During his first term in office, President Donald Trump wanted little to do with cryptocurrency, tweeting in 2019 that crypto’s value was “based on thin air.”
Less than a decade later, Trump is now one of the largest bitcoin investors on the planet, with an estimated $870 million in the digital currency. Only a handful of other billionaires appear to own more, analysis by Forbes’ Dan Alexander shows.
As the second Trump presidency has lifted digital asset values across the industry, the president’s transformation from crypto skeptic to bitcoin bull gives investors a powerful ally in the White House—especially if prices continue to climb and add to Trump’s fortune.
This is a published version of the Forbes Daily newsletter, you can sign-up to get Forbes Daily in your inbox here.
FIRST UP
Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images
U.S. stock futures rose early on Monday as President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance signaled they are open to a deal with China to de-escalate trade tensions. Trump on Friday had threatened to impose 100% tariffs on China in response to broader trade restrictions on rare earth minerals.
The Trump Administration moved to terminate thousands of federal worker positions Friday as part of a mass reduction in force tied to the government shutdown, a move that the largest federal employee union says is unauthorized. Treasury, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security were among the departments impacted, though the administration on Saturday had already rehired CDC officials who it said were laid off in error, according to the New York Times.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
Americans still aren’t feeling optimistic about the U.S. economy, with consumer sentiment decreasing in October, marking the third straight month of decline, a new survey from the University of Michigan found. Issues like rising prices and weakening job prospects “remain at the forefront of consumers’ minds,” with more Americans feeling pessimistic about their future finances, says the survey’s director Joanne Hsu.
WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Gwen Graves (left), Pete Nelson, Todd Graves (right)
COURTESY TODD GRAVES
Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves has built a $22 billion chicken finger empire with one of America’s hottest fast-food chains. And the business’ meteoric growth has allowed Graves to build a fantastical childhood dream: a $400,000, three-level treehouse in the backyard of his Baton Rouge estate. But the impressive structure isn’t all whimsy: “I can come out here and I can think, clear my head,” says the 53-year-old billionaire.
After founding what would later become the Virgin Group at just 19 years old, Sir Richard Branson today oversees 40 Virgin companies that operate in 35 countries and employ more than 60,000 people. In a recent interview with Forbes’ Martina Di Licosa, the 75-year-old billionaire discussed his earliest investments: “The sheer possibility of earning my own money was really exciting.”
MONEY + POLITICS
Despite sacrificing a financially lucrative career as a corporate lawyer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) remains comfortable on public office salary. With apartments in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., two pensions and plenty of cash left over after putting his kids through college, Forbes estimates that Jeffries is worth about $2 million—far more than his Republican counterpart, House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose fortune Forbes put at $350,000 last year.
SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT
The last leg of a lucrative race is on in New York City, and it’s not for mayor: Four contenders remain for three possible licenses to open the first casinos in the Big Apple. Billionaires Steve Cohen and Lim Kok Thay are among the backers of the proposed projects, and winning one of New York’s licenses would almost guarantee to increase their fortunes. “New York is the biggest opportunity for years to come,” says analyst Chad Beynon, who covers gambling and hospitality.
WORLD
White House spokesman Steven Cheung lashed out at the Norwegian Nobel Committee after it passed over President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize last week, stating that the committee “proved they place politics over peace” by awarding the prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Trump had openly advocated for himself to win the award, and won endorsements from seven world leaders for the prize, according to the White House.
MORE: Accusations of insider trading hit prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi in the wake of Friday’s Nobel Prize announcement. At 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Machado’s odds of winning sat at just 3.6%, before jumping as high as 73% within just two hours. Still, if insider trading did occur, that’s not necessarily against the rules on prediction markets, which are largely unregulated.
DAILY COVER STORY
The Inside Story Of How A Former Hedge Fund Star Made His First Billion On Grindr
MUNSTER CHEONG FOR FORBES ASIA
In the summer of 2019, George Raymond Zage III, founder and CEO of Singapore-based Tiga Investments, got an urgent call from an investor pal in Los Angeles, James Lu.
Grindr, a popular dating app for the LGBTQ community, was being put on the block by its Chinese owner, gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech, because of U.S. security concerns. Lu wanted to know if Zage would be willing to help raise a fund to buy it. Zage made a snap decision. “No, I’m not going to help you raise a fund,” he told Lu. “We’re going to go do this deal.”
That October, Zage signed on American serial entrepreneur J. Michael Gearon Jr., and the trio set up San Vicente Acquisition, named after the West Hollywood street where Grindr’s HQ is located, with Zage’s privately held Tiga owning 54% in the joint venture.
The new partners fended off other bidders to buy the app within the deadline for $608 million. Two years later, Grindr merged with Zage’s blank check company Tiga Acquisition in a transaction valued at $2.1 billion, to take it public on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock surged over 200% when it listed in November 2022, landing Zage with his 43% stake in the three-comma club (after accounting for pledged shares.) While Grindr’s stock has corrected by more than half since the frothy listing, it’s earned him a spot among Singapore’s 50 richest and still accounts for the bulk of his $1.5 billion fortune today.
WHY IT MATTERS Being at the right place at the right time might have helped seal the Grindr deal, but Zage was also the right guy, reports Forbes Asia’s Jessica Tan. The former investment banker at Goldman Sachs spent 18 years at U.S. hedge fund Farallon Capital Management successfully overseeing its Asian division from Singapore before setting up Tiga Investments in 2017. Now the dealmaker has flipped the script to take a longer-term, hands-on approach to investing on his own account, powering corporate turnarounds as a borrower rather than a lender.
MORE 30 Under 30: Meet The Young Entrepreneurs Shaping AI In Asia
FACTS + COMMENTS
Online shoppers flocked to Amazon’s Prime sale in July, spending more over four days than two Black Friday events put together, but consumers were less enthused with its October sale last week. Everyday essentials and discounts were the focus, a lukewarm sign for holiday retail spending:
61%: The share of July Prime Day shoppers who returned for the October sale, while 90% said they were aware of last week’s sale
23%: The share of shoppers who used the recent Prime sale for early holiday shopping, compared to 45% last year
‘Full of surprises and challenges’: “Marketers will need to be diligent in their efforts to … [appeal] to the consumer’s core value of the moment—whether price or priority,” Circana’s chief retail advisor Marshal Cohen said of the upcoming holiday retail season
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
Business leaders are under pressure to integrate AI to keep up with competitors, but sloppy strategy in the rush to innovate can do more harm than good. If the competition rolls out a new AI feature, wait and watch for the reaction to it, rather than mirroring that strategy too quickly. And don’t assume your customers want AI from your brand, think intentionally about how the technology can improve what your business offers.
VIDEO
QUIZ
Federal workers were warned in a seemingly partisan email last week that not showing up for work “will not be tolerated” during the government shutdown. Which federal agency received the notice?
A. National Park Service
B. IRS
C. TSA
D. CDC
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Caroline Howard.