Wall Street rejects Bessent's modest intervention Bitcoin Golden Cross Meets Surging Bond Yields And Energy Inflation Wall Street rejects Bessent's modest intervention Sep 10 READ IN APP None of this is financial advice. Do your own research. By reading this newsletter, you acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions outlined in our disclaimer . GM Investors Bitcoin printed a technical golden cross. The 50-day moving average slipped above the 200-day for the first time since the November 2025 death cross. Price sits near $78,500, well above the crossover zone around $70,000. The problem is the tape around the signal. Yields are at a three-year high. Oil prices are back over $100. Diesel is at an all-time high. PPI just printed hotter than expected. Fed policy is being priced toward hikes again. Geopolitical risk is keeping energy tight into the midterms. That is not the usual backdrop for a clean crypto market analysis buy-the-cross tape. Two forces are fighting. One is a real inflation impulse through crude, diesel, and wholesale prices. The other is a liquidity stack as Trump proposed $5,000 household dividend and on-chain data that looks more like a bull transition than a late bear. Here’s what our desk is watching. TOKEN2049 Singapore: Find the Next Hyperliquid Before It Lists!!! Every year, one conference produces the startups that dominate the next cycle. This year, it’s TOKEN2049 Singapore. TOKEN2049 Origins Hackathon: 36 hours, $100K prize pool, direct demo access to the main stage. This is where the next cycle’s infrastructure gets built live. 500 applicants, 10 finalists, 1 global stage. Past cohorts have gone on to become Web3 unicorns. 25,000 people. 7,000 companies. 60%+ C-suite. 160+ countries. One building: Marina Bay Sands. Newsletter readers get 10% off tickets. We don’t get a kickback. We just want our people in that room. Claim your 10% discount and register The Cross Is Real. The Macro Is Not Clean. The golden cross is not a rumor. Spot closes put the 50-day at roughly $69,993 against a 200-day near $69,900. The gap is thin, but the print is done. Bitcoin closed that session at $78,458. That means the signal formed as a support cluster, not as a blow-off high. History still favors the bulls if you isolate the technical. Across Bitcoin’s recorded golden crosses, the average three-month follow-through has been about 25%. Some runs were 45% to 60%. That math from $78,000–$80,000 points toward the high $90s if the pattern behaves. Our research does not treat that as a target. We treat it as the base case only if yields stop rising. They have not stopped. The 10-year yield tagged 4.83% to 4.86% . That is the highest since late 2023. The 30-year broke its long-term trend and traded through 5.3%. Global yields are pressing multi-year highs at the same time the United States is paying a rising share of the budget in interest. That is the constraint sitting on Bitcoin, equities, and semiconductor stocks alike. On-chain data is the offset. MVRV Z-Score is testing its 365-day moving average. Reclaims of that line in 2015, 2019, and 2023 marked the shift from bear market into a new bull. Spot Bitcoin ETFs have climbed back toward break-even after an $18 billion drawdown. Institutional cost basis is now overhead, not a floor. Price has to push through that band for the next leg. Spot demand is still weak underneath the ETF recovery. That is why this is a two-sided tape, not a one-way breakout. Yields, Buybacks, and Fed Policy Are the Near-Term Risk Treasury told the market it would buy $6 billion of 10- to 20-year paper. That is triple the old $2 billion size and above the “at least $4 billion” guidance from August 19. It was not enough. Street estimates had run to $8 billion and $10 billion. The phrase that stuck on our desk is simpler: once you show the market you will intervene, it will test how far you go. That test is already running. 10-year yield : 4.83%–4.86%, highest in nearly three years. 30-year yield : through 5.3%, long-term trend broken. Buyback size : $6 billion versus $8–$10 billion expected. TGA : still near $1 trillion, the backstop if Bessent scales into the tens of billions. 2-year versus fed funds : about 66 basis points above the current policy rate, the widest gap since the 2022 hiking cycle. September FOMC : hike odds clustered around 50% to 62%, with the path still pointing to nearly three hikes if energy stays hot. PPI landed this morning. Final demand rose 0.4% in August. The 12-month rate printed 5.4%, above the 5.3% consensus and well above July’s 4.7%. Goods led. That is the energy pass-through our research expected. CPI is due tomorrow with a 3.4% year-over-year consensus, unchanged from the last print. If CPI holds while PPI is already hot, Fed policy stays biased toward tightening into the September 16 meeting. The Bank of Japan is the second rate event. The board meets September 18. A policy member said the rate is still below estimated neutral and has been for a long time. Markets have priced a hike near certainty. JPY is already firming. Japanese retail is still leaning into yen shorts. A BoJ move