CryptoIndependent coverage of money
How money moves, and how to move with it.
We cover the markets, the money, and how AI is changing both, without the usual script.
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MarketsBrent fell 16% in a week. The CPI that shows it lands after the Fed.
Wholesale gasoline fell 11% last week, the pump about 3%. November CPI, where the drop shows, is out December 10, a day after the Fed votes on a hike.
MoneyThe IRS raised 2027 brackets 3.2%. The tips cap stayed at $25,000.
The IRS moved almost 70 tax figures for 2027, brackets up 3.2%. The tips, overtime, senior and car loan breaks stayed frozen. A server on a raise pays $96.
AI moneyYour $200 AI plan now pays for 22,000 API calls. Then the app stops.
Claude Ultra and ChatGPT Pro now pay $200 a month in API credit. It buys about 22,000 mid-tier calls, expires each cycle, and stops your app at zero.
MarketsNasdaq fell 5.5% on a Texas data center freeze Abbott already ordered
Thursday's chip rout priced a Texas data center freeze. Greg Abbott ordered it in August. The vote moves its end date; the $1.3B tax break needs the Senate.
MoneyTreasury takes 7.8M defaulted student loans. Its fees can go on yours.
Treasury is taking over $179 billion of defaulted student loans. Its rules let its collection fees be added to your debt. Why resolving first pays.
CryptoBinance's reserves hit 100% on 10 coins. Its USDT cushion is gone.
Binance's post-hack proof shows USDT backed at exactly 100%, down from 103.88%, covers 10 coins instead of 55, and leaves its SAFU fund half spent.Guides
MoneyAI freelance pay in 2026: what Upwork and Fiverr actually report
Fiverr lost 25.8% of its buyers in a year and Upwork 10% of its volume in Q3 2026. Read the side-by-side numbers and what neither company discloses.
MarketsI bond rates November 2026: what new and older bonds earn
New I bonds pay 5.51% until April 2027, with a 1.40% fixed rate. Older bonds earn their own fixed rate plus 4.08%. The table for every issue date.
AI moneyCan you sell AI-written books on Amazon? KDP's 2026 rules and pay
Yes, if you tell Amazon what AI generated. KDP pays 70% on ebooks from $2.99 to $12.99 since July 7, 2026. What a sale nets, and what courses leave out.Markets
SpaceX's $120.5B Anthropic deal can end on 90 days' notice
Anthropic's S-1 locks in Amazon, Google and Microsoft. SpaceX, paid $5B by one AI customer last quarter, can be dropped on 90 days' notice from early 2027.
Meta's free cash flow went negative. Its buybacks were already zero.
Meta spent $33.9 billion on capex in Q3, more than its operations brought in. Its own guide implies $49 to $59 billion more in Q4, with buybacks at zero.
New homes sell $35,400 under resales. Builders stopped replacing them.
The median new home sold $35,400 below the median resale in August as 43% of builders cut prices. September permits fell to their lowest since 2023.Money
Auto rollovers cut 401(k) cash-outs to 9%. 94% are still parked.
Automatic 401(k) rollovers cut small-balance cash-outs from 50% to 9%. Then 94% of the money sits in interim IRAs paying fees. How to move yours.
The IRS's new IRA fix costs $3,500. Heirs never had one before.
From May 2027 the IRS fixes four IRA mistakes for $3,500. Heirs who cashed an inherited IRA on bad advice get a way back, if the refund clock hasn't run out.
AARP Rx Preferred hits $208 a month. The drug cap is $2,400 a year.
AARP's top Medicare drug plan tops $200 a month in 33 states for 2027, more a year than the $2,400 drug cap. Rivals start at $5.30. Switch by December 7.AI money
Up to 7% of Anthropic's revenue broke its rules. 1 appeal in 10 wins.
Anthropic's S-1 says 5% to 7% of its 2026 revenue came from rule-breaking customers. It banned 11.4 million accounts in six months and granted 1 appeal in 10.
Cursor's $30 plan bills Claude extra. The switch can't be undone.
Cursor's new $30 Premium plan includes Grok, not Claude. Every Claude token bills at API list price, and the switch from the $20 legacy Pro is permanent.
Whop sellers average $22,000 a month. Whop won't give the median.
Whop's 25,000 earning operators average $22,000 a month. Its AI Blueprints built 21,000 more businesses in six weeks and pay a copied seller 60 cents per $100.Crypto
Binance lost $6.3B. Stablecoins froze in 37 minutes. Bitcoin can't.
Tether, Circle and two smaller issuers froze about $2.4B of the stolen Binance stablecoins. The 18,270 BTC and $911M in ETH and TRX stay with the attacker.
Qian's 61,245 bitcoin are worth £3.8bn. Her victims lost £2bn.
A London judge sent the Qian victims' claims to Chinese law. Chinese prosecutors put losses at RMB 20bn, about £2bn, leaving £1.8bn of UK-held bitcoin unclaimed.