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  • Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Eyes $65K Breakout After Possible $62.2K Liquidity Sweep

    Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC Eyes $65K Breakout After Possible $62.2K Liquidity Sweep

    Bitcoin is hovering near $63,000 as traders watch whether buyers can defend the $62,200 liquidity zone and push price back above $63,400. A confirmed breakout could open the door toward $64,500-$65,000, while another rejection may send $BTC back toward lower support.

    Bitcoin Could Sweep $62.2K Liquidity Before Testing $64.5K

    Bitcoin is moving through a key weekend setup, with Kaz expecting a possible downside liquidity sweep before $BTC attempts a recovery toward the equal highs around $64,500. The chart presents this as a short-term trading scenario rather than a confirmed move, with both the $62,200 area and overhead resistance playing important roles.

    Bitcoin Short-Term Liquidity Map. Source: Kaz (@XBTkaz) on X

    The chart shows Bitcoin consolidating around $63,000 after falling from above $65,000. Kaz expects Sunday trading could produce what he describes as a manipulation-driven drop before buyers attempt to push price higher during the following sessions.

    The first area to watch sits near $62,200-$62,300, where the chart highlights equal lows and a pool of liquidity below them. A brief move beneath this region could sweep stop orders before price reverses higher. Kaz said he would look for long setups if such a downside move develops, rather than treating the decline itself as confirmation of a broader bearish breakdown.

    On the upside, the immediate target is the cluster of equal highs around $64,500. Equal highs often attract attention because stop orders can accumulate above repeated highs, creating a potential liquidity target if buyers regain control.

    However, $BTC would then enter a more difficult resistance area. The chart marks a daily order-block zone from roughly $64,800 to $65,400, where Kaz would look for potential short setups. A rejection from that region could send Bitcoin back toward the lower $63,000s.

    The bullish scenario becomes stronger if $BTC can break decisively above this resistance zone. The chart notes that clearing the area could open the way toward the $67,000-$68,000 region.

    For now, the setup centers on whether Bitcoin first sweeps liquidity near $62,200 and then recovers toward $64,500. A sustained move through the $64,800-$65,400 resistance zone would weaken the analyst’s short setup and favor a larger upside extension.

    Bitcoin Needs $63.4K Breakout to Open the Door Toward $64.6K

    Bitcoin is struggling below a key resistance zone near $63,400, leaving the next short-term move dependent on whether buyers can reclaim that level. Michaël van de Poppe sees room for a stronger advance if $BTC breaks higher, while also identifying lower liquidity zones that could offer support if price pulls back first.

    Bitcoin 4-Hour Chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) on X

    The chart shows Bitcoin trading around $63,050 after failing to push through the $63,368-$63,400 resistance area. According to van de Poppe, this is the main level $BTC needs to clear before the current bounce can develop into a stronger breakout.

    A decisive move above $63,400 would shift attention toward the next resistance zone around $64,500-$64,600. The chart marks roughly $64,515 as the next target area, and van de Poppe expects a successful test there could lead to further upside.

    If Bitcoin fails to break resistance, attention moves to liquidity beneath $62,250-$62,300. The analyst is watching this area for a quick sweep followed by an immediate reclaim, which would indicate buyers absorbed the move lower and could create another attempt at the $63,400 breakout.

    Several additional support levels sit below that zone, including approximately $61,825, $61,545 and $61,318. However, van de Poppe considers the more conservative area for potential longs to be around $60,500-$61,000, below the larger cluster of liquidity.

    The bullish scenario therefore requires confirmation rather than simply a bounce from support. $BTC must reclaim $63,400 to strengthen the case for a move toward $64,600 and potentially $65,000. Another rejection at that resistance would instead leave Bitcoin vulnerable to another liquidity sweep toward the lower support zones.