that is cleaner than expected can tighten global liquidity just as U.S. yields are already biting. Oil Prices and Geopolitical Risk Are Feeding the Inflation Impulse Crude is on its longest green streak in more than three years. Brent settled at $101.21. WTI closed near $96. Both are the highest since late May. Dated Brent has been above $100 since September 3. This is not a one-day spike. It is a supply tape driven by geopolitical risk: tanker strikes, a choked Strait of Hormuz, and no clean path to a ceasefire before November 3 midterms. Diesel is the more important number for the real economy. The pump average hit $5.94. Futures are pressing $6. That is an all-time high. Diesel is an input cost for trucking, rail, agriculture, construction, and shipping. When it rises, those costs show up in food, furniture, and freight. Heating oil and diesel f

Navigating the Gulf headline risk with tested zones 🚨5 Levels To Watch As We Get Hot Oil, Hotter Yields Navigating the Gulf headline risk with tested zones Sep 10 READ IN APP None of this is financial advice. Do your own research. By reading this newsletter, you acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions outlined in our disclaimer . Hey Traders, Overnight the U.S. and Iran kept hitting tankers and shipping around Hormuz. Supply is still tight, diesel is at a record, and crude is holding above $100. That is the inflation impulse markets cannot ignore into CPI and next week’s Fed. Wall Street is selling the mix, not the headline. Stocks just logged a third down day as the 10-year pushed to a three-year high after Treasury’s $6 billion buyback disappointed. Equities are reading hot oil and a hotter PPI print as a hiking problem, not an energy boom. Bitcoin printed a golden cross this week and is holding up better than the indexes, but it is still inside the same regime: a Hormuz premium stacked on sticky wholesale prices. The tax shows up first in crude, then in yields and risk. Here is what we are watching. Poll of the Day ( Presented by Rain Trade ) 🎯 POLL With oil and yields going up, what triggers the next massive Bitcoin move? U.S. labor data 📊 Geopolitical calm 🕊️ ETF flow reversals 💸 Today’s Charts: Chart #1 – OP(OPUSDT) 4-Hour Chart #2 – Conflux(CFXUSDT) 4-Hour Chart #3 – ONDO(ONDOUSDT) 8-Hour Chart #4 – Kaspa(KASUSDT) 8-Hour Chart #5 – Palantir(PLTR) 8-Hour Chart #1 – OP(OPUSDT) 4-Hour( Powered by Rain Trade 📊) Chartist: Degen Dave (For the chart screenshot, ) OP is currently retesting the Point of Control, 100 Day MA, 618 Hacker Zone, and a Bullish Order block that is showing on the 4 HR TF on Chart Prime. The oscillator also printed a reversal and looking at this trade idea as a Swing Long set up. Trade Levels: Entry: $0.0984 Stop Loss: $0.0877 Take Profit Levels (TP): TP1: $0.145 Powerful narratives create powerful moves. With 247 Research , you get the insights to be early to the biggest trends in crypto. Chart #2 – Conflux(CFXUSDT) 4-Hour( Powered by Rain Trade 📊) Chartist: Trader J (For the chart screenshot, ) CFX has rejected from the 200-day SMA, so I’m looking for a pullback into the 0.5 Fib where we have strong confluence from the anchored VWAP from the August 6 low, rising trend support with three clean touches, and the 50/100-day SMAs. This gives us a solid zone for a potential long scalp. Trade Levels: Entry: $0.04512 Stop Loss: $0.04333 Take Profit Levels (TP): TP1: $0.04777 Chart #3 – ONDO(ONDOUSDT) 8-Hour( Powered by Rain Trade 📊) Chartist: Panda (For the chart screenshot, ) Ondo has been consolidating at its mid range after the recent 28% sell off. It recently broke the descending channel “falling wedge” and currently retracing towards retesting the break out trend. Currently lost the 50SMA and temporarily holding the 100SMA. Major point to note is that ONDO did not fill nor sweep the recent 28% dump wick which has had major liquidity build up. With upcoming major data/news this week, severe volatility is expected and a major flush before a v shape recovery is a possibility. If there is a major sell off in the market, ONDO’s recent major wick represents an area of interest. The 12h Stochs are indicating signs of time needed to reset. Areas of confluence are 12H bullish OB + .618 fib + Previous month low + quarterly open + 200SMA. Trade Levels: Entry: $ 0.317 Stop Loss: $0.2991 Take Profit Levels (TP): TP1: $ 0.397 TOKEN2049 Singapore: Find the Next Hyperliquid Before It Lists!!! Every year, one conference produces the startups that dominate the next cycle. This year, it’s TOKEN2049 Singapore. TOKEN2049 Origins Hackathon: 36 hours, $100K prize pool, direct demo access to the main stage. This is where the next cycle’s infrastructure gets built live. 500 applicants, 10 finalists, 1 global stage. Past cohorts have gone on to become Web3 unicorns. 25,000 people. 7,000 companies. 60%+ C-suite. 