‘Peanut’ the squirrel is dead, but the meme coin named after him is still mooning.

A late-night post from technocrat Elon Musk slamming U.S. authorities for euthanizing the viral squirrel while failing to charge anyone from Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged client list preceded a volume and price spike, data shows, showing speculative fervor is alive and well in the market.

(The “Epstein list” refers to high-profile individuals allegedly connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network. No official, verified public list exists.)

“Government is deeply broken,” Musk wrote. “They arrested (and killed) Peanut, but have not even tried to file charges against anyone on the Epstein client list.”

Within minutes, Solana-based meme token PNUT spiked over 10% as traders piled in on the name-drop.

PNUT, which has no affiliation with the actual squirrel or Musk, saw trading volumes surge over 120% from $65 million to $214 million in a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko. The token’s price briefly touched 23 cents before cooling.

With no protocol, no utility, and no roadmap, PNUT trades purely on cultural resonance and reflexive speculation. That makes it a favorite for momentum hunters, and a token to watch for when controversial topics do the rounds — at least on Musk’s X.

Read more: Elon Musk Says America Party Will Embrace BTC as ‘Fiat Is Hopeless’

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Elon Musk has stirred up Washington by announcing that his yet‑to‑be‑registered “The American Party” will back Bitcoin. His move comes as he takes aim at what he calls wasteful government spending and vows to shake up the status quo.

Musk’s short statement—that “fiat is hopeless”—has already sent ripples through both political and crypto circles.

Musk Launches Political Bid

According to Musk’s recent tweet, his new centrist party will start by fielding candidates for the US Senate and House. He’s on record saying he won’t jump straight to a White House run.

Instead, he plans to build out support at the state level first. This measured approach reflects the massive effort needed to get on ballots: most states demand tens of thousands of signatures for each race. Musk will need a ground game rivaling established parties.

Fiat is hopeless, so yes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 7, 2025

Bitcoin Figures Front And Center

Based on reports, Musk isn’t just talking the talk. Two of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, hold a combined 19,794 BTC—11,509 at Tesla and 8,285 at SpaceX.

That stash is worth about $2.1 billion at current prices. He’s also said he personally holds Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. By tying his political project to Bitcoin, Musk is likely appealing to the same audience that powered US President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign on crypto buzz.

Elon Musk is forming his own political party. Image: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The price of Bitcoin has barely budged on the news. The coin sits at $108,772, showing no clear spike or dip. Traders seem to view this more as another Musk headline than a sign of concrete policy change.

Volatility has hit 30 % swings in recent months, so any real plan to take campaign funds or taxes in Bitcoin would face tough questions about price swings.

Bitcoin is expected to play a major role in Musk's political push. Image: FXEmpire

Regulatory And Logistical Hurdles

Based on public filings, no “Department of Government Efficiency” exists—Musk’s DOGE jibe is just a nod to Dogecoin fans. Actual agencies like the IRS and SEC would need to weigh in if a political party tried to use Bitcoin for donations or payments.

US campaign finance laws cap donations and demand strict reporting. Converting crypto to cash quickly, especially during sell‑offs, could trigger accounting nightmares.

Getting on ballots is another mountain. Each state has unique rules on deadlines, forms and signature thresholds. Some require petitions submitted more than a year before an election.

Musk will have to hire or mobilize coordinate teams to track hundreds of deadlines. Failure in just one key state could keep him off that state’s ballot entirely.

The real test will come if Musk files party paperwork and publishes a plan for handling crypto volatility and compliance.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

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Salon predicts Elon “Pedo Guy” Musk’s house of cards is about to tumble.

Tesla is ridiculously overvalued for a carmaker, especially one with severe brand problems and an inability to sell cars. The hype has been around Elon, and as Elon has done more than enough to disprove his mythical genius, there isn’t a lot left propping the stock up. Sadly, his friendship with a man famous for throwing people under the bus has resulted in the anticipated result. While Musk is wearing shades, the future is not so bright.

