Market Overview
Financial markets saw significant corporate and regulatory moves, including a national trust bank charter granted to World Liberty Trust and massive capital commitments by Nvidia for OpenAI's Ohio data center project. Meanwhile, Meta entered a federal trial with potential liabilities up to $1.4 trillion, and the U.S. dollar fell as soft economic data diminished expectations for a September Fed rate hike. Commodity markets reacted to geopolitical tension as oil prices rose following Iran's rejection of a U.S. diplomatic deal.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted preliminary conditional approval for a national trust bank charter to World Liberty Trust Company, an affiliate of the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial. The approval authorizes the entity to directly issue and redeem the USD1 stablecoin in-house, cutting out current partner BitGo Bank and Trust. The charter is limited, prohibiting the institution from taking deposits, making loans, or seeking a Federal Reserve master account, but it requires a minimum capital of $20 million alongside a qualified internal audit manager. World Liberty Financial is approximately 38% owned by an entity tied to Donald Trump Jr. and other family members, prompting Senator Elizabeth Warren to introduce the Ending Presidential Corruption in Banking Act to block banking applications involving top elected officials and their families.
Uber is partnering with drone delivery company Zipline to launch airborne Uber Eats deliveries later this year, backed by a strategic investment from the ride-hail giant. The companies are targeting one million daily drone deliveries by the end of 2029, starting in Zipline's existing market of Dallas-Fort Worth before expanding to dozens of additional U.S. cities. The rollout matches a strategy Uber used with Flytrex last year, combining platform access with minority funding to scale autonomous delivery without building proprietary hardware. Zipline recently closed an $800 million Series H funding round that valued the startup at $7.6 billion. Meanwhile, DoorDash launched its own regulated drone delivery program, DoorDash Air, following Federal Aviation Administration rules proposed under a 2025 order from President Donald Trump.
Meta faces trial in federal court as a coalition of states pushes for up to $1.4 trillion in penalties and sweeping platform overhauls over allegations that Facebook and Instagram are intentionally designed to hook children. Opening arguments begin Tuesday in Oakland before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in a multidistrict litigation brought by attorneys general from states including California, Colorado, New Jersey, and Kentucky. The plaintiffs argue that engagement-driving features such as infinite scroll, recommendation algorithms, and like counts foster compulsive use and fuel a youth mental health crisis while violating consumer protection statutes and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The states are demanding fundamental product changes, including parental verification, the removal of image filters, and the end of autoplay and public like counts. Meta denies the claims as unsubstantiated, maintaining that it has built strong protections for teens and defending its reliance on ad revenue to fund operations.