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Washington CNN  —  The US economy just had its worst quarter since 2022 as President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes unnerved consumers and businesses. Gross domestic product, which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, registered at an annualized rate of -0.3% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That’s a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter’s 2.4% rate, and much worse than the 0.8% rate economists projected. GDP is adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation. US stocks dropped after the GDP report was released. The Trump administration has been on a chaotic tariff spree…

As the crypto market recovers from a historic rout, Robinhood, the online brokerage that offers digital assets, stocks and other investments, is planning to lean into its other offerings, despite becoming increasingly reliant on crypto trading volume in recent years. “It’s going to go up and down in terms of trading volumes,” Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said in an earnings call with shareholders on Wednesday, acknowledging crypto’s trademark volatility. “We’re diversifying the business outside of the crypto business, which will make us less reliant on crypto transaction volumes.” Robinhood reported $927 million in Q1 revenue on Wednesday, a slight pullback…

LAHORE: Islamabad United finally met their match. Imperious after winning their opening five games of the ongoing HBL Pakistan Super League season, they were routed by a rampant Lahore Qalandars at the Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday. The 88-run victory saw Qalan­dars win for a second time in two matches and move up to second in the table behind United. Lahore were powered by a brilliant all-round show by Sikandar Raza, as well as valuable contributions from the bat by Sam Billings and Fakhar Zaman with Haris Rauf showing signs of returning to his lethal best with the ball. After Raza…

New York CNN  —  President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff plan was largely expected to impact the US economy’s first-quarter performance as companies loaded up on imported goods ahead of higher levies. But what few failed to anticipate was how much worse off the economy would have appeared without stockpiling. “People are stockpiling now. That’s helping the economy now — and then they’re going to spend even less,” said Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank. GDP, or gross domestic product, which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, fell to an…

An eyeball-scanning crypto project that’s backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has launched in the U.S., Tools for Humanity, the venture’s developer, announced Wednesday evening. Originally dubbed Worldcoin, the project, now rebranded to World, aims to scan human’s irises through an orb to prove that humans aren’t AI. In return, participants receive a cryptocurrency called WLD. Americans can now access the eyeball-scanning orb, claim cryptocurrency, and use the associated World app. The project is first rolling out its iris scanners in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco, according to a press release. When it first launched in…

DUBAI (Reuters) – Crypto enthusiasts descended on Dubai on Wednesday, gathering under the Gulf’s scorching sun and hoping the industry’s buoyant mood can keep going despite signs the euphoria around Donald Trump’s crypto stance is ebbing. Speakers at the two-day event in the desert city include chief executives at some of the world’s major crypto firms, the head of digital assets at BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, as well as the U.S. president’s son, Eric Trump, who is set to take the stage on Thursday. Once a crypto sceptic, the U.S. president has vowed to support the industry by easing regulatory…

On April 30, Nate Geraci, the president of the ETF Store, rekindled the discussion about the future of Bitcoin with a question on X. He asked, “What would it take for you to believe that Bitcoin is here to stay?” In echoing Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, he emphasized increasing institutions ripening in hedge funds and universities to BlackRock and Tesla along with the expansion of ETF access and adoption on the government level. Hougan’s latest Bitwise report, titled “Q1 2025: The Best Worst Quarter in Crypto’s History,” — reflects the dichotomy of a bullish backdrop for the market despite falling…

Credit card giant Visa announced on Wednesday the launch of a new product that will let consumers pay with stablecoins in six countries, including Mexico and Argentina. The offering, which Visa developed along with the Stripe-owned startup Bridge, is a significant step toward making cryptocurrency part of mainstream commerce for both merchants and consumers. The launch, which Visa intends to expand to other countries, comes as stablecoins—blockchain-based assets that are pegged to a fiat currency like the dollar—are rapidly gaining popularity among traditional financial outlets because of how easily they can be transferred between accounts and across borders. To illustrate…

There’s a lot of hype around stablecoins right now. After Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge last year, everyone from startups to big banks are seeking to get in on the action. A crypto VC recently told me they’ve heard 15 pitches for stablecoin startups in the past few weeks. But beneath the hype is a powerful truth: Stablecoins are a transformative technology that are already remaking the global payments landscape and, in time, will play a pivotal geopolitical role by reinforcing the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s pre-eminent currency. Skeptics will be tempted to decry this as just…

(Bloomberg) — Cryptocurrency-linked stocks rallied in April, riding a surge in the price of Bitcoin to emerge largely unscathed by the turbulence that roiled US equity markets. Most Read from Bloomberg Shares of Michael Saylor’s Strategy, exchange operator Coinbase Global Inc. and mining firm CleanSpark Inc. all climbed sharply, logging double-digit gains even as the S&P 500 Index slipped 0.8%. The rally propelled them past the tech stocks they often mirror. The momentum came alongside a roughly 15% rally in Bitcoin, which has renewed the debate over its role as a safe haven for investors. Stocks tied to the digital…