  • Saylor: Bitcoin Drops 47% While Strategy’s STRC Gains 9% in a Year

    Saylor: Bitcoin Drops 47% While Strategy’s STRC Gains 9% in a Year

    STRC Outperforms as Bitcoin Declines

    STRC outpaced bitcoin by 56 percentage points over the past year, according to a one-year return chart Strategy Inc. (Nasdaq: MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor shared Aug. 16 on X. The chart measured returns through the Aug. 14 market close and highlighted the performance gap between bitcoin and Strategy’s income-producing securities during the downturn.

    Saylor wrote:

    “Over the past year, $BTC fell 47%. Our Digital Credit instruments ranged from -27% to +9%, with $STRC up 9%.”

    The accompanying chart showed STRD declining 8%, STRF losing 9% and $STRK falling 27%, with bitcoin trading near $63,000 on Aug. 16. Strategy stated that the one-year calculations covered Aug. 14, 2025, through Aug. 14 and included cash dividends and distributions, making the figures broader than share-price changes alone.

    One-year returns for Strategy’s preferred securities and bitcoin. Source: Michael Saylor/Strategy Inc. via X

    Stretch, trading under the STRC ticker, is a perpetual preferred stock with a variable annualized dividend rate designed to encourage trading near its $100 stated value. Strategy’s official STRC information page lists a 12% annualized rate for August, with cash dividends payable semi-monthly, subject to board declaration.

    STRD is Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock with a stated fixed 10% annual dividend payable quarterly. STRF is the company’s senior-most perpetual preferred stock, offering a stated fixed 10% annual cash dividend payable quarterly. $STRK is its convertible perpetual preferred stock with a stated 8% annual dividend payable quarterly. The dividends are not guaranteed.

    Dividends Reshape the Return Comparison

    STRC’s 9% one-year gain differs from its current 12% annualized dividend rate, which applied to only part of the measured period. The preferred stock launched in July 2025 at a 9% rate and climbed through seven consecutive monthly increases before reaching 12% for record dates on or after July 1. Its market price may rise or fall, while dividends were included in the reported one-year return.

    Strategy described digital credit as a central funding channel in its second-quarter financial results. The company reported that STRC issuances raised $7.53 billion year to date in 2026 as of July 26, a 254% increase, while cumulative dividends paid across all preferred stock reached $1.06 billion.

    The company’s Digital Credit Capital Framework established a cash reserve policy, revised STRC’s dividend policy, and authorized up to $1 billion in preferred-security repurchases alongside a separate $1 billion common stock repurchase program. Strategy also authorized bitcoin sales for specified purposes, including funding reserves, dividends, interest payments, and approved buybacks.

    Saylor has presented STRC as the income-producing layer of a four-part digital money stack. His model assigns bitcoin the capital role while using preferred securities to create income instruments with different volatility and risk characteristics.

    Lower Volatility Does Not Eliminate Risk

    Despite its positive one-year return, STRC fell to an all-time low of $71.25 on June 26 and has traded below its $100 stated value since. Strategy maintained its 12% dividend rate for August after the preferred stock closed July at $89.46, reflecting the company’s effort to support its market price.

    Digital credit repurchases began in late July, when the firm bought 288,930 STRC shares for about $25 million, an average of $86.53 per share and a 13.47% discount to the $100 stated amount. Strategy has sold approximately $218.4 million of bitcoin year to date to fund a portion of its preferred dividends.

    The dividend structure depends partly on Strategy’s ability to meet continuing cash obligations while maintaining its bitcoin-focused balance sheet. The preferred stock is not collateralized by the company’s bitcoin holdings. Saylor previously said bitcoin would need to achieve annual appreciation above the company’s $BTC breakeven rate for capital gains to cover STRC dividends over time.

    Bitcoin as an asset class historically carries substantially greater volatility than traditional stocks, bonds, and commodities, which is the gap Strategy’s preferred structures are built to narrow.

    Where Strategy’s Common Stock Stands

    The one-year chart covered Strategy’s four preferred securities alongside bitcoin, while MSTR, the company’s class A common stock, sits below all of them in the capital structure. MSTR closed at $93.04 on Aug. 14, roughly 75.52% below its level a year earlier.

