Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao arrives at federal court in Seattle, Washington, on April 30, 2024. (Photo: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images)

Representatives of President Donald Trump’s family are reportedly in talks to take a financial stake in the U.S. arm of the crypto exchange Binance.

Yes, that’s the same Binance that A.) pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering rules, B.) paid the largest fine in crypto history at $4.3 billion, and C.) was founded by billionaire Changpeng Zhao, who served four months in prison after pleading guilty on a related charge.

What’s more, CZ, as he’s known, is pushing for Trump to pardon him, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Zhao remains the largest shareholder in Binance, which today is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in Shanghai, the company does not have an official corporate headquarters (though CEO Richard Teng said as recently as December that it would soon settle down).

Trump meanwhile has loudly and forcefully backed the broader crypto industry—after being a vocal critic as recently as 2021—with aggressive policy changes and like-minded political appointees. A family-affiliated entity owns a majority stake in the crypto venture World Liberty Financial.

The upside for CZ and Binance, whose U.S. business fell off after its regulatory issues, is clear. 

What’s in it for the Trumps, you ask? A stake in the company’s U.S. arm would allow them to enjoy the gains from its resurgence as the Trump administration rolls back crypto regulation. As president, Trump is exempt from most of the conflict-of-interest rules that govern other members of his administration. —AN

Apple’s AirPods just keep finding new ways to be interesting.

The company’s popular earbuds wowed users last year with a clinical-grade “hearing aid” feature on its Pro model; this year, a software upgrade will reportedly allow the devices to instantaneously translate language for in-person conversations.

A Bloomberg report notes the capability will arrive as an update alongside Apple’s planned iOS 19 mobile operating system. (Though the update is not expected to require new hardware, Apple is, as ever, hard at work on a new generation of AirPods.)

Apple is, per usual, fashionably late to the party: Google’s Pixel Buds have enjoyed the feature since 2017, though it got off to a rough start. Both companies have for years offered translation apps on their respective mobile devices.

AirPods may seem like a benign accessory in the Apple ecosystem, but it’s a big business. The eight-year-old product family is on track to become the third most popular product line at the company, passing iPad and drafting behind iPhone and Mac. 

It’s not hard to see why: 1.5 billion active iPhones translates to about 600 million AirPods users. Priced between $129 and $549, that adds up to about $18 billion in annual revenue since their launch—more than Spotify, Airbnb, or DoorDash. —AN

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have made history, though it’s not the kind of record he likely was aiming for this time.

J.P. Morgan auto analyst Ryan Brinkman warned clients the politically divisive entrepreneur is, in all likelihood, repelling far more prospective car buyers than he has gained through his proximity to President Trump and the far-right in Europe.

As a result, Brinkman slashed his estimate for Q1 global deliveries to just 355,000 vehicles from 444,000 previously, the latest analyst to take a cautious view of the current reporting period. This compares to its most recent figure of 495,000 for the fourth quarter of last year, and Bloomberg’s consensus of 418,000 vehicles. 

“We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly,” Brinkman wrote in a research note published Wednesday, cutting his price target to $120 from $135 previously.

Brinkman paid no heed to arguments that the first quarter will primarily be weak due to a changeover of the Model Y, its best seller. Instead he focused on the behavior of many owners to distance themselves from the band, “even replacing the Tesla logo with that of another car company.”

It seems as though the market agrees, at least for now. Tesla’s stock fell 4% on Thursday to $238 a share. —Christiaan Hetzner