
Sigh Missed the August issue and the new Coins - any further offering.
Best
Dave