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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 15, 2022.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has a message for Coinbase and other crypto exchanges: The rules are clear, and they must be obeyed.

In a video posted on Twitter on Thursday, Gensler said that crypto exchanges must treat cryptocurrencies like securities and stop acting as if the regulations are ambiguous.

“The law is clear,” Gensler said. “If you’re a securities exchange, clearinghouse, broker, or dealer, you must come into compliance, register with us, and deal with conflicts of interest and disclose important information. For 90 years, these laws have helped protect investors like you.”

The regulator’s comments come days after crypto exchange Coinbase sued the SEC, asking that the agency be forced to publicly share its answer to a months-old petition on whether it would allow the crypto industry to be regulated using existing SEC frameworks.

Coinbase, which received a Wells notice in March indicating an enforcement action could be expected, has been arguing that the SEC has been inconsistent in how it treats cryptocurrencies and that the industry needs regulatory clarity.

Since January, the SEC has taken action against crypto exchanges Bittrex & Gemini, crypto lender Genesis, and a number of individual actors accused of manipulating crypto assets, including crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun and disgraced Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon.

Gensler titled his video on Thursday, “Office Hours,” and tried to make the point that what crypto exchanges are doing is very obviously marketing and selling securities, even if the debate on the topic has been obscured.

“An investment contract exists when you invest money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others,” Gensler said. “Intermediaries for investment contracts, whether they’re exchanges, brokers, dealers, clearinghouses, they need to comply with the securities laws and register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

Gensler said that by not complying with SEC regulations, the platforms “don’t have basic investor protections,” which is leading to clients being unable to access their funds when there are problems, including bankruptcies.

WATCH: Sell-off hits bitcoin

Sell-off hits bitcoin, and SEC Chair Gensler grilled on crypto in House hearing: CNBC Crypto World

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Cybersecurity provider Netskope boosts IPO range as it tests tech hotstreak

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Cybersecurity provider Netskope boosts IPO range as it tests tech hotstreak

Sanjay Beri, chief executive officer and founder of Netskope Inc., listens during a Bloomberg West television interview in San Francisco, California.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Netskope is targeting a $7.3 billion valuation in its upcoming initial public offering, after lifting its planned price range.

The cybersecurity company said it plans to sell 47.8 million shares at between $17 and $19 apiece. The deal would raise as much as $908 million at the top end.

That’s up from a previous range of $15 to $17 a share the company revealed in a filing last week, at a $6.5 billion valuation.

The cloud security company revealed plans to go public on the Nasdaq in a filing last month. Its planned debut comes amid an influx of big cybersecurity deals and during a resurgence in IPO activity after soaring inflation and interest rates squashed appetite for tech deals.

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Cybersecurity deals have topped the list of this year’s biggest tech acquisitions.

The frenzy was highlighted by Google’s $32 billion acquisition of Israeli cloud security startup Wiz in March. Palo Alto announced this summer that it’s buying identity security company CyberArk for $25 billion. Thoma Bravo-backed SailPoint went public in February.

As tariff headwinds eased, companies increasingly looked to the public markets.

Design platform Figma and Circle more than doubled in their recent market debuts. CoreWeave has more than tripled since its IPO.

After putting the brakes on IPO plans earlier this year with President Donald Trump’s tariff plans roiling global markets, Klarna jumped 15% in its NYSE debut last week. Ticket reseller StubHub is also planning a debut this month.

Netskope will debut under the ticker symbol “NTSK.” The company reported a net loss of $170 million during the first half of the year in its prospectus filing.

The California-based company, founded in 2012, operates in the cloud access security space, helping firms protect against cyber threats. Netskope named Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Broadcom among its competitors in its IPO filing.

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OpenAI to launch ChatGPT for teens with parental controls as company faces scrutiny over safety

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OpenAI to launch ChatGPT for teens with parental controls as company faces scrutiny over safety

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman walks on the day of a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025.

Brian Snyder | Reuters

OpenAI on Tuesday announced it will launch a dedicated ChatGPT experience with parental controls for users under 18 years old as the artificial intelligence company works to enhance safety protections for teenagers.

When OpenAI identifies that a user is a minor, they will automatically be directed to an age-appropriate ChatGPT experience that blocks graphic and sexual content and can involve law enforcement in rare cases of acute distress, the company said.

OpenAI is also developing a technology to better predict a user’s age, but ChatGPT will default to the under-18 experience if there is uncertainty or incomplete information.

The startup’s safety updates come after the Federal Trade Commission recently launched an inquiry into several tech companies, including OpenAI, over how AI chatbots like ChatGPT potentially negatively affect children and teenagers.

The agency said it wants to understand what steps these companies have taken to “evaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions,” according to a release.

OpenAI also shared how ChatGPT will handle “sensitive situations” last month after a lawsuit from a family blamed the chatbot for their teenage son’s death by suicide.

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“We prioritize safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens; this is a new and powerful technology, and we believe minors need significant protection,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

In August, OpenAI said it would release parental controls to help them understand and shape how their teens are using ChatGPT. OpenAI shared more details about those parental controls on Tuesday, and it said they will be available at the end of the month.

The company’s upcoming controls will allow parents to link their ChatGPT account with their teen’s via email, set blackout hours for when their teen can’t use the chatbot, manage which features to disable, guide how the chatbot responds and receive notifications if the teen is in acute distress.

ChatGPT is intended for users who are ages 13 and up, OpenAI said.

“These are difficult decisions, but after talking with experts, this is what we think is best and want to be transparent in our intentions,” Altman wrote.

If you are having suicidal thoughts or are in distress, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor

WATCH: FTC launches inquiry into AI chatbots acting as companions

FTC launches inquiry into AI chatbots acting as companions

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YouTube says it has paid creators more than $100 billion over last 4 years

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YouTube says it has paid creators more than 0 billion over last 4 years

A Youtube podcast microphone is seen at the Variety Podcasting Brunch Presented By YouTube at Austin Proper Hotel in Austin, Texas, on March 8, 2025.

Mat Hayward | Variety | Getty Images

YouTube said on Tuesday it has paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies since 2021.

The surge has been fueled in part by growing viewership on connected TVs. The number of channels making more than $100,000 from TV screens jumped 45% year over year, the company said.

YouTube Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich praised the power of creators to “shape culture and entertainment in ways we never thought possible” in a release announcing the benchmark and a series of other new features.

The milestone comes as the Google-owned platform marks its 20th year and pushes to cement itself as one of the world’s most lucrative media businesses.

YouTube unveiled the updated payout figure and a slate of new creator tools at its annual Made on YouTube event in New York City.

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The company announced new artificial intelligence tools for YouTube Shorts, its short-form vertical video product. Creators will be able to turn raw footage into edited clips with AI and can add music, transitions and voiceover.

New features also include the ability to turn dialogue from eligible videos into a song to be used in the Short.

Google’s latest AI video generator, Veo 3, will also be integrated into Shorts, YouTube said.

Google uses a subset of YouTube videos to train Veo 3, to the surprise of many YouTube creators, CNBC reported in June.

YouTube turned 20 years old in April and announced it hosted over 20 billion videos on the platform, including music, Shorts, podcasts and more.

Last year, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said the company had paid $70 billion to creators between 2021 and 2024.

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