While the smoke clears on the launchpad, another crisis is burning: xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, is reportedly on track to lose $13 billion in 2025. According to multiple reports, it’s burning through $1 billion every month, and bringing in barely a half-billion total. Musk moved GPUs from Tesla to prop it up and is now pitching a $9 billion raise to investors. But that’s not innovation — it’s triage.

And now, the political theater collapses too. After years of courting Donald Trump and MAGA-adjacent culture warriors, Musk has been frozen out by Trump himself, who reportedly isn’t taking Musk’s calls. No more backstage passes. No more power dinners. Just a guy with exploding rockets, a hemorrhaging AI startup, and a dying social media platform full of trolls yelling into the void.

Salon

Previously:
• Elon Musk made fool of by Assassin’s Creed social media team
• Elon Musk buys Twitter… again, from himself
• Trump Administration shilling for Elon Musk
• Trump official confirms what we knew: Elon Musk is painfully unfunny

X (formerly known as Twitter) is ramping up efforts to integrate financial services directly into its ecosystem and moving beyond its roots in social networking, the Financial Times reported on June 19.

According to the report, the social media giant is preparing to let users carry out a wide range of financial transactions within the app. This includes day-to-day payments like buying food or tipping content creators, as well as more advanced tools for investing and digital fund transfers.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino also confirmed that the company is exploring the launch of a branded debit or credit card by the end of the year.

Yaccarino, who took the helm in 2023 after Elon Musk acquired the social media platform, has overseen a period of rapid transformation.

Under her leadership, X has added capabilities such as AI tools, live video, audio calls, and the soon-to-launch XChat, an upgraded messaging system with encrypted communication and disappearing messages.

These changes have helped boost engagement, with usage metrics trending upward in recent quarters.

“Everything App”

These moves are part of a broader strategy to evolve X into an “everything app,” echoing Musk’s long-held vision of combining social media, entertainment, payments, and commerce under a single platform.

Meanwhile, the new financial features are expected to build upon earlier initiatives like X Money and a peer-to-peer payments system.

Notably, the Musk-owned platform has partnered with Visa to develop the X Money Account, a digital wallet that supports fund transfers and peer-to-peer payments.

X has obtained money transmitter licenses in over 4 US states and is registered with FinCEN to support its growing fintech stack. These regulatory moves give the company a green light to offer many types of financial services across major jurisdictions legally.

Crypto integration?

Despite this progress, it is unclear whether digital asset transactions will be part of the platform’s offerings.

This is surprising considering Musk has consistently expressed interest in crypto and some of his companies, like Tesla, hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets.

However, his social media platform has not confirmed plans to support crypto transactions. There is also no indication that the platform will launch a token, despite increased speculation from the community.

Still, many users expect X to embrace digital assets, given its tech-forward direction and Musk’s pro-crypto disposition.

Mentioned in this article

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, will soon integrate various financial services, enabling users to make payments and investments directly within the app.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the platform’s estimated 600 million users will eventually “be able to transact [their] whole life on the platform,” from sending money to managing investments.

The company is also considering launching an X-branded credit or debit card, potentially later this year.

X’s foray into financial services is hardly surprising, given that Musk has already confirmed beta testing for the X Money payment and banking app.

In response to a May 25 social media post, Musk said “extreme care must be taken” in the pilot phase since “people’s savings are involved.”

The official X Money account teases a 2025 launch. 

Yacarrino told the Financial Times that the X Money payment app would first launch in the US, calling it a “whole commerce ecosystem and a financial ecosystem.”

Related: Elon Musk says X’s DM feature XChat to have ‘Bitcoin-style encryption’

No mention of crypto in X Money yet

Neither Yaccarino nor Musk has confirmed whether crypto payments will be part of X’s financial ecosystem, despite Musk’s well-known support for Dogecoin (DOGE), the popular dog-themed memecoin launched in 2013.

In March 2024, Musk said DOGE could be used to buy Teslas “at some point,” though he gave no timeline. Crypto users took this as a sign that the entrepreneur could soon roll out crypto payment support across all his companies. 

While X has remained silent on potential crypto payment integration, other companies are moving forward with digital asset payment solutions.

As reported by Cointelegraph, Visa is promoting stablecoin adoption in Africa through its partnership with Yellow Card Financial, a payment processor that has facilitated over $6 billion in transactions since 2019.