    Strategy Inc.’s MSTR price chart. Source: TradingView

    Common shareholders hold the residual claim after preferred dividends, which reached $400.7 million in the second quarter alone. Strategy posted a second-quarter net loss of $8.22 billion, or $24.45 per diluted common share, on an $8.32 billion unrealized loss on its digital assets. The $1 billion MSTR repurchase program remains fully available, with the company saying it will consider buybacks when management believes the stock trades below intrinsic value.

  • Mark Cuban says AI chips will be the ‘new crypto’

    Mark Cuban says AI chips will be the ‘new crypto’

    Mark Cuban said on Aug. 16 that “chips as an asset class will be the new crypto,” offering a one-line prediction as artificial intelligence drives demand for advanced computing hardware.

    Cuban did not identify a financial product, investment structure or timetable in his post.

    The comment has been widely interpreted as referring to high-end AI accelerators such as GPUs. However, Cuban did not explicitly define which chips he meant. His claim therefore remains a broad investment thesis rather than an announced business venture or established asset category.

    Chips as an asset class will be the new crypto

    — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) August 15, 2026

    GPU-backed financing gives Cuban’s idea a precedent

    AI hardware is already being used in financial structures that go beyond simply purchasing semiconductor stocks. CoreWeave closed a $2.6 billion delayed draw term loan facility on Aug. 10 to finance high-performance computing infrastructure. The company said the structure reflected lender confidence in long-term GPU demand.

    The approximately five-year facility extends beyond the average three-year duration of the customer contracts supporting it. CoreWeave said lenders were therefore accepting renewal risk based partly on expectations for the future value of Nvidia GPUs deployed through its cloud platform. The transaction was also oversubscribed.

    CoreWeave has pursued GPU-backed financing for several years. In May, it completed another $3.1 billion publicly syndicated facility and described AI infrastructure financing as an “emerging asset class.” That is CoreWeave’s characterization and does not mean individual GPUs currently trade like cryptocurrencies.

    AI demand is supporting strong GPU economics

    Nvidia’s latest reported quarter provides another measure of demand. The chipmaker reported $75.2 billion in data center revenue for the quarter ended April 26, up 92% from the previous year. Total quarterly revenue reached a record $81.6 billion, according to its May results.

    Those figures do not establish chips as a standalone investment class. GPUs are physical assets that face technological obsolescence and depend on electricity, networking, data center capacity and customer utilization to generate revenue. Their supply also lacks the fixed issuance mechanics that distinguish Bitcoin.

    Bitcoin advocate Pierre Rochard made that distinction in response to Cuban. He wrote that chip manufacturing has neither difficulty adjustments nor halvings and is therefore “not the new bitcoin.”

    Cuban’s prediction follows his retreat from Bitcoin

    Cuban’s latest comment comes less than three months after he sharply reduced his Bitcoin exposure. As crypto.news previously reported, he sold roughly 80% of his Bitcoin holdings after losing confidence in its hedge narrative. Cuban said Bitcoin was “not the hedge I expected” and had “lost the plot.”

    He did not abandon every digital asset. Cuban said he continued holding Ethereum because he viewed smart contracts and decentralized finance as having clearer utility. His Aug. 16 chips comment did not say that he was replacing his remaining crypto exposure with hardware investments.

    What happens next

    The clearest test of Cuban’s prediction will be whether GPU financing becomes more standardized and accessible beyond specialist AI infrastructure operators. CoreWeave’s transactions show institutional lenders are already willing to finance computing infrastructure at multibillion-dollar scale and accept some risk around the future earning power of GPUs.

    For now, however, “chips as an asset class” remains Cuban’s prediction rather than a defined market category. The underlying trend is measurable: Nvidia is reporting rapidly growing data center sales, while lenders are financing GPU-backed infrastructure in increasingly large transactions. Whether those developments eventually produce a liquid market resembling crypto remains unconfirmed.

