It was well intentioned but a U.K. law mandating age verification on adult sites and a number of other platforms has sparked a backlash from both internet users in the country, and U.S. politicians and tech giants.

Last month, new provisions in the Online Safety Act requiring large online platforms to implement age checks to prevent children from accessing pornographic and appropriate material came into force.

The measures have led PornHub, RedTube and other porn sites to force U.K. visitors to sign up and verify their age to gain access to their services.

Circle Internet Group shares jumped Tuesday after reporting its first quarterly earnings as a publicly listed company.

While charges related to the stablecoin issuer’s debut contributed to a second-quarter loss, it reported a 53% increase in revenue, driven by strong growth in stablecoins. Revenue rose to $658.1 million from $430 million in the same period a year ago.

Shares rose more than 7% in premarket trading. The stock has soared nearly 420% since it went public on June 5.

“The validation that we’ve seen in Circle, and the sentiment around circle is really about people understanding that the internet is colliding with the financial system,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday. “Just like open internet, software, networks and utilities changed media, communications, retail and education, it’s happening in the financial system and stablecoin money and blockchains are foundational to that future.”

Circulation of USDC, the stablecoin Circle issues and manages, grew 90% from the previous year to $61.3 billion. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose values are pegged to that of another asset, usually the U.S. dollar.

Circle said it swung to a net loss of $482.1 million, or $4.48 a share, from earnings of $32.9 million, or breakeven per share, a year ago. The net loss included non-cash IPO-related charges of $424 million for stock-based compensation and $167 million to adjust the fair value of its convertible debt.

The company issued guidance projecting between $75 million and $85 million in other revenue for the rest of 2025, as well as adjusted operating expenses of $475 million to $490 million. It anticipates the amount of USDC in circulation will grow at a 40% compound annual growth rate through the cycle.

Circle also announced the forthcoming launch of a new blockchain called Arc, designed to be a network for stablecoin payments, FX, and capital markets applications. It will be integrated across Circle’s platform and services and will begin testing among developers in the fall.

Circle, led by CEO Jeremy Allaire, is one of the earliest companies in the crypto industry and the issuer of USD Coin, commonly referred to by its ticker, USDC. It’s the second largest stablecoin in the world, making up about 26% of the dollar-backed stablecoin market, behind Tether’s USDT, which makes up about 67%, according to CryptoQuant.

Traditionally used as bridge currencies for crypto traders, stablecoins today are benefiting from increased interest by banks and payment firms as the Trump administration rolls back restrictive Biden-era crypto policies in favor of more supportive crypto legislation, like the stablecoin bill known as the GENIUS Act, which Trump signed into the first U.S. crypto law last month.

“Since our IPO and since the GENIUS Act passed, the number of major financial institutions that are engaging with us in banking, payments, capital markets [and] so many categories has surged,” Allaire said. “We’re seeing this incredible interest in working with us, including from some of the names that people have thrown out there as maybe doing their own thing” by perhaps launching their own stablecoins.

U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled that he’d be open to allowing Nvidia to sell a downgraded version of its most advanced artificial intelligence chip to China.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Trump said that he could make a deal with Nvidia if it could reduce the performance of its Blackwell system.

“It’s possible I’d make a deal” on a “somewhat enhanced — in a negative way — Blackwell” processor, Trump said. “In other words, take 30% to 50% off of it.”

Trump indicated that he will meet with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang regarding the Blackwell.

“On the Blackwell, I think he [Huang] is coming to see me again about that,” Trump said, adding that the Blackwell system is the “latest and the greatest in the world.”

Last month, Huang, who has lobbied Trump for access to the Chinese market after effectively being shut out, said he hopes to sell more advanced chips to China.

The flurry of activity around semiconductors comes after Nvidia and AMD agreed to a deal to pay the U.S. government a 15% cut of revenue from chip sales to China in exchange for export licenses. Trump said he initially asked for a 20% cut but that the number came down to 15% after Huang negotiated.

If the downgraded Blackwell chips were approved for export, it “would be a big deal going forward,” said Paul Triolo, partner and senior vice president for China at advisory firm DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.

“The idea here is to addict China to substandard, or non-cutting edge technology, Triolo added.

Nvidia’s Huang has often touted the idea that if China is cut off from American chips then domestic tech firms like Huawei will fill the void. He has argued that U.S. chips should be sold in China so that Chinese firms are dependent on them when developing their AI technology.

Washington’s chip export regime has evolved over the past few years. Nvidia was blocked in 2022 from exporting its A100 and H100 chips to China — chips that are crucial for training large AI models. In 2023, the U.S. placed additional export curbs on more Nvidia semiconductors.

Chinese firms stockpiled these chips and have been using them to build their AI models. These chips were acquired legally and are still being used to train models, according to Triolo.

It’s not yet clear what kind of capabilities a downgraded Blackwell system for China would have and if it would be suitable for training more advanced models. In the meantime, Huawei is continuing to develop its Ascend series of processors, which it is trying to position as an Nvidia alternative.

“We are in sort of a transition point of running out of those stockpiles of earlier acquired Nvidia GPUs and hoping that Huawei’s new Ascend series of processors will be capable of replacing those but they are not quite capable of doing that yet,” Triolo said.

“Probably next year Huawei will have a new version of its 910 processors that will be more competitive with Nvidia.”