Major US institutions have also shown interest in entering the crypto payment space. JPMorgan Chase recently filed a trademark application for its JPMD deposit token, which supports various crypto-related services.

On Tuesday, JPMorgan said it would pilot JPMD transactions on Coinbase’s Base network. 

Magazine: Elon Musk Dogecoin pump incoming? SOL tipped to hit $300 in 2025: Trade Secrets

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI is facing legal action over air pollution from the gas-fired turbines it uses to power its Memphis computer farm. 

Musk’s AI firm xAI received a 60-day notice of intent to sue for violations of the Clean Air Act on Tuesday from the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) over its “Colossus” AI datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee.

The potential lawsuit, on behalf of the oldest civil rights group in America, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, centers on dozens of natural gas turbines that the firm installed to power the facility instead of waiting for a grid connection.

According to SELC, these turbines are operating without proper air quality permits and are emitting harmful pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde, violating the Clean Air Act.

“Over the past year, xAI has installed and operated at least 35 combustion turbines and other sources of air pollution at the Colossus site without ever obtaining the necessary preconstruction or operating air permits,” the notice reads.

Formal requests ignored

The notice also claimed that xAI failed to implement “Best Available Control Technology,” such as selective catalytic reduction to limit emissions, another Clean Air Act requirement for major sources.

Related: Amazon to invest $13B in Australian AI data center infrastructure

“We have on four different occasions sent formal requests to the local health department asking for them to use their authority to enforce the law,” SELC senior attorney Patrick Anderson told Newsweek, adding, “Obviously, that hasn’t happened.”

Bad air quality lingers, civil rights group says

The Colossus datacenter is located at a former electronic manufacturing facility in South Memphis near a predominantly Black community called Boxtown, where air quality in the area is already diminished by other industrial emissions.

“We are prepared to combat environmental racism at every turn,” the NAACP said on X. 

The civil rights organization seeks injunctive relief, civil penalties, fees, and litigation costs. 

Cointelegraph contacted xAI and the NAACP for further comments but did not receive an immediate response. 

Data center demand surging

Musk’s xAI is building a second, larger facility called Colossus 2 in Memphis, requiring at least 1 gigawatt of power.

Data center demand is rapidly increasing, driven largely by the growth of cloud computing and AI, with the US Department of Energy projecting that it could double or triple by 2028. 

By 2030, data centers will need $6.7 trillion in global investments to meet the surging demand, research firm McKinsey reported in May.

“AI’s record-shattering demand is finding limitations in the supply of data centers and electricity as AI companies struggle to reach profitability amid mounting costs. Institutions estimate AI will drive a 165% increase in the demand for data centers by 2030,” Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, told Cointelegraph. 

Amazon recently signed a deal with Talen Energy for nuclear energy to power its AI data centers in Pennsylvania through the year 2042. It also signalled plans to invest more than $13 billion in Australia’s AI and cloud infrastructure. 

Magazine: AI is good for employment says PWC — Ignore the AI doomers: AI Eye

The crypto betting firm Polymarket is partnering with Elon Musk’s X.

Polymarket is now X’s “official Prediction Market Partner” and will kick off the partnership by co-launching a product with the social media platform designed to give gamblers data-driven insights and recommendations, per a new press release.

Polymarket chief executive Shayne Coplan says the partnership will provide both platforms’ users with better ways to “make instant sense of breaking news and make informed decisions about the future.”

“Combining Polymarket’s accurate, unbiased, and real-time prediction market probabilities with Grok’s analysis and X’s real-time insights will enable us to provide contextualized, data-driven insights to millions of Polymarket users around the world instantaneously. We are proud to work with X as the official prediction market partner and to continue our fruitful collaboration, developing an innovative suite of product integrations.”

Grok is X’s integrated artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

In November, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided Coplan’s home amid allegations that Polymarket violated a settlement agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to block trades by US-based users.

But Coplan argued the action was politically motivated.

“The incumbents should do some self-reflecting and recognize that taking a more pro-business, pro-startup approach may be what would have changed their fate this election.”

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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