  • Karol G Brings Vibrant Vibes to Los Angeles With Her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour

    Karol G Brings Vibrant Vibes to Los Angeles With Her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour

    Coming off of her history-making Coachella headlining set, Karol G had an opportunity to bring the Latin love to the global stage with her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour, and she did just that.

    She delivered an extended version of her festival set during the first of three shows at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on Friday night, as the 35-year-old Colombian singer-songwriter had the sold-out crowd on their feet, dancing from the second she appeared on the tropical-inspired stage to the final moment when she said her goodbyes.

    After emerging from a three-story stone cave structure at the top of the stage, which is a nod to the landscape and prehistoric caves of her native Colombia, she kicked off the show with electrifying vibes, first performing her fan-favorite song “Latina Foreva.” Wearing a gold sequin look, surrounded by backup dancers, she set the tone for what’s to come.

    “We are going to sing very hard; we are going to do it with enthusiasm; we are going to have an incredible time; we are going to do it for Colombia,” she told the audience, speaking in Spanish, at the beginning of the concert.

    Throughout the show, it was clear Karol G wanted to highlight her home country’s beauty and culture, notably with the colorful stage designs and tropical landscapes. It’s also fitting as the tour‘s supporting album, 2025’s Tropicoqueta, translates to tropical, flirty girl.

    The night’s vibes were also set when veteran actor Edward James Olmos — who starred in the 1997 film Selena, based on the life of the late Tejano icon, whom Karol G has called her lifelong idol — told the audience in a video message, “Nights like this don’t happen by chance. They’re born from passion, from talent, from hard work and from that unmistakable spirit we call Latino excellence.”

    Karol G further spotlighted that excellence in the show’s second act, when she performed several songs from her Tropicoqueta album that paid homage to traditional regional Mexican music, including “Tropicoqueta” and “Ese Hombre Es Malo.” She also brought out a mariachi band at one point as well as climbed on top of a massive, brightly colored macaw, a parrot native to the tropical regions of Central and South America.

    Karol G then slowed things down a bit with tracks from her newly released sixth studio album, No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto, which is an emotional and moody shift from the high-energy Tropicoqueta vibes. During night one, she brought out Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez to perform their new song, “Después de Ti.” Act three continued to be a standout moment during night two on Saturday, when Bruno Mars also made a surprise cameo to perform his and Karol G’s new song “Still,” as well as record the music video.

    The energy was later brought back up, getting fans back on their feet, when Karol G and her dancers started making their way to the illuminated stone pool on the B-stage. While passing by fans, she performed a slew of her hit songs from “Amargura” to “Tu Perfume” to “Dile Luna.” However, “Bandida entrenada” was one of the night’s most lively and sensual moments, when a drenched Karol G transformed into a water goddess and began dancing, rolling and splashing around on the stage, alongside her talented dancers.

    The love and appreciation that Karol G has for her fans was on full display ahead of the show’s final act, as she took several moments to interact with them. From taking photos to sharing embraces to singing together, the singer made sure to express her gratitude for those who have been supporting her. In one heartfelt moment that evoked cheers from the packed crowd, Karol G made a hand heart with a teary-eyed young fan while snapping a selfie.

    The singer closed out the unforgettable show with some of her fan-favorite bangers, including “Coleccionando Heridas,” “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” and lastly, the Tiësto remix of “Provenza,” turning the tropical cave into a rave-like party, while also waving the national flag of Colombia.

    Karol G next heads to San Francisco for her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour, before making several more stops across North America. After that, she’ll head out on her Latin America and European legs before wrapping up the tour in July 2027 in Milan, Italy.

