It’s a new era for America and a new term for President Donald Trump, as the business mogul and former host of The Apprentice finds himself back in office. Joining an exclusive club alongside Grover Cleveland as the only US President to serve non-consecutive terms, Donald Trump is officially the 47th President of the United States.
Despite only being in office since January 20, Trump has wasted no time signing executive orders to delay the TikTok ban, announcing billion-dollar AI plans, and even reinstating the Oval Office’s Diet Coke button.
One of Joe Biden’s last acts in office was to controversially and pre-emptively pardon five members of his family, which has drawn criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Over to Trump, one of his first acts was to commute the sentences of 14 people indicted in the January 6 riots, as well as Washington DC police officers Andrew Zabavsky and Terence Sutton, and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.
Trump vowed to pardon Ulbricht when talking at the Libertarian Party National Convention (Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty)
While all are controversial, Ulbricht is arguably the most contentious – especially as he was sentenced to double life in prison plus 40 years without the possibility of parole. Appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2017 and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 were denied. However, President Trump spoke at the Libertarian National Convention and vowed to release Ulbricht if elected. This was something echoed by presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while Wired magazine claimed Ulbricht’s potential pardon was a single-issue voting concern for many in the cryptocurrency community.
After being incarcerated since 2013 and sentenced in 2015, Trump has issued Ulbricht a ‘full and unconditional pardon’. Writing on his Truth Social platform, the POTUS said: “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous.”
Ulbricht is known for creating the underground Silk Road marketplace on the dark web. During Silk Road’s time, it’s said that more than $200 million was made through illicit trade using Bitcoin. Activated on the dark web in 2011, Silk Road took its name from the historic trade routes but had a much more modern use. Reportedly used to distribute hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs to over 100,000 buyers, Ulbricht is said to have made over $13 million in commission.
FREEDOM!!!!
When he was sentenced, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said: “Make no mistake: Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people’s addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people.”
Prosecutors claimed that Ulbricht was also involved in several murder-for-hire schemes and tried to link him to the death of a former employee, although he was never tried.
Ulbricht was ordered to forfeit $183.9 million at the time of sentencing, which was also brought back into the news when 50,676 Bitcoin that had been stolen from Silk Road in 2013 was seized in 2021. Both sides agreed that the Department of Justice would take custody of the Bitcoin and Ulbricht would use the funds (now worth nearly $5.35 billion in 2025) to help pay his $183 million debt.
Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle cheered Ulbricht’s release and said: “Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade. I’m proud to say that saving his life has been one of our top priorities and that has finally paid off.”
The pardon comes as Trump vows to go in the opposite direction of the Biden administration’s crackdown on cryptocurrency regulations.
Featured Image Credit: JIM WATSON/Contributor/Getty / Free Ross Ulbricht
It’s the war of the Republicans, and as First Lady Melania Trump launches her own cryptocurrency, it’s had an unexpected effect on her husband’s meme coin.
Donald Trump is about to step back into the Oval Office for his second term, meaning all eyes are on Washington ahead of his January 20 inauguration.
Kicking off the celebrations early, Melania Trump is making the most of the crypto boom by launching her own meme coin – let’s just hope it goes better for her than it did for Haliey “Hawk Tuah Girl” Welch.
There’s been a recent rally for Trump’s $Trump, with its price tripling to over $70 and its total value reaching over $14 billion. Then, when his wife’s $Melania coin launched, things started to dip.
Donald and Melania Trump both have rival meme coin launches (SOPA Images / Contributor / Getty)
Posting on social media, the returning POTUS wrote: “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING! Join my very special Trump Community. GET YOUR $TRUMP NOW.”
According to the $Trump coin website, the Trump-affiliated CIC Digital LLC will own 80% of its supply.
As reported by The Guardian, $Trump broke into the top 20 cryptocurrencies and caused a ‘digital stampede’ that made all other coins fall in value while traders dashed to sell their existing crypto and invest big in Trump’s.
The same happened with the launch of $Melania, with some even selling their new investments in $Trump to get on the Melania train. She posted the following on X, which was then reshared by her husband: “The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now.”
The price of $Trump plummeted from $75 to $30 shortly after $Melania’s launch, then climbed back up to around $64. In just a matter of hours, $Melania has reached a worth as high as $13 billion.