160+ countries. One building: Marina Bay Sands. Newsletter readers get 10% off tickets. We don’t get a kickback. We just want our people in that room. Claim your 10% discount and register Chart #4 – Kaspa(KASUSDT) 8-Hour( Powered by Rain Trade 📊) Chartist: Chaoss (For the chart screenshot, ) Trade idea to wait for KAS to push up into the same resistance zone we have been to 4 times already (see huge order block left over), have the current potential bearish divergence play out and enter our zone with limit orders set and we are targeting both the TP zones below afterwards. We have left room for a liquidity sweep above this zone too, targets based on horizontals, support areas, POC & also our moving averages. As we approach the order block we will look for a combination of Sell signal on chart, bearish divergence on oscillator and signs of exhaustion and engulfing marks on the candles. Trade Levels: Entry: $ 0.0413 Stop Loss: $0.0432 Take Profit Levels (TP): TP1: $ 0.0298 Chart #5 – Palantir(PLTR) 8-Hour( Powered by Rain Trade 📊) Chartist: The Nagel (For the chart screenshot, ) (PLTR refers to the stock of Palantir Technologies Inc. and not a cryptocurrency.) PLTR has completed what looks like the the 3rd wave breaking structure on the 8 hour TF, stochs are looking like they need to cool off and wave 4 seems to be underway , looking for a bounce on the retest of the 50Day MA as well as the 0.382 - 0.5 fib region , we also have a horri and the local uptrend VWAP as confluence . Trade Levels: Entry: $160 Stop Loss: $149.85 Take Profit Levels (TP): TP1: $204 Midterms vs. Trump: The Oldest Rule in Politics Meets the Biggest Exception Every midterm punishes the president’s party. Rain Trade has Republicans at 16%. The pattern says Democrats win. This market isn’t asking who wins. It’s asking, is Trump the exception or the rule? The 86% price says “rule.” The 16% price says “exception.” Both are live. Both have arguments. Neither is official. Trade on Rain Trade Banter’s Take We v

Apple's new CEO debuted its new phone... September 10, 2026 Presented By Pleasure to meet you. On Sunday, we’re bringing you a special edition on all things hiring, and we’ve got a question for those of you who’ve ever had to ask a job applicant how many hamsters can fit in a cubicle: What is a telltale sign of a good interview or a strong predictor of job performance that you might not guess? Whether it’s a candidate’s ability to name the current Fed chair, or to colorfully describe the book they’re currently reading, we want to hear about it. Submit your response here , and we’ll feature some standout submissions in the newsletter. — Dave Lozo, Molly Liebergall, Matty Merritt, Holly Van Leuven, Abby Rubenstein In today’s newsletter, we’ll get into: Apple’s new foldable iPhone A warning from a departing Anthropic employee The NFL’s Aussie adventure Markets Nasdaq 26,253.34 -0.64% S&P 7,636.36 -0.48% Dow 52,380.66 -0.77% 10-Year 4.837% +3.0 bps Bitcoin $78,222.01 -0.34% Meta $653.69 +6.55% Data is provided by *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 6:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: Stocks made it a threepeat yesterday, but not the good kind, falling for the third day in a row as Treasury yields and oil prices moved up (more on both of those below). But somewhere, Mark Zuckerberg was probably smiling: Meta rose a day after debuting personal AI agents. Markets Sponsored by United States Tungsten One metal powers $12t+ across industries, yet America produces zero tungsten domestically. Invest in United States Tungsten as they work to reactivate the country’s largest tungsten mine . RETURN TO THE FOLD Apple hopes you’ll see this new iPhone and fold Morning Brew Inc., Photo: Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images John Ternus took the stage in Cupertino yesterday for the first time as Apple CEO and delivered what everyone was expecting—nearly 10 uninterrupted minutes of Apple Hands and a new folding iPhone that has the potential to become the leader in a virtually untapped market. The details: The iPhone Duo will be available for preorder on Oct. 16 at a starting price of $2,000, but it can cost as much as $3,000 if you want more storage for cat videos. When unfolded, it acts more like an iPad than two iPhones, and it’s about the same size as a passport when folded. Bringing Apple into the fold Consumer electronics companies shipped a total of ~20 million foldables last year—accounting for ~2% of all smartphone sales, per Counterpoint Research. The Duo is tracking to make a splash instantly: Morgan Stanley expects Apple to ship 6.5 million Duos in its fiscal first quarter, which ends in December. That amounts to ~$14 billion in sales, or about 16% of total iPhone revenue expected in the quarter, per Bloomberg. Next year, the company is projected to sell more than 12 million foldables, according to Counterpoint. The latest push to catch up on AI Apple also unveiled other new products at yesterday’s “Surprise and Shine” event besides the iPhone You’re Even More Afraid To Drop, including the upgraded AirPods 5. Just about everything else was a signal that Apple no longer wants to be the tech company that’s lagging on AI. The new iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max (which you can fold, but only if you want to break it) along with the Duo are being positioned as Apple’s primary AI devices . Both of the latest