  • ‘Love Story’ Producers Didn’t Expect Carolyn Bessette’s TikTok Fan Army to Come for Them

    ‘Love Story’ Producers Didn’t Expect Carolyn Bessette’s TikTok Fan Army to Come for Them

    Catalog the ways in which Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette could have gone wrong, and the tally might rival a Thanksgiving grocery list. Pressure on capturing the tragic couple and their time period was high enough before early test photos sent devotees of Bessette’s style into a tizzy and a legion of paparazzi to the FX limited series’ Manhattan shoot. But Love Story ultimately prevailed, commandeering online discourse for its nine-episode run and fetching seven Emmy nominations — including top limited series, one for lead actress Sarah Pidgeon and, shutting down any sartorial naysayers, outstanding period costumes. Power producing duo Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson know they could make things easier on themselves, but, like with their previous historic collaborations with Ryan Murphy, the fun is in trying to capture a feeling on camera that’s no longer found in real life.

    Each true story brings a different minefield to navigate in terms of what’s verifiable information, what’s unknown and the varying public sentiments. Which needle was the most difficult to thread on Love Story?

    NINA JACOBSON It’s about understanding both what was known about them and what was not known for so many people. Because, when we were growing up, they were like American royalty. They were icons. But with the subsequent generations, what we found is that people knew her so much better than they knew him. She had become a posthumous influencer. Yet, as much as people knew of her, it was only visual. It didn’t really have anything to do with who she was as a person.

    BRAD SIMPSON There were lots of recordings of him. He’d get tons of interviews. He was very public. We had to find her voice based on descriptions. And we just knew from all the research that, even though she presented as this WASP ideal and a sort of distant figure, she was incredibly warm and funny. Bringing that to life was one of our biggest challenges.

    Were you aware of how substantial the Carolyn fan accounts on Instagram and TikTok were?

    SIMPSON No, but we did know that she’d become this avatar for quiet luxury. Often, when we would get costume designers presenting us styles for actresses in our movies and TV shows, she would appear again and again on wardrobe boards. And we did know that there was a lot on TikTok about her, but we didn’t know how fevered it was when those early photos leaked and the world rained down saying it was going to be a disaster. It showed us the depth of the reach to people who weren’t even alive when she was around.

    I think you’ve been vindicated by a lot of the aesthetics. How did you capture ’90s New York without going wildly over budget?

    SIMPSON New York has changed so much more than we’d realized since the 1990s. It’s much easier to shoot period in L.A. New York has huge glass skyscrapers everywhere. There are bike lanes in the streets. It was a city that always stayed the same, and now it looks very different. Luckily, the places that were our main locations, Tribeca and the Upper East Side, had really stayed the same.

    I recognized quite a few restaurants, too.

    SIMPSON We were lucky that some of the iconic restaurants that they visited — Indochine, The Odeon, Bubby’s — are still there. We managed to shoot the last surviving restaurant of Sixth Street’s India row [Panna II], which has now been swarmed with people. We were lucky in that some of those places just have that same great aesthetic, but [our production designer] Alex DiGerlando worked really hard with our locations department to find places that looked right and gave us a sense of New York during that time. On a show like The Shards, we’re doing an interpretation of 1981. People wanted Love Story to evoke a well-photographed time.

    From what I’ve seen of The Shards, it looks very 1980s. Do you two ever do anything that’s just contemporary and easy?

    SIMPSON Back on [The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story], we didn’t understand. When we got into TV, we were naive. Our first script of O.J. had 110 scenes in it, and I remember the first visual production executive was like, “This is unshootable. There are no standing sets.” You’d think we would’ve learned that lesson by now, which is to write to standing sets and not have so many scenes, but we tend to gravitate toward stories that are a little bit historical and feel cinematic.

    JACOBSON We came to television as feature producers. So, on the one hand, we’ve learned along the way that a TV show is not just a long movie. There are some tricks to the trade. But at the same time, partly because we tend to alternate between books and historic stories, there’s an ambition to try to capture a feeling. You can never make a book adaptation feel just like the book, but evoking the feeling you had when you read the book or the feeling you had about real people or time, that is our north star. We like having something to try to honor, preserve, capture, embody and get right as an organizing principle in a way that feels honest, even when you take the liberties you have to take in order to tell any story.