Analysts at The Kobeissi Letter wrote: “This is beyond insane. Less than 48 hours ago, Donald Trump launched $trump which just erased $7.5bn in market cap in 10 minutes. In the minutes around the launch of Melania Trump’s token, we saw massive sell orders in $trump.”
The Official Melania Meme is live! You can buy $MELANIA now. melaniameme.com FUAfBo2jgks6gB4Z4LfZkqSZgzNucisEHqnNebaRxM1P
This could be a sign of things to come, with Bitcoin hitting a record high of $108,943 on the morning of January 20. It’s no coincidence that this is the same day Trump is going to be inaugurated, especially as he was the first President of the United States to order a burger with Bitcoin.
Looking at the bigger picture, Bitcoin has continued to climb since Trump trounced Kamala Harris in the November 2024 election.
Still, there are concerns about potential Presidential conflicts of interest. Trump memorably released crypto trading cards during his campaign and made more than $4 million from each release, His sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr also launched their World Liberty Financial crypto venture, while the $Trump coin site has a disclaimer that says: “Trump memes are intended to function as an expression of support for, and engagement with, the ideals and beliefs embodied by the symbol ‘$Trump’ and the associated artwork, and are not intended to be, or to be the subject of, an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.
“GetTrumpMemes.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign or any political office or governmental agency.”
People have been shocked at Donald Trump’s response to hearing the worth of his cyrptocoin this week.
We’ve already seen the world’s richest get richer in the aftermath of Donald Trump beating Kamala Harris in the US election, while the cryptocurrency market has also boomed. It seems like no small coincidence that Bitcoin hit a record high on the same day that Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States, and with the POTUS launching his own meme coin just days before he stepped back into the Oval Office, it’s crypto o’clock in the United States Capitol.
Trump has officially become one of the world’s richest people off the back of his $TRUMP meme coin, and even though his wife’s launch of $MELANIA knocked it down a peg or two, the President’s bank balance has boomed in a matter of days.
Despite his new-found fortune, CoinDesk reports that Trump doesn’t seem particularly up to date with his crypto fortune.
Donald Trump has made ‘billions’ off the back of his meme coin launch (Anadolu / Contributor / Getty)
During his first full day back in office, one reporter asked: “Do you intend to continue selling products that benefit yourself personally while you’re President?”
Trump apparently responded: “Well, I don’t know if it benefited. I don’t know where it is. I don’t know much about it other than I launched it.
“I heard it was very successful. I haven’t checked it, where is it today?”
The reporter revealed that the POTUS has made ‘billions’, with Trump concluding: “Several billion? That’s peanuts for these guys.”
It was originally unclear who he was referring to, but it’s confirmed that those in the room included OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son.
As Forbes’ live billionaires list says Ellison has just overtaken Mark Zuckerberg to become the third-richest person in the world, his net worth of $228.5 billion eclipses Trump’s reported $6.1 billion.
Still, $TRUMP is one to watch. Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu told CoinDesk: “Longer term, TRUMP coin could act as a barometer for public sentiment towards Trump’s presidency.
“Culture memes and tokens are essentially a highly variable public polymarket of culture and zeitgeist, and we’ve seen this play out accordingly.”
It’s not a guarantee, with Siu adding: “If the initiative is perceived as a cash grab without further engagement, we may well see a crypto chill for meme tokens, potentially draining attention and liquidity out of the meme space.
“How the TRUMP token is handled is likely to have a ripple effect on trust and reputation for the entire crypto and Web3 industry.”
At the time of writing, $TRUMP is sitting at around $41 and has a market cap of $7.8 billion. Its fully diluted value currently stands at just under $40 billion.
Not everyone is a fan of meme coins, with Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson saying he finds the idea ‘icky’ and others comparing it to ‘gambling’.
Trump’s crypto convo came as he announced a $500 billion joint venture that’s dubbed Stargate. We’ve already outlined Trump’s tech future, but with Stargate, it plans to boost America’s AI infrastructure by building data centers in Texas.
Trump’s worth continues to climb for now, but if billions of dollars are classed as ‘peanuts’ to him, we’re not sure he’ll notice.
