Anthropic gets (some) support in DoW fight

Top News

• Tech companies quietly backing Anthropic: The New York Times reports that a number of major AI companies, though wary of drawing the ire of the Trump administration, are using executive branch back-channels to advise against labeling Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” The Times suggests this represents the merging of two impulses: the industry’s long-standing tendency toward a libertarian “hands off” approach by government toward innovators, coupled with “a heavy dose of self-interest.” The fact remains… a lot of tech companies like Anthropic products, and don’t want to give up Claude just because they’re doing contract work for the United States. There are also concerns about precedent: what’s to stop Trump (or a future President) from blacklisting their company if they run afoul their agenda or cabinet? For now, Anthropic has filed two lawsuits — in California and DC — seeking an injunction on the “supply chain risk” designation.

• Anthropic dominating first-time AI sales: Which leads us to some extremely relevant customer data provided by our friends over at Ramp. Across the last 2.5 months, Ramp-affiliated companies spent around 73% of their first-time investments on AI tools with Anthropic. That’s a major swing from the 50-50 split between Anthropic and OpenAI that Ramp recorded just 10 weeks ago. The ratio was actually 60-40 in OpenAI’s favor as recently as December. Plus, Anthropic’s intense year of product launches shows no signs of slowing. Just this week, the company dropped Dispatch, an OpenClaw-esque Cowork feature allowing users to interact with Claude in a sandboxed session via mobile devices.

• Polymarket seeks Chief Risk Officer: The Prediction Market Game in 2026 is lucrative but not without obstacles. As we reported earlier this week, Kalshi is now being sued by two state attorneys general — Arizona and Nevada — who suggest that a “prediction market” business model is, legally speaking, indistinguishable from an illegal gambling operation. There have also been recent controversies around “insider trading,” not to mention markets inviting wagers on wars, assorted global conflicts, and assassinations. So Polymarket is now seeking a “chief risk officer” to join the company’s freshly expanded legal team. But they’re still a fun-loving group! The company also announced plans for a themed bar — The Situation Room — coming soon to Washington DC.

TWiST 500

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released their long-awaited “token taxonomy” this week, finally clarifying what specific kinds of digital assets are still now considered securities. (Digital securities are subject to SEC rules and regulations, while other forms of digital assets are not, making this a hyper-significant distinction!)

Off the list and in the clear are most kinds of stablecoins, digital commodities (like Bitcoin or Solana), and digital collectibles (like NFTs). Meanwhile, traditional securities that are tokenized (including ICOs or governance tokens) are considered digital securities, meaning that all conventional SEC rules still apply. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also signed off on the announcement. As Bloomberg notes, this helps to at least temporarily settle concerns over which agency, the SEC vs. CFTC, has jurisdiction over different kinds of digital assets. For now, they’re following the same rule book regardless.

There were a few more updates packed into the announcement, including clarifications for how federal securities law will apply to common crypto transactions like staking and airdrops. Additionally, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins suggests that a new “safe harbor program,” allowing startups to launch their own tokens or crypto investment contracts without first needing to go through a registration process, is in the works.

The hope among the administration is that loosening these kinds of regulations will promote more innovation in the crypto industry, and in turn help to reverse the major downturn that crypto markets have been experiencing throughout the first quarter of 2026.

Those same market conditions have reportedly encouraged T500 crypto exchange Kraken to back off of its IPO plans. They filed an initial S-1 registration back in November, but have now delayed those plans until the landscape shifts. – Lon

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E2264: Today’s show was recorded LIVE at LaunchFest in San Francisco, California, and features JCal in conversation with Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev. On the docket: Jason and Vlad’s origin story, the importance of launching your product multiple times, what to do when your mistakes feel “existential,” leaning into negative press, facing down competition in the AI era, how Robinhood nurtures and develops talent, and much much more.

E2263: On a Monday TWIST 500 special, Alex speaks to three amazing founders. First up, Matt Angle of Paradromics, whose company produces a revolutionary brain computer interface that could one day allow you to type at the speed of thought. Then, JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary shows us his startup’s proprietary fuel efficient wing-jets. Finally, Nutrisense CEO Dan Zavorotny demonstrates how continuous monitoring leads to better health outcomes.

E2262: On an epic Friday spectacular, Jason and Lon talk to the crew from “Flat White or F**k Off,” the viral social media accounts that turned into a real-life café. The idea started from a random podcast comment by legendary British ad man Rory Sutherland. Hear how these three strangers turned it into a thriving brand. Plus we’ve got Mog and Dubs from Subnet 75, Hippius, explaining how their decentralized cloud storage solution is powered by the blockchain.

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