A $300 Trillion Dollar Fat Finger?
A $300 Trillion Dollar Fat Finger?
Blockchain data showed stablecoin issuer Paxos both minted and burned 300 trillion tokens of the PayPal USD stablecoin within 30 minutes, leaving many crypto users scratching their heads.
This prompted much amusement and confusion across social media...
cc: 
That should fix the funding shortage 
â zerohedge (@zerohedge) 
, it appears to have been a big fat finger...Â
In a Wednesday X post following the mint and burn, Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg 
 Aave would be temporarily freezing trades for PayPal USD after an âunexpected high-magnitude transactionâ of minting and burning the stablecoin.
Ethereum blockchain data showed Paxos https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc45dd1a77c05d9ae5b2284eea5393ecce2ac8a7e88e973c6ba3fe7a18bf45634
 the entire amount 22 minutes later by sending it to an inaccessible wallet.
PYUSD, pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, makes the supply of the burned coins worth about $300 trillion.
The stablecoin has a market capitalization of more than $2.3 billion at this writing, making it the sixth-largest coin behind Tetherâs USDt, USDC, Ethena USDe, Dai and World Liberty Financial USD (USD1).
a test for the real thing when the time comes 
â zerohedge (@zerohedge)
In a Wednesday X follow-up post, Paxos 
 it had âmistakenly minted excess PYUSD as part of an internal transfer.â
âThis was an internal technical error,â said Paxos.
âThere is no security breach. Customer funds are safe. We have addressed the root cause.â
PYUSD maintained its dollar peg following the news, but its price briefly dropped by about 0.5%, according to data from Nansen.
PYUSD price immediately after the mint and burn. Source:Â 
$300 trillion is more than twice the Gross Domestic Product for every country on earth, according to https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPD@WEO/WEOWORLD
 from the International Monetary Fund.
Biggest burns in crypto history
Some of the most significant token burns include cryptocurrency exchange OKX sending more than 
 to an inaccessible address in August in an effort to keep the supply at 21 million.
The project behind the Bonk memecoin 
 in December 2024, but the coins were only worth about $50 million at the time.
Wed, 10/15/2025 - 18:25
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Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) on X
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Whale Alert (@whale_alert) on X
đ” đ” đ” đ” đ” đ” đ” đ” đ” đ” 300,000,000,000,000 #PYUSD (300,086,017,940,552 USD) minted at unknown wallet
https://t.co/szjC...
X (formerly Twitter)
zerohedge (@zerohedge) on X
cc: @federalreserve
That should fix the funding shortage
Cointelegraph
A $300 Trillion Fat-finger, as Paxos Accidentally Mints and Burns PYUSD
Before Paxos called the move an âinternal technical error,â crypto users speculated what was behind a 300 trillion PYUSD mint and burn by the s...
In a Wednesday X post following the mint and burn, Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg X (formerly Twitter)
Omer Goldberg (@omeragoldberg) on X
PYUSD is operational and fully backed at a 1:1 ratio.
Earlier today, 300 trillion was minted and subsequently burned.
We've temporarily frozen ...
X (formerly Twitter)
Vivek Sen (@Vivek4real_) on X
đșđž PAYPAL'S STABLECOIN PYUSD JUST MINTED $300 TRILLION WORTH OF STABLECOIN đ€Ż
X (formerly Twitter)
zerohedge (@zerohedge) on X
a test for the real thing when the time comes
X (formerly Twitter)
Paxos (@Paxos) on X
At 3:12 PM EST, Paxos mistakenly minted excess PYUSD as part of an internal transfer. Paxos immediately identified the error and burned the excess ...
PYUSD price immediately after the mint and burn. Source:Â Nansen
Nansen | Crypto & Defi Analytics
Maximize your crypto and DeFi returns with Nansen's real-time analytics tools. Get onchain insights and data to power your investment decisions.
Cointelegraph
OKB Jumps 160% on 65M Token Burn and X Layer Upgrade
OKXâs OKB token surged 160% after the exchange announced a 65 million token burn, fixed 21 million supply and a Polygon CDK-powered upgrade to it...
Cointelegraph
BONK falls 7% despite BURNmas taking $51M in tokens out of circulation
Bonk core devs burned $51 million BONK tokens on Dec. 26, however, the burn was supposed to happen on Christmas day, frustrating some community mem...
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge
Zero Hedge
A $300 Trillion Dollar Fat Finger? | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
The report reinforces what we've known all along: Musk's Tesla remains years ahead of both EV rivals, legacy automakers, and robotics firms. As Goldman analysts highlight in a note on Tuesday, the next profit frontier for the auto industry lies in humanoid robotics - and Tesla is already leading that race.Â
Tried to start a fight at the Tron: Ares premiere 
Production ecosystems are mostly the same.Â
The delivery of actuators for Tesla's humanoid robots early next year suggests not only that production will ramp up in 2026 but also that America's love affair with automation is accelerating. The downside, of course, is mass job displacement. With AI accelerating across industries, one has to question what "labor shortage" the Biden-Harris regime was addressing when it facilitated an illegal alien invasion of 10-15 million third-worlders, many untrained for the digital economy. These are precisely the jobs that AI/robots are poised to eliminate. So was mass immigration really about filling jobs, or about political control in future elections? Short answer: Political control.Â
Related:
Californiaâs 
âThe increased prevalence of automatic weapons across the nation is deeply concerning,â the billâs authors stated in a legislative analysis.
