As Friday news dumps go, this week’s was a doozy. It wasn’t really a surprise when the SEC once again delayed delivering a decision on several Bitcoin spot ETF applications. But jaws dropped around the world when OpenAI announced that CEO Sam Altman was out.
By all accounts, Sam Altman was on top of the world—or at least the AI world—coming off of a hotly anticipated and genuinely satisfying first DevDay for OpenAI, where he capably held centerstage as he unveiled a ton of promising developments at the company.
Ten days later, in a late Friday announcement that stunned the tech industry, the company abruptly announced that Altman was out as CEO, with the cryptic corporate governance explanation that he “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”
The news reverberated quickly to WorldCoin, Altman’s other company building an iris-scanning biometric crypto system. Its affiliated token, WLD, plunging in value more than 10 percent. And with Altman himself seen as synonymous with the company lead, there was intense curiosity about Mira Murati, who was named his interim replacement.
The weekend is giving everyone lots of time to speculate about what happened—which included the subsequent resignation of board chair and co-founder Greg Brockman. Even OpenAI’s most prominent investor, Microsoft, was “blindsided” by the move. Was it a disconnect between OpenAI’s ideological foundations and its clear profit potential? A conflict related to Worldcoin? Even some family drama has re-emerged in the media.
Facts and answers are in short supply right now. But you can expect a lot of news—and dirty laundry—to emerge in the days ahead.
🪙 Coin of the moment
A case could still be made that Solana (SOL) is still on a tear, but its long-running rally finally seemed to cool this week. Sure, the Ethereum competitor hit another yearly high on Monday, but by this morning, it settled in around $58.31 per coin, closing the week nearly where it started—albeit still double its value compared to a month ago.
Today, the crown goes to Avalanche (AVAX), which surged after J.P. Morgan said it had used the blockchain to tokenize portfolios. AVAX, the 12th biggest digital asset by market cap, is priced at $22.12, having shot up by more than 46% over the week.
🤝 From our Partner
WebStreet is the first platform to offer accredited investors passive ownership of cash flowing online businesses. How?
They acquire high-growth businesses like Micro-Saas, and Amazon FBA at low multiples giving investors an asymmetric bet to the upside. So while real estate bubbles are popping and the stock market is looking shaky, WebStreet is on track to deliver over 20% IRR to its investors. Find out why investors are buzzing about their newest round here.
Decrypt joined Heatbit founder Alex Busarov at Web Summit for a walkthrough of the firm’s flagship product, a Bitcoin miner that acts as a domestic space heater—aimed at the casual user.
