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Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins speaks to reporters after giving opening remarks at a roundtable with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force at the Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters on April 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.

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WASHINGTON — SEC Chair Paul Atkins said on Friday that innovation in the crypto industry “has been stifled for the last several years,” and that changes are sorely needed.

“The market itself seems to indicate that the current framework badly needs attention,” Atkins said at a roundtable held by the SEC’s recently launched Crypto Task Force.

The half-day session at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., is a notable event for Atkins, and comes just weeks after the SEC formally dropped its long-running lawsuit against Ripple, a symbolic end to a four-year battle between the regulator and the crypto industry. Crypto leaders, regulators and legal experts were on hand to primarily discuss the issue of custody, or the safeguarding of digital assets.

Atkins delivered the opening remarks alongside SEC Commissioners Caroline Crenshaw, Mark Uyeda, and Hester Peirce. The group is attempting to set the tone for a new era of crypto regulation, one that seeks to change the approach from adversarial to collaborative.

Atkins told reporters on the sidelines of the session that he was open to a broad reassessment of crypto-related rules.

“We have, I think, a large gambit of ability to operate,” he said. “It’s always good to have Congress’ input, and if there’s a statute to back up what we’re doing, then all the better — but I think we have ample room to maneuver.”

The crypto industry was critical to President Donald Trump’s election victory in November, pumping money into his campaign as well as supporting congressional candidates viewed as friendly to its efforts, following a tumultuous four years during Joe Biden’s presidency.

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President Trump has since taken numerous steps to pay the industry back, signing an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve and pardoning three co-founders of the BitMEX global cryptocurrency exchange as well as Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

The SEC has followed suit. In January, it rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, a rule established under prior Chair Gary Gensler that treated crypto holdings as balance sheet liabilities for banks and effectively blocked institutional adoption. Peirce celebrated the rollback on X at the time writing, “Bye, bye SAB 121! It’s not been fun.”

Atkins said on Friday that the SEC would continue taking action against foreign companies that failed to abide by U.S. rules, including delisting Chinese firms if necessary.

And in February, the SEC issued guidance saying it doesn’t deem most meme coins securities under U.S. federal law.

That’s a big boon to the president and his family members, who have multiple lucrative crypto projects on the market. President Trump’s personal meme coin — $TRUMP — was announced just before the inauguration in January and currently has a market cap of about $2.7 billion. The project’s website claims that 80% of the token supply is held by the Trump Organization and affiliated entities.

When asked whether the president’s activities undermined the White House’s credibility on crypto policy, Atkins said, “I have no comment on any of that.”

Trump meme coin 'plainly a bad thing', says Harvard's Timothy Massad

The Friday roundtable included executives from firms including Anchorage Digital Bank, Fidelity Digital Assets, Kraken, BitGo, Exodus, Fireblocks and Copper Technologies. They outlined the legal and operational roadblocks to offering crypto custody solutions that comply with federal securities laws.

Crypto custody refers to how the digital assets are held. Some investors prefer to custody their own holdings with private keys stored on hardware wallets, or “cold storage,” versus using crypto brokerage firm — “hot wallets” — and other third-party options.

A lack of clear regulatory guidelines makes it difficult to know which options are legal, and also creates challenges to providing safeguards in a market that’s seen its share of hacks.

A regulatory approach should recognize the differences across qualified custodians exist for some crypto assets,” Peirce said, at Friday’s event. “But for others, self custody might be the safer option.”

The SEC is weighing revisions to its controversial custody rule, first proposed under Gensler, which many in the crypto industry argue was unworkable for blockchain-based assets. The proposal stalled, and Friday’s roundtable signals renewed interest in finding a compromise.

Still, tensions remain between the need for investor protections and the practical realities of securing decentralized assets.

The Commission must grapple with these issues,” Peirce said. “If we fail to do so, we prevent regulated entities from serving their customers.”

WATCH: Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto project says it sold $550 million in tokens

Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto project says it sold $550 million in tokens

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BMW ups the ante with the fastest, most powerful electric maxi-scooter

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BMW ups the ante with the fastest, most powerful electric maxi-scooter

BMW Motorrad’s futuristic electric scooter just got its first real refresh since beginning production in 2021. The BMW CE 04, already one of the most capable and stylish electric maxi-scooters on the market, now gets a set of upgraded trim options, new aesthetic touches, and a more robust list of features that aim to make this urban commuter even more appealing to riders looking for serious electric performance on two wheels.