iPhones have improved AI software that includes a new Siri AI. Even the new Apple Watch is being rebranded as an AI wearable. Bad day, good outlook? Apple shares were down slightly yesterday before market close, but Ternus shouldn’t take it personally—it’s the sixth time over the last nine new iPhone events that its stock has fallen on the same day. But shares have also averaged a 10% gain over the six months following these annual product pitches, per data from Bloomberg. —DL Reader Poll Do you want your next phone to be foldable? Yes, give it to me. Maybe, but not at that price. I’ll wait and see if everyone else likes having one first. No, my flip phone era is over. Sponsored By United States Tungsten America’s biggest tungsten mine is accepting investors The Tungsten Queen once ruled American production as the country’s largest tungsten mine. Now dormant in North Carolina, it still holds roughly 1m tons of tungsten, worth $665m . With six industries ranging from aerospace to automotive waiting on a steady domestic supply, United States Tungsten is coming to the rescue , reactivating the Tungsten Queen. While typical mining projects take 7–10 years to reach production, United States Tungsten could do so in as little as 24 months. That speed is critical in a market where tungsten prices have surged 500%+, China controls 84% of global supply, and new US defense policy has cut off foreign tungsten purchases entirely. Invest in United States Tungsten and lock in up to 23% bonus shares before Oct. 9 . World Tour de headlines Mehmet Eser/Getty Images 🏦 The bond market wasn’t impressed by the Treasury’s $6 billion buyback plan. The Treasury Department said it would repurchase up to $6 billion of its own long-dated debt, triple its usual amount, as part of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s efforts to bring down borrowing costs. But investors reacted to the revelation of the amount with a Shania Twain-like shrug, sending bond yields (which move in the opposite direction from bond prices) soaring. The 10-year Treasury yield hit its highest level in about three years yesterday. The buybacks are scheduled to happen today. 🛢️ Oil rose above $100 per barrel. For the first time since July, the price of a barrel of oil spiked above $100 yesterday, as the war in Iran continues to roil global energy markets. Both Brent crude and US crude prices closed at their highest level since late May, per NBC News. The high prices came after the US said it destroyed Iranian tankers, Iran attacked US ships, and an Iran-backed group attacked oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. With high energy prices consid

Plus: Small-biz AI surprise | Thursday, September 10, 2026 Axios Markets By Emily Peck and Matt Phillips · Sep 10, 2026 🏋🏻♂️ Thursday! Now we're getting somewhere. 📈📉 S&P 500 futures are slightly positive this morning, after ending down yesterday, the third straight session of losses. Oil pushed even higher overnight, with the global benchmark Brent now more than $102 a barrel, amid an uptick in "kinetic activity" between the U.S. and Iran. (We've been seeing that phrase everywhere. Is "fighting" not the right word?) 🗓️ Today, we look at the less-than-ideal market reaction to the Treasury Department's plan to buy more of its own bonds and what might be behind it. Plus, what happens when smaller companies adopt AI. Let's go. In 1,133 words, a 4.5-minute read. 1 big thing: Bessent fails to shock and awe the bond market By Matt Phillips Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios The Treasury Department failed to cow the bond market yesterday with its amped-up buyback announcement, as rates still rose. Why it matters: The reaction suggests that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's unusual showdown with the markets could itself add to upward pressure on interest rates — precisely the opposite of what most think he's trying to achieve. Driving the news: The Treasury announced yesterday that it would buy back $6 billion — triple what it initially planned — in long-term bonds per operation this quarter, with one of those operations set for today. While the stated reason for the buyback boost was to improve trading conditions in the bond market, traders saw it as an attempt by the Trump administration to try to push long-term bond yields down. So instead of bonds rallying on the news, which would have pushed down yields, the price of U.S. government debt tumbled. (Prices and yields move in opposite directions.) By the numbers: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note — a benchmark for mortgages and business and consumer loans — briefly spiked to 4.85%, the highest since October 2023, before settling at 4.84% yesterday. Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios Zoom out: When policymakers try to intervene in big markets, they have a very specific modus operandi: Go big or go home. With some $32 trillion or so of Treasury securities being publicly traded, $6 billion seemed unimpressive. "If Treasury really wants to make a difference," wrote Ira Jersey, rates strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, "they'll need to really shock and awe the next size announcement, maybe $10 billion or more per operation." One of Bessent's predecessors at the Treasury, former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, tried something similar when asking Congress for unlimited authority to support the troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the 2008 financial crisis. "If you have got a bazooka and people know you have got it, you may not have to take it out. You are not likely to take it out," Paulson said at that time. Basically, the idea is that if you can make announcements of huge sums of money or, even better, unspecified amounts seemingly backed by either credit lines from the government or the power of the central bank to print as much money as it needs, investors are dissuaded from pushing in the opposite direction. Reality check: Bessent doesn't have a bazooka. In other words, the Treasury doesn't have unlimited amounts of money to spend, and the markets know it. The Treasury has to fund any bond buying it is doing either by drawing down what is effectively Uncle Sam's bank account, the Treasury General Account, or by borrowing the money by selling shorter-term Treasury securities. Both funding plans have limits. One could easily start to burn through some of the money in the U.S. government's bank account—not a great look for a Treasury secretary. The other could end up boosting levels of short-term debt that are currently trading. And increasing the supply — all else being equal — would raise interest rates, first on short-term debt, and eventually on longer-term debt again. What they're saying: "We view these operations as a mere 'Band-Aid' solution that fails to address the much deeper, structural deficit wound," wrote Guneet Dhingra, head of U.S. rates strategy at BNP Paribas. "Perhaps cutting the budget deficit might help more than tactics such as these," wrote Adam Josephson at Sakonnet Research. After the $6 billion announcement disappointed investors, Steven Zeng, a strategist at Deutsche Bank told Bloomberg , "It's like Treasury created this monster that it now has to keep feeding." A MESSAGE FROM AXIOS Break through the noise with Axios Reach execs and business leaders with Axios. We'll help you tell your story in the right way: We'll distill your brand's message into its most effective form with Smart Brevity. No clutter, no filler — just clean, smart and effective. Contact us to learn more. 2. Small businesses that adopt AI hire more workers By Emily Peck Data: Gusto; Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios Very small businesses that adopt AI actually wind up growing their employee ranks faster compared with those that haven't started using the technology, according to a new report this morning. Why it matters: The findings run counter to the job apocalypse storyline and bolster evidence that AI is leading to growth for entrepreneurs. Where it stands: Overall, small businesses that use AI grew headcount about 7% more than non-AI users in the first year of using the technology, finds the new report from Gusto, a payroll platform used by small businesses. Headcount growth accelerated as the year progressed. The company looked at payroll data from 2,262 of its customers. Zoom in: The effect was strongest for the smallest companies. Businesses with fewer than 10 employees grew their teams by an average of 10% one year after adopting AI, compared with comparable businesses that didn't adopt. That may be because it frees up time for these tiny companies to focus on growing their businesses rather than just keeping up with day-to-day demands

Not a joke. Very real. 🥛 Hunter Biden's memecoin 💻 Not a joke. Very real. Rohit Chauhan GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that has never left anything at a Delaware repair shop. Here’s what we’ve got for you today: ✍️ Hunter Biden launched a memecoin? 🎙️ The Milk Road Show: Jordi Visser: The Biggest Bull Market Ever Will Come From AI + Crypto . 🍪 Solana has now been #1 in x402 transactions and volume. Nexo is a premier digital asset platform that helps clients build, manage, and preserve their wealth. Get started with Nexo today. Prices as of 2:00 p.m. ET. Powered by CoinGecko. HUNTER BIDEN LAUNCHED A MEMECOIN? 💻 Hunter Biden launched a memecoin today. No, seriously. It’s a real thing. If you've missed the six-year-long story that led us to this point, here’s a speedrun of everything you missed: Hunter Biden left a laptop at a Delaware repair shop in 2019 → its contents leaked ahead of the 2020 election → it became one of the larger political scandals in recent memory. On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported Hunter was turning the meme into a crypto token. Hours later he posted this, with a montage of Fox News clips referencing the scandal. 