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Stand With Crypto’s bus tour through five battleground states kicked off last week in Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Logan Dobson/Stand With Crypto Alliance

A big purple bus adorned with “AMERICA ❤️ CRYPTO” started making its way across five swing states last week, on a mission to get out the vote ahead of the presidential election.

The campaign, initially launched by Coinbase, has a shorter-term objective: Getting a crypto question asked at Tuesday night’s presidential debate.

The Stand With Crypto Alliance, created last year, initiated a letter writing petition five days ago to pressure ABC News to raise a crypto question in the first — and perhaps only — presidential debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The group, which is hosting 2,500 debate watch parties across the country, has gotten over 2,000 people to sign a pre-drafted letter on its website.

“I am one of the 52 million Americans who own cryptocurrency,” the letter says. “On behalf of myself and all American crypto owners, I urge you to ask the candidates their position on cryptocurrency and its place in the American economy.”

In recent months, Trump has branded himself as the pro-crypto candidate. Harris hasn’t yet made her official stance known on digital assets, but the Biden administration’s aggressive crackdown on the industry has created an opening for the former president.

Trump has pledged to fire SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who’s taken on companies including Coinbase. In addition to the presidential race, the group is backing crypto-friendly politicians in Congress as it pursues more favorable laws. In May, the House passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, with the help of more than 70 Democrats.

Stand With Crypto’s bus tour through five battleground states is all about getting people registered to vote.

Logan Dobson/Stand With Crypto Alliance

“Bipartisan crypto legislation has already passed the House of Representatives, and more and more elected officials are coming out in support of crypto,” the letter says.

ABC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On its website, the alliance gives Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, “A” grades for their support of crypto. For Harris and running mate Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, the group gives a grade of “N/A” and says, “pending stance on crypto.”

Many crypto fanatics see the November election as a defining moment for the sector, and they’re showing up with their wallets. Nearly half of all donations made by corporations this cycle have been from crypto companies, according to a Public Citizen report.

Stand With Crypto’s tour through battleground states is more about turning out the vote than raising cash. And the group has been trying for months to get presidential candidates to talk about the issue.

The alliance previously lobbied CNN with 2,300 emails asking for a crypto-pegged question ahead of the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, who at the time was the presumptive Democratic nominee. The network didn’t broach the topic.

Between online and in-person efforts, Stand with Crypto has signed up 104,000 people through its voter registration tool. Along the way, the group has put on concerts and delivered speeches to throngs of fans.

Stand With Crypto’s bus tour through five battleground states kicked off last week in Phoenix, Arizona where Sen. Kyrsten Sinema spoke about electing lawmakers who understand cryptocurrencies.

Logan Dobson/Stand With Crypto Alliance

The bus tour kicked off in Phoenix last Wednesday, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Democrat who’s now an independent, stoking the crowd with an impassioned speech about electing lawmakers who understand cryptocurrencies.

“Sensible, reasonable regulation that allows the industry to continue to innovate and grow – that’s what we got to stay focused on,” Sinema said.

The bus then headed to Las Vegas, where crypto advocates heard from the state treasurer and chief of staff for the lieutenant governor. According to data shared by the alliance, 385,000 Nevadans are crypto owners, and more than 16,000 people in the state have signed up to be Stand with Crypto advocates.

Arizona and Nevada are two of the seven states considered critical and up for grabs with less than two months until election day and the contest in a virtual tie. This week, the crypto bus will make stops in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which are also among the key swing states.

The final event takes place in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18. Several top Coinbase execs, including Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, will speak, and music duo The Chainsmokers will be performing at a nightclub.

Stand With Crypto’s bus tour through five battleground states stopped in Las Vegas last week, where crypto advocates heard from the state treasurer and chief of staff for the lieutenant governor.

Logan Dobson/Stand With Crypto Alliance

The movement hasn’t entirely committed to Trump.

Coinbase policy head Faryar Shirzad, who will also be speaking in D.C., said on X that he’s been “pleased to take part in a number of discussions with the Harris team.” He described the approach as “constructive” and said “the dialogue had been an important first step.”

Though Harris hasn’t formally come out with her campaign position on crypto, members of her team have been meeting with crypto industry leaders for months.

“I think we’re going to hear from Vice President Harris soon on this,” Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina told CNBC in an interview in July on the sidelines of the biggest bitcoin event of the year in Nashville. “And I’m very optimistic we’re gonna get a reset. And that, I think, will matter in a major way.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., also told CNBC at the time that he had been in dialogue with the Harris team on the issue.