The BMW CE 04 has always stood out for its sci-fi styling and high-performance drivetrain. It’s built on a mid-mounted liquid-cooled motor that puts out 31 kW (42 hp) and 62 Nm of torque. That’s enough to rocket the scooter from 0 to 50 km/h (31 mph) in just 2.6 seconds – quite fast for anything with a step-through frame.

The top speed is electronically limited to 120 km/h (75 mph), making it perfectly capable for city riding and fast enough to hold its own on highway stretches. Range is rated at 130 km (81 miles) on the WMTC cycle, thanks to the 8.9 kWh battery pack tucked low in the frame.

But while the core performance hasn’t changed, BMW’s 2025 update focuses on refining the package and giving riders more options to tailor the scooter to their taste. The new CE 04 is available in three trims: Basic, Avantgarde, and Exclusive.

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The Basic trim keeps things clean and classic with a Lightwhite paint scheme and a clear windshield. It’s subtle, sleek, and very much in line with the CE 04’s clean-lined aesthetic. The Avantgarde model adds a splash of color with a Gravity Blue main body and bright São Paulo Yellow accents, along with a dark windshield and a laser-engraved rim. The top-shelf Exclusive trim is where things get fancy, with a premium Spacesilver metallic paint job, upgraded wind protection, heated grips, a luxury embroidered seat, and its own unique engraved rim treatment.

There are also a few new tech upgrades baked into the options list. Riders can now spec a 6.9 kW quick charger that reduces the 0–80% charge time to just 45 minutes (down from nearly 4 hours with the standard 2.3 kW onboard charger). Tire pressure monitoring, a center stand, and BMW’s “Headlight Pro” adaptive lighting system are also available as add-ons, along with an emergency eCall system and Dynamic Traction Control.

BMW has kept the core riding components in place: a steel-tube chassis, 15-inch wheels, Bosch ABS (with optional ABS Pro), and the impressive 10.25” TFT display with integrated navigation and smartphone connectivity. The under-seat storage still swallows a full-face helmet, and the long, low frame design means the scooter looks like something out of Blade Runner but rides like a luxury commuter.

With these updates, BMW seems to be further cementing the CE 04’s role at the high end of the electric scooter market. It’s not cheap, starting around €12,000 in Europe and around US $12,500 in the US, with prices going up from there depending on configuration. However, the maxi-scooter delivers real motorcycle-grade performance in a package that’s easier to live with for daily riders.

Electrek’s Take

I believe that the CE 04’s biggest strength has always been that it’s not trying to be a toy or a gimmick. It’s a real vehicle. Sure, it’s futuristic and funky looking, but it delivers on its promises. And in a market that’s still surprisingly sparse when it comes to premium electric scooters, BMW has had the lane mostly to itself. That may not last forever, though. LiveWire, Harley-Davidson’s electric spin-off brand, has teased plans for a maxi-scooter-style urban electric vehicle in the coming years, but as of now, it remains something of an undefined future plan.

Meanwhile, BMW is delivering not just a concept bike but a mature, well-equipped, and ready-to-ride electric scooter that keeps improving. For riders who want something faster and more capable than a Class 3 e-bike but aren’t ready to jump to a full-size electric motorcycle, the CE 04 hits a sweet spot. It delivers the performance and capability of a commuter e-motorcycle, yet with the approachability of a scooter. And with these new trims and upgrades, it’s doing it with even more style.

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I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

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I found this cheap Chinese e-cargo trike that hauls more than your car!

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.

Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!

I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!

Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.

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To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.

Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!

Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.

The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.

The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!

I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.

That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.

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OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

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OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August

The OPEC logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a computer screen displaying OPEC icons in Ankara, Turkey, on June 25, 2024.

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Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts.

This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day.

In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries’ decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to “a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.”

The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition’s formal policy.

One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year.

Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter.

They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August.

Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran’s supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz.

At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.

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