👇 Source: @HunterBiden It went live today on Base, and the pitch is aimed squarely at people who got burned by the TRUMP token. Two percent of the supply is set aside for wallets that lost money on Trump's coin, with exchanges deciding how to hand it out. Another 8% goes to subscribers of Hunter's Substack. They’ve got 30 days to claim it, and any unclaimed tokens get destroyed. Thirty percent of the 1B tokens are tied to 30 real-world outcomes, most of them with live betting markets on Polymarket. If the event happens, those tokens get burned (shrinking the supply). If it doesn't, they go to charity and stay in circulation. The list includes Trump being impeached, a Democrat winning in 2028, and Bitcoin setting a new record. Source: Laptoptoken The founders, Hunter included, take 30%. They get nothing on day one, then a six-month lock followed by two years of gradual unlocks. And buried in the disclosure document is a clause about where the money ends up. Any profit the Cayman Islands foundation makes, after expenses, goes to TTM Media Group LLC, a company the founders own and control. If that's giving you déjà vu, you're not imagining it... ONE ACCOUNT FOR ALL YOUR CRYPTO NEEDS Crypto is still a weirdly fragmented experience. One app to buy. Another to earn yield. A third to borrow against your stack. But Nexo is now bringing it all under one roof: Trade, Earn, and Borrow. Nexo is a premier digital asset platform that helps clients build, manage, and preserve their wealth. Here's what makes them worth trusting: Official Crypto Partner of Tennis Australia First Digital Asset Partner of the Audi Revolut Formula 1 Team Operating since 2018 $7B+ in AUM SOC 2 & SOC 3 certified 24/7 client care Get started with Nexo today. HUNTER BIDEN LAUNCHED A MEMECOIN? (P2) 💻 Twenty months ago a similar playbook ran with a certain sitting president attached to it. TRUMP launched in January 2025 at $1.20 (according to Yahoo Finance), hit ~$78 in two days, and trades at ~$2.17 today. A ~97% drawdown. Source: TradingView Blockchain data firm Nansen counted 1.48M wallets that bought it, and by the end of June, ~66% of them were underwater to the tune of $3.81B, while 33% made money (mostly trading bots and first-hour buyers). Meanwhile Trump's own financial disclosure shows $636M in royalties from the coin. His entities took a cut of every trade, so the payday tracked volume rather than price. And affiliates sat on roughly 80% of the supply, releasing it slowly. LAPTOP is a softer version of that: 30% instead of 80%, nothing at launch, and paperwork that’s clear about the structure. That said… 65% of the supply is locked and vesting, which the disclosure itself warns could create heavy selling pressure. The foundation gets sole say on any event outcome that isn't clear-cut, holders get no ownership, vote or revenue, and any lawsuit happens in the British Virgin Islands. Ok… so how’d the launch go? Let me just open CoinGecko to see where we’re… aaaaand it’s gone . Source: CoinGecko LAPTOP lost *counts fingers * $98M within an hour of launch. Yikes. BITE-SIZED COOKIES FOR THE ROAD 🍪 Want to reach 88,000 crypto and AI investors a day? Milk Road is booking Q4 sponsorships now so book a call now. Agents be spendin’: Solana has now been #1 in x402 transactions and volume for two weeks running. Are we back? Venice just burned $391K of its own token, one of the biggest buybacks it has run yet, and VVV ripped ~58% to $28! Lennix Lai (OKX): Memecoins might accidentally be the killer use case that drives demand for tokenized stocks. Get started with Nexo today. RATE TODAY’S EDITION What'd you think of today's edition? 🥛🥛🥛🥛🥛 F**king great 🥛🥛🥛 Meh, do better 🥛 You didn't bring the heat MILKY MEMES 🤣 Source: @boldleonidas Source: @ToolySOL ROADIE REVIEW OF THE DAY 🥛 VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY This content is for educational purposes only. Read full disclaimer Interested in reaching smart readers like you? Sponsor Milk Road Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here © 2026 ImpactDM Inc. operating as Milk Road 1257 Dundas St W Toronto, Ontario M6J1X6, Canada

Plus: LIV and let live | Wednesday, September 09, 2026 Axios Closer By Nathan Bomey · Sep 09, 2026 Wednesday ✅. Today's newsletter is 758 words, a 3-minute read. 📉 The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed down 0.5%. 10-year Treasury yields rose to 4.85% after the government released details of its stepped-up buyback operation. Brent crude topped $101 amid continued tension in the Middle East. 🔥 Today's stock spotlight: Meta (+6.6%) yesterday announced Muse , a personal AI agent sold through a tiered consumer subscription. 