    Looking at each of the eight episodes of Love Story, which was the hardest one to pull off — either logistically or tonally? SIMPSON Everything’s difficult. Even a show that doesn’t work is difficult to pull off. (Laughs.) But one challenging one was episode eight, “Exit Strategy,” which is just the two of them in a loft as their marriage is falling apart. Ryan had always had an idea to do a bottle episode to show the tensions in the marriage. But that episode proved to be a real challenge — in a great way because we were stripped of all the clothes and other characters. It had to move us through their relationship. The writers, Connor Hines and Juli Weiner, treated it as if it was a play. We rehearsed the actors on weekends and constantly rewrote. Logistically, the hardest episode to pull off was “The Wedding.” We had to live up to the romance and re-create Georgia. And then, of course, the finale. There was the question of how much to show the plane crash, of how to be respectful while giving people the information they need and honoring what the characters went through.

    It’s been a few months now since the series aired. Has any feedback trickled to you from anyone surrounding the Kennedy camp?

    JACOBSON No, the Kennedys have not called recently. (Laughs.)

    SIMPSON So much has been written about them. They’ve been documented in so many ways. We fell in love with all these characters and wanted to be respectful and make something that was a tribute. As a family, it must be hard to live in a public life. It’s part of what our show is about. But no, nothing has trickled back to us.

    Looking at a lot of your collaborations with Ryan — Crime Story, Sports Story and Love Story — how do you approach them at this point? How actively are you trying to identify stories that would fit in those franchises?

    JACOBSON We’re always looking. We’re like truffle pigs, constantly sniffing to find the next thing. What we tend to do is identify a few, put them into the works and wait for something to be good enough to be worth making. That doesn’t always happen at the rate at which we would like.

    SIMPSON I look at the way we produce as if we’re curating our own magazine. I grew up with Tina Brown’s Vanity Fair. I can imagine Crazy Rich Asians as an article about the rise of Chinese money and the culture of Singapore. You can imagine Pose as a feature about the trans ballroom scene. Every American Crime Story would obviously would fit in. I almost think of ourselves as editors, hoping stories come in well as journalists try to crack them.

    This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

  • Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson Seen Recreating ‘Abbey Road’ Album Cover

    Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson Seen Recreating ‘Abbey Road’ Album Cover

    Fans got a sneak peek at Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson filming a legendary moment from The Beatles‘ career for Sam Mendes’s upcoming films.

    The four actors, who are each portraying one of the band members, were recently spotted recreating the group’s iconic Abbey Road album cover. The original photo, taken on Aug. 8, 1969, features John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison walking in single file across a crosswalk outside EMI Studios in London.

    Via videos shared on social media, Mescal as McCartney, Dickinson as Lennon, Quinn as Harrison and Keoghan as Starr were seen recreating the cover photo for Mendes’ four-part Beatles biopic, titled The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event. Each movie will be told from one of the band members’ points of view, with all four films having interconnected narratives.

    While specific plot details are being kept under wraps, the movie did get access to The Beatles’ full music catalog when the band’s label, Apple Corps, granted music rights for the scripted films. Fans will just have to wait and see how many songs from 1969’s Abbey Road will be featured in the project.

    The films, via Sony Pictures, will also star David Morrissey as Paul McCartney’s father Jim McCartney; Leanne Best as John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi; James Norton as manager Brian Epstein; Harry Lloyd as producer George Martin; Bobby Schofield as road manager Neil Aspinall; Daniel Hoffman-Gill as roadie Mal Evans; Arthur Darvill as press officer Derek Taylor; Adam Pally as controversial music manager Allen Klein.

    All four Beatles films are set to hit theaters in April 2028, but the exact date has yet to be revealed.

