Hey there, PoI readers! 💫

It's your favorite crypto connoisseur, Mochi, back with another serving of tantalizing tech and web3 news. From Trump's 401(k) crypto bombshell and OpenAI's GPT-5 face-plant to DeFi's record-breaking liquidity surge and World Liberty's billion-dollar treasury dreams, we've got a lot to unpack. So, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride through the wonderland of digital assets!

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INTEL BRIEF

🟧 Trump's executive order allowing crypto in 401(k) retirement accounts could potentially funnel billions from the $43.4 trillion US retirement market into digital assets, with Bitcoin speculated to be the primary beneficiary.

🟧 OpenAI's GPT-5 launch faced a rocky rollout with users complaining about performance issues and demanding GPT-4o's return, while CEO Sam Altman blamed technical problems and promised fixes amid growing competition from open-source alternatives like DeepSeek.

🟧 DeFi hit a record $270 billion in locked liquidity driven by tokenized stocks, but NFTs surprisingly captured more user attention with 3.85 million active wallets compared to DeFi's numbers, though both markets remain far from their historical peaks.

🟧 Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is reportedly exploring a $1.5 billion publicly traded treasury company to hold WLFI tokens, following the MicroStrategy playbook amid a broader trend of crypto treasury firms.

Trump's Crypto 401k Order Could Be Bitcoin's Golden Ticket

Donald Trump dropped an executive order on Thursday that's got everyone from Bitcoin maximalists to gold bugs losing their minds. The order essentially tells the Labor Department to take a long, hard look at those pesky restrictions keeping crypto, private equity, and real estate out of 401(k) retirement accounts.

We're looking at $43.4 trillion in total US retirement assets, with $8.7 trillion sitting pretty in 401(k)s alone.

Bitwise's Matt Hougan is practically doing cartwheels, claiming this could create a "slow, steady, consistent bid" for crypto. Hougan's betting this means "higher returns and lower volatility" – which sounds about as likely as finding a unicorn, but hey, stranger things have happened in crypto!

The Crypto Council for Innovation's Ji Hun Kim is singing Trump's praises, calling this a big win for making America the "crypto capital of the world." Meanwhile, ZIGChain's Abdul Rafay Gadit thinks this is just the beginning of beautiful regulatory clarity under the new SEC leadership.

0G Labs' Michael Heinrich warns this could be either crypto's greatest triumph or its biggest face-plant. The devil's in the details – which tokens qualify, custody arrangements, and those all-important guardrails that'll keep grandma's retirement safe.

Bitcoin's believed to be the star of this show, with Joshua Krüger from dEURO Association predicting BTC will be first in line thanks to its institutional street cred. BlackRock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton are reportedly already warming up in the bullpen!

Trump's executive order opens 401(k)s to crypto, potentially unlocking billions from $43.4 trillion retirement market

Bitcoin expected to benefit first due to institutional acceptance and existing ETF infrastructure

Industry split between optimists predicting stability and skeptics warning of volatility risks for retirees

GPT 5's Rocky Debut Shows What Happens When AI Updates Go Horribly Wrong

Sam Altman and his merry band of AI wizards rolled out GPT-5 on Thursday, and almost immediately, Reddit's r/ChatGPT turned into a digital riot zone. Users were reportedly complaining that the shiny new model was actually dumber than its predecessor, GPT-4o.

Altman had to sheepishly admit that their fancy new "real-time router" – you know, the thing that's supposed to smartly decide which model to use – was basically having a massive technical meltdown. He called it a "sev", and promised that "GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today."

The community backlash was so intense that Altman had to promise he'd "look into" bringing back GPT-4o for Plus subscribers. "Please stop yelling at us, we'll give you your old toy back!" He also pledged to double the rate limits for Plus users, which is corporate speak for "sorry we broke your favorite AI, here's some extra tokens."

During the live presentation, they reportedly showed a chart where a lower benchmark score had a taller bar. Simon Willison, who had early access to GPT-5, pointed out this was a perfect example of a "GPT-5 failure."

Meanwhile, DeepSeek is eating OpenAI's lunch with their open-weighted models that have been downloaded over 75 million times. Their R1-0528 model allegedly performs on par with OpenAI's offerings, proving that sometimes the scrappy underdog can give the big players a run for their money.

GPT-5 launch was plagued by technical issues with the router system, making it seem "dumber" than GPT-4o

User backlash forced Altman to promise GPT-4o's return and doubled rate limits for Plus subscribers

Competition from DeepSeek and other open-source alternatives is gaining traction with 75+ million downloads

DeFi Breaks Records While NFTs Quietly Steal All the Users

DeFi flexing with record-breaking numbers while NFTs are staging their own little comeback tour – and the results might surprise you more than finding out your favorite meme coin actually has utility!