Democrats have since gotten more vocal. At a virtual town hall in August, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said a crypto bill could pass his chamber this year.

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Sen. Warren presses Trump AI and crypto czar Sacks on whether he’s overstayed his job

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Sen. Warren presses Trump AI and crypto czar Sacks on whether he's overstayed his job

U.S. President Donald Trump sits next to Crypto czar David Sacks at the White House Crypto Summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

What was meant to be a short-term assignment for venture capitalist David Sacks in President Donald Trump’s White House appears to have stretched into something much bigger, according to leading Democratic lawmakers.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., have teamed up with a number of other progressive politicians to question whether Sacks has blown past the 130-day limit for Special Government Employees.

In a letter delivered Wednesday morning, the lawmakers pressed Sacks to account for every day he has worked since his January start date, and to disclose where he’s conducted official business, and who inside the White House is monitoring his compliance.

They warned that overstaying the limit “would raise additional ethics concerns,” particularly as the Trump administration “moves to implement recently enacted cryptocurrency legislation and put in place new rules for the crypto industry.”

Sacks was tapped by President Trump as his “crypto and AI czar” to help shape policy in those industries. The SGE designation lets people from the private sector serve temporarily in government under looser conflict of interest rules.

In March, Sacks disclosed that he sold over $200 million worth of digital asset-related investments personally and through his firm, Craft Ventures, before starting the job, according to a memo from the White House.

Reports have suggested he’s been splitting his time between Washington and Silicon Valley to avoid hitting the cap, even as colleagues have said he has “no intention of leaving,” according to Semafor.

Warren and Stansbury argue that stretching the rules undermines the balance Congress struck when it created the SGE category. The probe also dovetails with their earlier legislation aimed at tightening transparency and ethics requirements for temporary government advisors.

Additional signees to the letter include Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, along with Representatives Betty McCollum and Rashida Tlaib.

The White House and Sacks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation.

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Honda unveils new WN7 electric motorcycle, but with a huge dealbreaker

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Honda unveils new WN7 electric motorcycle, but with a huge dealbreaker

Honda has officially unveiled the new WN7, its latest electric motorcycle and the first in a planned lineup of larger EV two-wheelers. Designed as a commuter-friendly electric motorcycle for the European market, the WN7 is part of Honda’s push toward carbon neutrality.

The launch shines more light on a reveal we’ve long been waiting for. But with a price tag of £12,999 (nearly US $18k), the real question is whether this modest commuter bike has a fighting chance in an increasingly competitive segment.

While Honda hasn’t released the full technical specs for the WN7 just yet, the company has revealed several key features that give us a glimpse of what to expect. The bike will be powered by a permanent magnet synchronous motor paired with a chain drive, offering a familiar mechanical setup for riders used to older combustion-engine motorcycles. Up front, riders will get a 5-inch color TFT display, and the bike will debut a newly developed Honda RoadSync app, which enables smartphone connectivity for navigation and communication. For added practicality, the WN7 includes a generous 20-liter underseat storage compartment, which should be a nice bonus for commuters looking to stash a helmet or daily essentials.

Honda estimates the WN7 will offer a range of over 130 km (83 miles) on a single charge, making it suited for daily commuting and city riding. It features a fixed lithium-ion battery and supports both home and rapid charging. Using a standard household outlet, riders can expect a full charge in under three hours, while a CCS2 rapid charger can top the battery up from 20% to 80% in just 30 minutes, adding flexibility for quick turnarounds during a busy day.

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The WN7 is being marketed as a practical, everyday-use electric motorcycle targeting primarily younger riders in urban environments. Honda is also promising quiet operation, easy handling, and a new sound-emitting system to enhance pedestrian awareness, taking cues from current EV regulations in both automotive and two-wheeled segments.

Production is set to begin later this year at Honda’s Atessa plant in Italy, and the bike will be eligible for government EV subsidies in various European markets.

However, Honda hasn’t yet shared key specs like top speed, motor power, or battery capacity, all of which are vital to truly assessing how this electric bike stacks up in real-world use. But with the announced price of £12,999, it’s already clear that the bike won’t be price competitive against other commuter electric motorcycles in the market.

