President Donald Trump has appointed Jay Clayton—U.S. director of national intelligence and a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission—to lead a new “Super Intelligence Force,”
President Donald Trump has appointed Jay Clayton—U.S. director of national intelligence and a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission—to lead a new “Super Intelligence Force,” according to a post on Truth Social shared on Sunday. The move follows earlier reporting that Trump planned an “AI Force” and the creation of an AI czar role.
In his statement, Trump said the Super Intelligence Force would coordinate efforts across the federal government to help the United States “continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence.” The announcement also adds a familiar regulatory figure to the center of Washington’s AI agenda, at a time when lawmakers and industry are racing to shape how advanced AI systems are governed.
Trump’s Truth Social post frames the new Super Intelligence Force as a cross-agency coordination effort designed to keep the U.S. at the forefront of “Super Intelligence.” The wording suggests a policy emphasis on national strategy rather than a narrow technical initiative.
Clayton’s background is likely to influence how the initiative approaches compliance, oversight, and enforcement. He served as chair of the SEC during Trump’s first term. After leaving the SEC, Clayton was involved in a prosecution against Ripple related to the sale of securities, a case he launched on his final day in office. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and led the criminal trial against Roman Storm for his role in Tornado Cash.
“It doesn’t look like we’re headed toward a future that supports open-source AI.”
The comment referenced in the coverage came from Roman Storm, underscoring how enforcement narratives in the crypto space can bleed into broader debates about AI development and openness.
While the announcement does not lay out operational details, the choice of leadership points to a governance model grounded in federal coordination and legal framing. For builders and investors, that matters because AI policy often translates into practical requirements: how systems are monitored, how risks are assessed, and how responsibility is assigned when something goes wrong.
It also lands alongside a broader political push to rebrand and elevate AI under a “superintelligence” banner. The coverage notes that Elon Musk plans to rename SpaceXAI to “SpaceXSI,” aligning with Trump’s directive to use “superintelligence” terminology. Even if the change is largely branding, it highlights how rapidly political narratives can propagate into industry language.
Beyond U.S. AI policy, crypto headlines this week also highlighted how security automation can influence outcomes during active exploitation. The coverage says NEAR’s SHIELD AI system blocked funds tied to Bitget’s hacked assets from being moved through NEAR Intents cross-chain swaps.
According to the report, SHIELD also helped halt a separate exploit involving NEAR Intents. The incident was linked to a “bug in the Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with NEAR Intents smart contract.” The narrative then turned to an ultimatum: NEAR’s Intents general manager Alex Shevchenko reportedly posted that the team had identified the attacker and issued a 48-hour window to return the funds.
“You know better than most how responsible disclosure works — this is the last window to use it. After 48 hours, that window closes.”
The funds were reportedly returned following the ultimatum. NEAR’s management also urged exploiters who are considering “white hat” approaches to use bug bounties rather than disrupting services.
The action was not universally applauded. The report contrasts NEAR’s decision to block stolen funds with THORChain’s reported refusal to block swaps on its platform, framing a recurring tension between security intervention and strict non-censorship principles. The coverage also flags a legal angle: whether SHIELD blocking can expose the operator to liability for downstream outcomes on the platform remains an open question.
In another major infrastructure story, Ethereum layer-2 network Blast announced it is shutting down. The team said that operating costs have exceeded the revenue generated by the chain and that it sees no “credible path” to achieving economic sustainability.
The Blast team urged users to withdraw assets to Ethereum mainnet. The shutdown ends an L2 strategy built around native yield on Ether and stablecoins, along with a points program tied to a potential token airdrop—an approach designed to attract capital at launch. The coverage states Blast was founded by Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre (founder of NFT marketplace Blur) in November 2023 and launched its mainnet in February 2024, citing reported deposits exceeding $2 billion before the launch. It also notes that DeFi total value locked has fallen by more than 98% since a June 2024 peak, based on DeFiLlama data.
For users and developers, Blast’s exit is a reminder that L2 growth alone does not guarantee long-term viability. Whether through sequencer economics, incentive structures, or user fee models, costs ultimately have to be covered by real demand. Readers should watch whether other networks with similar incentive-driven models adjust their frameworks or face similar pressure.
Ethereum developers have scheduled the Glamsterdam upgrade to activate on the Sepolia testnet on Oct. 6, according to the Ethereum Foundation. Node operators will need to update both execution-layer and consensus-layer clients before activation.
One emphasized change is proposer-builder separation being “enshrined” in the protocol. The stated aim is to move the handoff between block builders and validators into Ethereum’s protocol, reducing reliance on external middleware. The upgrade will also introduce block-level access lists to record the accounts and storage locations used in each block, and it should enable parallel processing by clients to improve throughput.
These types of changes matter because they can affect both performance and how consistently the network can operate under load—particularly as Ethereum pushes toward better scalability while continuing to refine how block production and validation interact.
Crypto market coverage in the same update reports that Bitcoin is up 1.4% to $85,821, while Ethereum is up 0.6% to $2,701 and XRP is down 0.8% to $1.50. The total market capitalization was cited at $2.92 trillion using CoinMarketCap figures.
On the risk side, the report also highlights that hacks and exploits remain a persistent catalyst for volatility. It cites two security firms’ estimates placing September’s losses above $766 million, including the $388 million Bitget hack and a reported $320 million hack of Liquid Network. It further references Tether’s statement that it helped authorities freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked USDT during 2026, and it notes an Aave v3 clarification that an exploit affecting third-party adapter components did not impact Aave v3 itself.
With Trump’s new AI coordination structure now tied to a high-profile former regulator, and with crypto infrastructure showing both security intervention debates and hard economic shutdowns, the next phase of this cycle may hinge on execution: who can translate policy and protocol upgrades into resilient systems without triggering legal, operational, or economic failure. Readers should watch for follow-through—especially any official guidance on the Super Intelligence Force’s scope and the next wave of L2 sustainability updates.
This article was originally published as SEC Ex-Boss Appointed AI Czar as Bitcoin Targets $600K: Digest on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.