President Donald Trump has announced that Elon Musk won’t have a desk in the White House despite his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Elon Musk has remained close to President Donald Trump’s side after being invited to one of his election campaign rallies – so much so that Musk’s own mother has commented on the pair’s ‘unique relationship’.
This has not only led to an increased level of political influence for Musk, which he has used to try and halt key bipartisan bills and start international conflict on social media, but he has also been rewarded with a role at the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as ‘DOGE’.
Musk’s support of Trump has landed him a role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
DOGE is a private advisory board led by Musk (with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy previously attached before quitting recently) which aims to make significant cuts to federal spending in order to ‘make America more efficient’ and tackle the ‘unsustainable’ level of debt.
Through this Musk has a significant level of power within US politics as he has effectively been given the freedom to cut whatever he pleases, which many have expressed worries that it’ll allegedly be used for his own personal gain.
It might surprise you then to find out that Elon Musk, according to a recent statement from the President, won’t have his own desk in the West Wing of the White House.
Trump outlined, as reported by the New York Post: “He’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure these [executive orders] get implemented.”
Currently, hired employees of DOGE have been working out of the SpaceX Washington offices, but this would move most into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is quite a distance from the Oval Office.
DOGE offices will not be within the West Wing, and instead will be quite a distance from the Oval Office (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s likely no coincidence that this comes shortly after Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency has faced multiple lawsuits, with the primary focus being the agency’s current inability to follow appropriate legal requirements, including the transparency of meetings and maintaining ‘fairly balanced’ representation.
Musk himself has taken to X to joke about these lawsuits implying that he’s not taking them too seriously, but if he were to comply or alternatively become an official government employee then that could open him up to significant scrutiny.
Not only would be have to comply with strict ethics considerations which would likely clash with his other business interests – which have benefitted from government subsidies and regulation changes – but he would also have to disclose specific financial information that he’d likely want to avoid.
He will avoid this though if he doesn’t take a wage from the role, which he currently isn’t, and having at least some DOGE employees become part of the government would circumvent much of the need to follow regulations of a private advisory board.
Despite the distance between the Oval Office and DOGE HQ within the White House, we’d still expect to see Elon remain a close ally in both politics and proximity.
Google has provided a free way to check if any of your data is being used on the dark web.
The dark web (rightfully) gets a bad reputation, and with it being used for everything from buying illegal substances to hiring an assassin, it’s a seedy underbelly of the internet. Getting on the dark web is an ordeal in itself, but lurking out there, it’s a one-stop shop for data breaches. If you’re worried your details have been leaked on the dark web or just the general web, Google has a free dark web report that reveals whether your data has been leaked.
The Google dark web report is now free for all, revealing whether your sensitive data has been exposed to the world.
There are continued concerns about our privacy (rob dobi / Getty)
While the dark web report was previously only available for those who had a Google One membership, it’s been offered for free since July.
The report is available as part of the ‘Results about you’ feature that helps users find results that contain their personal information and remove them.
As well as your home address and phone number, these breaches tend to include your email address.
To find your report follow these instructions:
- Head to Google’s ‘Results about you’ page
- Click the ‘Get Started’ button
- Enter your full name, address, phone number, and email
- Set your notifications to alert you via email or via the Google app
- A screen will appear saying, ‘ checking for any search results that match your name and contact info’
You can request the removal of results that contain your personal information, while you can also request to remove results when searching by selecting the menu icon next to something that includes your details.
Requests are reviewed by Google, and if they meet the requirements, they’ll be removed. The review process involves checking that the offending website isn’t owned by a government or educational institution.
You need to keep your wits about you online (Bill Hinton / Contributor / Getty)
This is part of Google’s expanded effort to protect data and privacy, and after some serious breaches, it’s developed its own Privacy Sandbox. The Privacy Sandbox uses technology to protect consumers while still helping companies advertise to us.
Earlier this year, a leaked copy of an internal Google database revealed thousands of privacy-related incidents from 2013 to 2018. Thankfully, a Google spokesperson said that all incidents were reviewed and resolved.
Among the biggest fumbles were a Google speech service logging audio around 1,000 children, as well as a flaw in the Google Street View algorithm saving license plates. It was also here that Google got called to task on its SEO, with some saying leaks prove it isn’t always honest about its rankings. While privacy issues continue to be a concern for users, at least you now know how to check if your personal data has been leaked to the masses.