1 big thing: Apple debuts New Apple CEO John Ternus holds the iPhone Duo during Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event today at the company's corporate headquarters. Photo: Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images Apple's first foldable iPhone and CEO John Ternus both made their highly anticipated debuts today at Apple's annual product event in Cupertino, California. Why it matters: The iPhone is central to Apple's consumer hardware business, accounting for a significant share of the company's sales. Excitement about the Duo — the company's first foldable iPhone — has helped drive a recovery in Apple shares since a late June slide sparked by the company unexpectedly saying it was raising prices on MacBook and iPad devices due to surging costs for memory. State of play: The Duo will not come cheap, starting at $1,999 with 256GB of memory, Axios' Ina Fried writes from the event . It features an inner display 80% larger than Apple's next-largest iPhone and supports Apple Pencil. An under-display front-facing camera supports video chat, with two traditional cameras on the back of the phone. Apple also announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, as well as updates to Apple Watch and AirPods. And it began the day with Ternus talking about his vision for AI turning the iPhone into "an intelligent personal hub." The impact: Apple shares initially dropped as the event kicked off, then swung into the green before ultimately closing down 0.3%. Go deeper 2. LIV and let live Jon Rahm during the LIV Golf tournament in August. Photo: Michael Miller/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images LIV Golf is asking a bankruptcy judge's permission to reject its player contracts, including lucrative deals with stars such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson. In case you missed it yesterday, the league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund stopped funding it. 🏌What they're saying: LIV's current player contracts "do not provide any material benefit" to the league, which is hoping to emerge from bankruptcy with a more sustainable tour , its lawyers said in a court filing. The league is also asking for permission to file the actual contracts under seal, calling it "commercially sensitive" information, and citing a safety risk stemming from the "high-profile celebrity nature" of the players. 💸 The impact: If approved by the judge, the players will be treated as unsecured creditors and could receive a portion of their promised compensation when the bankruptcy estate is settled. In reality, unsecured creditors often get far less than what they are owed in Chapter 11 cases. The big picture: LIV said yesterday that it hopes to reorganize operations and emerge "majority owned by players." Go deeper 3. Other happenings Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images 🤖 OpenAI is adding AI safety official and former company employee Paul Christiano to its board, the move coming as AI leaders, including at rival Anthropic, are sounding the alarm about risks. ( Axios ) 🏦 Chime shares closed up 7% after the fintech company yesterday agreed to acquire the parent of Stride Bank for $590 million. If approved, Chime would own Stride's national bank charter, branches, technology and banking operations. ( Axios Pro ) A MESSAGE FROM AXIOS Sports media's next big opportunity Sports rights are becoming an even more valuable media asset. Rising rights fees, streaming ad demand and growing interest in women's sports are creating new upside well beyond ticket sales. The latest Media Trends Executive analysis examines how sports are reshaping the media business — and where the biggest opportunities are emerging. Read the full analysis. 4. Weight Watchers stock sheds pounds Photo Illustration: Timon Schneider/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Weight Watchers is continuing its recent tradition of making nontraditional picks as CEO. Zoom in: The brand announced today that its new CEO is Stephen Bye, the former CEO of Ookla, which owns the internet status site Downdetector. WW chair Gene Davis hailed Bye's "track record of growing subscription businesses, strengthening consumer offerings and creating significant shareholder value." State of play: Before Bye, the most recent permanent CEO of Weight Watchers was Tara Comonte, who had previously served as president of burger chain Shake Shack. Before Comonte, the most recent permanent CEO was Sima Sistani, who was previously CEO of a group video chat app. 💭 Nathan's thought bubble: If today's market reaction is any indication, investors find the hire-a-total-outsider strategy a bit disconcerting. The stock plunged 17%. A MESSAGE FROM AXIOS Media is shifting fast. Our reporters see it first. Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn go deeper than the headlines — tracking the deals, disruptions, and strategic shifts that define where the media industry is heading. 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Artisanal trading might be the solution Byron Gilliam “ If I stop practice for one day, I notice it in my playing; if I stop two days, my friends notice it; if I stop three days, the public notices it. ” — Hans von Bülow AI could make markets unintelligible Once a year, a few of us from the investment bank I worked at in the aughts would trek from our office tower in gleaming Canary Wharf to the uncharted wilderness of South London. There, we’d hope not to be mugged before getting to a nondescript building that our employee-ID cards mysteriously gave us access to. We’d take an unmarked elevator to the second floor, because that’s where we were told to go. The creaking door would open directly onto a trading floor — a near replica of the one in Canary Wharf. But dingy and windowless. With computers that were at least a decade old: