Trump Appoints AI Czar Jay Clayton as Bitcoin Eyes $600K Peak
President Donald Trump has appointed Jay Clayton, the US director of national intelligence, to lead the newly established Super Intelligence Force. The announcement was made on Truth Social, following earlier media reports. The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating federal efforts to maintain US leadership in superintelligence, a term Trump has used to replace 'artificial intelligence.' Clayton, who previously led the SEC and prosecuted Ripple and Roman Storm for Tornado Cash involvement, expressed concerns about the future of open-source AI under this new directive.
Elon Musk has renamed SpaceX's AI division to SpaceXSI in honor of Trump's superintelligence directive. Meanwhile, the NEAR ecosystem saw a dramatic turn of events this week. The SHIELD AI system blocked hacked funds from Bitget on the NEAR Intents platform, preventing a $3.8 million exploit. NEAR Intents general manager Alex Shevchenko identified the exploiter and issued a 48-hour ultimatum to return the funds, which were eventually restored. The move sparked debate over decentralization, as THORChain refused to block similar transactions on its platform.
Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom fund, predicted that money printing is inevitable due to the AI revolution, US debt crisis, and financial stress in France. He noted that AI companies require trillions for data centers, pushing governments toward monetary stimulus. In other news, Ethereum layer-2 network Blast is shutting down after operating costs exceeded revenue. The network, founded by Tieshun 'Pacman' Roquerre, saw a 98% drop in DeFi total value locked since its peak in June.
Ethereum developers have scheduled the Glamsterdam upgrade for the Sepolia testnet on October 6. The upgrade includes proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists to improve throughput. Bitcoin is up 1.4% this week, trading at $85,821, while Ethereum gained 0.6%. Veteran trader Peter Brandt predicts Bitcoin could hit $600,000 by 2029, up from his previous target of $250,000 to $300,000.