  • ‘The Challenge’ Contestants Pay Tribute to Tyler Duckworth: ‘You Were the Brother I Never Had’

    ‘The Challenge’ Contestants Pay Tribute to Tyler Duckworth: ‘You Were the Brother I Never Had’

    “The Challenge” two-time winner Tyler Duckworth died Tuesday in North Dakota, and his fellow contestants are remembering him as a “joy to be around” with “vibrant energy.”

    Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio posted a video tribute to Duckworth on Instagram on Sunday. The pair started their reality show careers together in their early 20s on “The Real World: Key West” in 2006. Devenanzio and Duckworth also competed together and won “The Challenge: Rivals” in 2011.

    “You were more than a friend. More than a roommate,” Devenanzio wrote in the caption of the post. “You were the brother I never had. Rest easy, Tyler. You’ll always be family.”

    Brad Fiorenza wrote, “So grateful we got to see him on this day. Thoughts and prayers to his family. May his amazing soul live on forever in the lives he touched 🕊️RIP Tyler.”

    Derrick Kosinski, who competed on the show and co-hosted the “Challenge Mania” podcast, told People Magazine, “We shared a room on ‘All Stars 2’ and he was an amazing human being. His passing is so sad. He was always such a bright light and incredible joy to be around. He also kicked my ass in elimination on the original ‘Cutthroat.’ And that was after he eliminated Johnny Bananas in the famous Bananas backpack elimination, ‘Back Up Off Me.’ He went toe to toe with CT for 40 minutes! He doesn’t get his flowers often enough for that. And he won that season. And then won again with Johnny on ‘Rivals.’”

    Tina Barta, a contestant from “Road Rules: South Pacific” and multiple seasons of “The Challenge,” wrote, “We shared an experience that very few people will ever fully understand, and somewhere along the way, it became more than a show or an adventure. It became friendship. It became history. It became family.”

  • Stray Kids Score Their Biggest Sales Week as ‘This & That’ Debuts Atop Albums Chart

    Stray Kids Score Their Biggest Sales Week as ‘This & That’ Debuts Atop Albums Chart

    Stray Kids have scored their biggest sales week yet as their latest, “This & That,” becomes their ninth No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

    The group bows atop the chart with 369,000 equivalent album units, with traditional album sales accounting for 357,000 of that sum. The latest feat extends their record for most No. 1s among groups this century, tying them with the Rolling Stones for second-most No. 1s in the chart’s history among groups, only behind the Beatles with 19 No. 1s. Additionally, “This & That” has the sixth-largest week for an album in 2026 and second-largest by traditional album sales behind the debut of BTS’ “Arirang” in March with 532,000.

    Stray Kids previously earned their first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with “Oddinary” in 2022. Two years later, they became the first act to debut their first six entries at the top spot following the release of “Hop.”

    Elsewhere, Ariana Grande‘s “Petal” drops from No. 1 to 2 in its second week, earning 82,000 equivalent album units. Olivia Rodrigo’s “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” holds steady at No. 3, followed by Ella Langley’s “Dandelion” at No. 4 and Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem,” which dips from No. 2 to 5.

    Rounding out the rest of the top 10 are Noah Kahan’s “The Great Divide,” followed by the debut of Pooh Shiesty’s “All Eyes on Shiest” at No. 7. Karol G’s latest album, “No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto,” bows at No. 8, while Drake’s “Iceman” slides from No. 6 to 9. Role Model’s latest album, “Chuck Timely & the Hourglass,” bows at No. 10 with 38,500 equivalent album units.

  • Alex Cooper Poised to Drop UTA After Tough Period of Media Scrutiny

    Alex Cooper Poised to Drop UTA After Tough Period of Media Scrutiny

    Alex Cooper seems intent on unraveling some of the current relationships that have helped underpin her production company, Unwell.