bulky, deep-backed monitors in beige casing attached to CPU towers that still had slots for CD-ROMs and floppy disks. We were there to check that our modern trading systems worked on this archaic equipment. Miraculously, they did. We could execute and book our trades just like we did in Canary Wharf. Slowly, because the square monitors only had room for one application at a time. But surely. Everything worked. This was our “contingency site,” maintained year-round by the IT staff. And the cleaning staff, too, who can’t have had much to do besides dust, because no one ever used it. It must have cost the bank a fortune. But it was an important insurance policy — and not just for the bank. In case of emergency —  earthquake, cyberattack, Godzilla — every investment bank in London had a contingency trading floor to fall back on. Markets would continue to function, no matter what. Today’s markets may need a similar insurance policy, but on a much larger scale. In case of an AI emergency, economist Markus K. Brunnermeier believes we should have a contingency option for the entire financial system — a market that works the way markets did at least a decade ago. Trading like it’s 1999 Bill Gates thinks policymakers should reserve parts of the economy for humans: “I believe that as AI and robots improve,” he recently wrote , “we’ll set aside certain things for only people to do.” He meant people-centric things like eldercare, childcare, and teaching. Maybe medicine, too (but only to deliver bad news). But Brunnermeier thinks we should consider adding traders to the list. In Artificial Intelligence and the Brave New World in Finance , the Princeton economist warns that financial markets will become increasingly unintelligible to humans because trading decisions are increasingly being made by AIs. They will still understand us, though. "Al agents can learn how humans think and respond,” he writes, “while humans may be unable to understand or reliably anticipate how those agents will act." This “asymmetric understanding” will be a problem. At the most basic level, Brunnermeier warns that asymmetric understanding between humans and AIs could undermine the Hayekian purpose of markets: “Price signals are the mechanism that steers a decentralized economy,” he explains. But if we don't understand what’s driving prices, we won’t know what they’re signaling. Misreading the signs, we might steer the economy off a cliff. We’ll have trust issues, too. With AI agents trading freely in markets, collusion, manipulation, and rogue trading will become undetectable to humans. “Under asymmetric understanding,” Brunnermeier writes, “the AI agent’s objectives can neither be fully specified in human categories nor verified from the outside, so that misalignment becomes undetectable.” If we can’t detect misalignment in markets, we’ll just assume they’re misaligned. If we assume they’re misaligned, we won’t invest. If we don’t invest, we won’t build anything. This could come to a head in a market crash. If human investors are unable to understand what’s causing a crash, they’ll be reluctant to cushion the fall by taking the other side of it. They may just sell instead. “Asymmetric information deters some traders from participating,” Brunnermeier warns, “and can make a market break down entirely.” Scary stuff. Fortunately, Brunnermeier also has a solution: Regulators should create a segment of the market where only humans are allowed to trade. I can only hope this would look like the trading floors I used to work on: Traders shouting prices. Sales people shouting orders. Phones ringing. Keyboards clacking. Palms perspiring. It was glorious. There might not be a lot to shout about, though, because the regular, AI-dominated market would continue to do most of the business. Brunnermeier acknowledges that: “In normal times, the slow venue might not see much activity.” But like the contingency site my bank used to maintain at such expense, it would be a valuable insurance policy to have. “The non-AI segment serves as a fallback,” Brunnermeier says. Then, if the market were to crash for no obvious reason, regulators could “temporarily open the boundary between segments so that essential activity migrates to the segment that remains switched on.” That would be the human segment. Where orders are processed by people. On computers from the 1990s. They wouldn’t be processed as nano-second quickly as they are now. But we would at least understand what was going on. “The underlying logic is to sacrifice efficiency in normal times in order to arrest cascades in crisis times,” Brunnermeier explains. He believes we should start trading this way soon, lest we forget how to do it: “A human venue keeps trading expertise alive; without it, the fallback would atrophy as dependence on AI deepens.” Just as GPS has made us forget how to read a map, AI agents could make us forget how to trade. (I think the new market segments should have a dress code, too, lest we forget how to tie a tie or shine a shoe.) As fanciful as human-only trading sounds, it’s not without precedent. The same logic explains why governments have b