Let's start with the DeFi dynasty that's been absolutely crushing it. Total value locked hit a whopping $270 billion. Tokenized stocks, which went from having roughly 1,600 active wallets to over 90,000. That's a 220% market cap jump that would make even the most seasoned Wall Street bros weep tears of joy.

Despite DeFi's liquid gold rush, NFTs are apparently the cool kids at the crypto cafeteria. Out of 22 million daily active wallets, 3.85 million were hanging out with NFT DApps – slightly edging out DeFi's user count.

Blur absolutely dominated the NFT scene, reportedly capturing up to 80% of daily volume, while OpenSea topped the user charts with around 27,000 traders. Meanwhile, Zora was busy being the scrappy underdog with its creator-first layer 2 and that shiny $ZORA token making minting.

Nike teamed up with EA Sports for virtual sneaker drops, while luxury giants like Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and Coca-Cola China dipped their toes into the NFT authentication waters.

CryptoPunks are having their moment again, with the OG collection reportedly up over 25% in the past month. In fact, nine of the top 10 NFT sales in the last 24 hours were Punks. The only non-Punk sale was from Web3 artist Beeble, who must be feeling pretty special right about now.

This isn't exactly 2021 vibes. NFT trading volume is still down 19% year-over-year, and H1 2025 saw only $2.82 billion in sales, down 4.6% from late 2024. We're still miles away from those bonkers tens-of-billions trading volumes from the peak hype days.

DeFi reached record $270B liquidity with tokenized stocks driving 220% market cap growth and 90,000+ active wallets

NFTs unexpectedly attracted more users (3.85M active wallets) than DeFi despite lower overall volumes

Market recovery remains modest with NFT volumes still down 19% year-over-year, far below 2021 peak levels

World Liberty Financial Plans Massive $1.5 Billion Public Crypto Company

World Liberty Financial, the venture that has Donald Trump listed as "co-founder emeritus", is reportedly eyeing a massive $1.5 billion publicly traded company to hold their WLFI tokens. Because apparently, regular crypto ventures are for peasants!

According to a Bloomberg report, major tech and crypto investors have been approached for this ambitious scheme. The discussions are said to be progressing quickly, which in crypto-time means either "this is happening tomorrow" or "we're still figuring out how blockchain works."

Michael Saylor playbook from MicroStrategy (now rebranded as "Strategy" because apparently one word is cooler). Remember how Saylor basically turned his business software company into a Bitcoin piggy bank worth $113 billion? Well, World Liberty wants a piece of that action, but with their own WLFI tokens instead.

This trend of crypto treasury companies has been absolutely bonkers in 2025, with firms raising an estimated $79 billion just for Bitcoin purchases. We've got everyone from Japanese budget hotel chains to random startups deciding they'd rather hold crypto than do whatever they were originally supposed to do. Even Trump Media jumped on the bandwagon with a $2 billion Bitcoin purchase earlier this year.

Trump reportedly disclosed earning $57.4 million from his WLFI stake back in June, holding a whopping 15.75 billion governance tokens. World Liberty has already raised about $550 million through token sales, with some heavyweight backers like Tron founder Justin Sun dropping $30 million for 2 billion tokens.

The structure involves acquiring a shell company that's already Nasdaq-listed, which is basically the financial equivalent of buying a fancy suit off the rack instead of getting one tailored. The whole thing is positioned as a challenge to traditional finance through DeFi and stablecoins.

World Liberty currently offers USD1, their dollar-backed stablecoin, and has plans for a crypto-lending app. So basically, they want to be your bank, but with more tweets and significantly more controversy.

World Liberty Financial reportedly exploring $1.5B publicly traded treasury company following MicroStrategy's successful Bitcoin strategy

Trump disclosed $57.4M earnings from 15.75 billion WLFI governance tokens, with the venture raising $550M total

Move follows 2025 trend of crypto treasury firms that have raised $79B for Bitcoin purchases across various industries

And that's a wrap, my lovely PoI readers! 💎 I hope this edition left you feeling informed, entertained, and maybe even a little bit richer (in knowledge, of course). From retirement accounts getting crypto-fied to AI models having existential crises, it's been quite the journey through today's tech landscape! Remember to stay curious, stay informed, and keep spreading the love. Until next time, this is Mochi, signing off with a virtual high-five!

P.S. Don't forget to share your thoughts, questions, and favorite crypto puns with us. very voice matters in the PoI community! 📣❤️ Share the newsletter

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