    The star podcaster and media entrepreneur is poised to drop her current talent agency, UTA, according to two people familiar with the matter, as she focuses on a larger suite of business operations beyond the podcast for which she is best known, and frustrated in part by its continuing relationships with Alix Earle and Dave Portnoy, two prominent influencers and podcasters who have feuded with her. Cooper last week shut down a beverage venture, Unwell Beverage Co., which was launched last year with Nestle SA as a partner, according to a report from Bloomberg.

    UTA has helped Cooper build and scale her company, Unwell, and over the years has helped broker deals that had her host interviews for Peacock during NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and launch her Unwell Network, a platform for other creators and influencers.

    UTA declined to make executives available for comment.

    A shift in representation would come after Unwell, which Cooper founded with her husband, Matt Kaplan, landed its first outside investor: Patrick Whitesell, co-founder of WME and former executive chairman of successor company Endeavor. Whitesell’s WTSL, an investment firm focused on media, entertainment and sports he launched after exiting Endeavor and WME last year, has invested an undisclosed sum in Unwell that values the business at $500 million, according to information released August 12 by Unwell. Cooper and Kaplan, who self-funded the company targeting Gen Z women audiences, retain a majority ownership stake. Formed in 2023, Unwell says it has been profitable from day one and sees the WTSL investment as growth capital. The entrepreneur believes the work Unwell does with brands could be worth as much as the podcasting business by next year.

    Unwell said that in addition to the funding, WTSL would bring “deep strategic expertise, industry relationships and a proven track record of supporting some of the most innovative companies and storytellers in media,” including Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions.

    Whitesell’s funding followed a pair of recent exposés alleging behind-the-scenes chaos at Unwell. According to a Vanity Fair story in June, one Unwell freelancer alleged that Kaplan “creates the most toxic work environment that I’ve ever seen”; anonymous sources also said Kaplan had questioned employees about their sex lives and commented on their physical appearance. In April, Bloomberg reported that Kaplan “has earned a reputation for frequently yelling at staff members” and said Unwell’s employees were “looking for the exit.”

    Cooper, in an interview at Cannes Lions this June with the Wall Street Journal, was asked about the allegations. “I will just kind of leave it at ‘Don’t believe everything that you read on the internet’ — but I think everyone knows that at this point,” she said. Cooper also said, “I think that we have done a really incredible job at Unwell, and I think if you walk the halls, there are so many people that are so happy to work at this company. … I think, unfortunately, being a woman in this industry is extremely difficult because you’re held to a completely different standard. Whether it’s a smear campaign being created for someone’s narrative, whatever it be.”

    Earle, a podcaster and influencer, gained some her greatest fame while hosting the podcast “Hot Mess,” which was produced by Unwell. Still, Cooper stayed with UTA for a year after the pair ended their relationship. Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, alleged in a memoir that Cooper and her former co-host, Sofia Franklyn, planned to say they were harassed in order to get out of a previous contract with Barstool, which helped launch “Call Her Daddy.”

    Todd Spangler contributed to this story.

  • The SEC meeting that wasn’t: State of Crypto

    The SEC meeting that wasn’t: State of Crypto

    Earlier this month, as it became clear that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would not receive a vote prior to the Senate’s August recess, industry participants suggested that if Congress didn’t act, regulators could. It wouldn’t be exactly the same; regulators’ actions could be challenged in court and will be easier to undo by a subsequent administration than legislation would be, but the argument is that entrenched regulations would be difficult to undo.

    Breaking it down

    That argument above presupposes that the SEC and CFTC are actually able to finalize proposed rules in time for them to kick around for a bit prior to a future SEC changing its mind.

    But that isn’t guaranteed. The SEC announced late Thursday it was canceling its planned meeting and would reschedule at a later date.

    CoinDesk and others also reported on Thursday that the SEC was holding off on rolling out its innovation exemption indefinitely.

    Individuals familiar with the situation told CoinDesk that concerns about the Clarity Act led to the SEC’s postponement. The White House and lawmakers are specifically concerned that any SEC action could further complicate ongoing negotiations over the Clarity Act ahead of the Senate’s first vote on the legislation next month.