Electrek’s Take

Look, I’m excited to see Honda finally putting an actual electric motorcycle into production. This isn’t a concept or a lab experiment – it’s a real bike you’ll be able to buy. But with a price of £12,999 (approximately US $17,700) for what appears to be a commuter-level electric motorcycle, this thing might be dead on arrival.

Unless Honda is hiding some truly game-changing specs under the panels, this pricing just doesn’t make sense. Riders in the commuter category already have plenty of options ranging from electric scooters to motorcycles, with many models from smaller manufacturers offering comparable (or even better) range and speed for half the price.

Honda may be banking on brand loyalty, reliability, and build quality to justify the price, and maybe that will work for some buyers. But unless the WN7 delivers dramatically better specs than what’s currently been shown, most would-be EV riders are likely to look elsewhere.

This might be a huge milestone for Honda’s electrification roadmap, but it’s hard to call it a win for riders at this price point.

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Tesla partners with Uber Freight to offer Tesla Semi electric trucks at discounts

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Tesla partners with Uber Freight to offer Tesla Semi electric trucks at discounts

Uber Freight is launching a ‘Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program’ in partnership with Tesla to lower the most significant barrier to electric Class 8 adoption: upfront cost.

The buyer program pairs purchase subsidies for Tesla Semis with pre‑arranged dedicated freight and route planning around Tesla’s Semi Charger network, which is currently being deployed in the US.

As the name implies, the Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program aims to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles in Uber Freight fleets.

Here’s how Uber aims to achieve that from the press release:

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  • Subsidized Price: Fleets purchasing Tesla Semis through this program will receive a subsidy on the purchase price.   
  • Predictable Growth: Fleets will integrate their Tesla Semis into Uber Freight’s dedicated solutions for shippers for a pre-determined period. This creates an opportunity for carriers to forecast revenue with confidence, while shippers gain consistent access to reliable, zero-emission capacity. 
  • Optimize Utilization: Uber Freight taps into its extensive freight network to match carriers with consistent, high-quality freight from our strong shipper base—helping ensure the addition of these Tesla Semis stay fully utilized and carriers see dedicated, real, measurable returns from the start.

Uber actually had a similar partnership with Tesla for its passenger vehicles in Uber’s ride-hailing fleet. Uber drivers were offered discounts on Tesla vehicles and Tesla integrated Uber’s app in its system to work with the car’s navigation and only suggest rides within the vehicle’s current range.

Now, Uber Freight will integrate its software on Tesla Semi trucks and help truckers get routes that work with the electric trucks and its

There are still many unknowns about the program. Primarily, we don’t know how much Uber and Tesla are subsidizing the trucks.

We don’t even have the price of the Tesla Semi.

Tesla originally announced a price of $150,000 for the 300-mile version of the Tesla Semi and $180,000 for the 500-mile version, but this was in 2017, when the electric truck was initially unveiled.

The vehicle program has been delayed several times since and Tesla never updated the price publicly since.

We recently reported on an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, complaining of a “dramatic” price increase. The price could have doubled, based on documents Ryders submitted to authorities to obtain financing for its Tesla Semi test fleet.

Now Uber Freight says that Tesla will review the total cost of ownership with potential fleet buyers through its new program.

Tesla Semi is now expected to enter volume production in 2026.

The automaker is also starting to deploy its Megacharger stations, EV fast-charging stations designed for commercial electric vehicles, such as the Tesla Semi.

It is currently primarily installing Megachargers at its own facilities and those of early test partners, but there are also a few public Megacharger stations on the way.

Electrek’s Take

This is cool. We don’t know the exact size of the subsidy, but it is a significant development that Uber Freight is offering more job opportunities for those who own an electric truck.

It should encourage more fleet managers to accelerate their fleet transition to electric vehicles.

The sticker price is often a significant barrier to EV adoption, even though the total cost of ownership is often cheaper than that of internal combustion engine vehicles. However, for truckers, the total cost of ownership is much more important since it is their business.

However, everything suggests that the Tesla Semi will cost closer to $300,000 than $150,000, and therefore, every consideration is important when making such a large purchase.

Interestingly, this new partnership coincides with Rebecca Tinucci’s recent appointment as CEO of Uber Freight.

Tinucci was the head of Tesla’s charging division until last year when she was reportedly fired, along with her entire team, by Elon Musk after she refused to let go a higher percentage of her team.

Now, she is back working with Tesla through this program.

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