The new law will seek to protect communities from mass shootings and gun violence by preventing the easy conversions, they stated.
Vet Voice Foundation, which supported the bill, said that what it regards as do-it-yourself machine guns are a growing threat to public safety.
âFully automatic machine guns have been illegal under federal and state law for decades, but they can be made at home by attaching a tiny piece of plastic commonly known as a âGlock switchâ to a convertible pistol,â the group stated in the legislative analysis. âGlock has known about this problem for years, but has not taken responsibility for its easily convertible products and instead has refused to take serious action to fix its design.â
The California chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both members of Everytown for Gun Safety, applauded Newsomâs decision to sign the bill, saying he and lawmakers are putting the safety of California communities above gun industry profits.
âFor decades, reckless gun makers have profited off our tragedies. Today, California forces these gun makers to decide: fix your pistols or donât sell in this state,â the group 
The Pentagon has already deployed up to 200 troops to Israel where they are assisting in terms of operational oversight of the ceasefire. Trump's words hint that it could be a short step to take some of these troops are embed them in Gaza, to assist the IDF in finally disarming Hamas.
Hamas has already reasserted control over areas previously vacated by Israeli forces and has gone on an execution campaign against alleged collaborators and criminals. Dozens have been reported killed in the last couple days.
President Trump noted that Israel had armed certain gangs and militias as part of its anti-Hamas strategy. "They took out some very bad gangs - really bad people - and that doesnât bother me," Trump said, appearing to offer some rare positive commentary on Hamas. "Thatâs fine. Those were very bad gangs."
A day earlier, he said Hamas had received "approval" for such operations, adding that with nearly two million people returning to devastated neighborhoods, instability was a major concern. "We want it to be safe. I think itâs going to be fine. Who knows for sure," said Trump.
Hamas has been rounding up rival armed groups which sought to undermine the group's power...
Hamas carries out public executions just hours after signing peace treaty with Israel 
Conditions emerged at the end of September and were favored to persist through December 2025 into February 2026.
The opposite of the weather phenomenon called El Niño, La Niña refers to when the water temperatures of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean around the equator are cooler than average. That cooling can impact global weather patterns thousands of miles away.
While it is expected to remain relatively weak, this year it is expected to have an effect on winters in the United States, especially regarding this yearâs snowfall.
Hereâs what La Niña conditions could look like for the United States this year.
North-South Divide
One of the most noticeable effects that La Niña could have on the United States is a moisture divide between the northern and southern states of the Lower 48.
To the north, colder and wetter conditions are generally expected, while the southern states are expected to experience a warmer and drier winter.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationâs (NOAA) seasonal 
At this point after five instances of drone attacks on these boats, at least 27 people have died. The Trump administration has alleged the drug traffickers are operating with the blessing and oversight of socialist strongman Nicolas Maduro, which Caracas vehemently rejects.
The US military has further maintained a significant military build-up in the Caribbean, including some 10,000 troops, over several weeks. According to more details from the new 
The Boston lawmaker wasnât just jumping on the sudden trendiness of socialism three-and-a-half decades after its near-extinction. With fellow Senate traveler Bernie Sanders, Warren has been a catalyst for moving her party to the left since her first campaign in 2012.Â
She and Sanders are, in many ways, the godparents of the self-avowed Democratic Socialists such as Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who are providing the youthful energy for the Democrats in the Trump era.
As Warrenâs attacks on Wall Street and the wealthy are gaining even wider traction among liberals â a recent Gallup poll found 
The declaration - introduced by County Supervisors Lindsey P. Horvath and Janice Hahn, passed by as 4-1 vote, with Supervisor Kathryn Barger opposing. In addition to rent relief, it will also use taxpayer funds for legal aid and other services, 
Hundreds of protesters are now outside the 300 North Los Angeles Federal Building, where a line of California National Guardsmen and CBP officers is positioned 
The Freedom Index
All countriesâ economic and political policies, laws, and regulations exist on spectrums. In turn, where a country lies on these spectrums helps define its level of economic and political freedom.
The economic spectrum spans from market-driven capitalism to centrally planned communism, with socialism positioned somewhere in between.
The political spectrum ranges from libertarian to authoritarian.
Measuring a countryâs position on each spectrum is a very difficult task. Although not perfect, the Fraser Instituteâs Economic Freedom Index is a highly regarded source for this measurement. Their index is based on five factors of economic and political freedom as listed below.
Size of government
Legal system and property rights
Sound money
Freedom to trade internationally
Regulation
Underlying these five broad categories are 60 subcomponents. For example, tax rates fall under the size of government, while the legal enforcement of contracts is a part of the legal system and property rights.
With that, letâs review a few graphs to see the relationship between the Economic Freedom Index and GDP, income, and income equality.
GDP & Income
The first scatter plot below is the one we led with. It illustrates the relationship between each countryâs Freedom Index and its GDP per capita. The second, involving income per capita and the Freedom Index, provides a more precise measure of how citizensâ wealth relates to economic freedom. Labeling every dot with the corresponding country name would clutter the graph. Accordingly, we only label a limited number of nations across the plot. The Freedom Index is calculated for 165 countries. However, our graphs below include only the 102 nations that also have reliable GDP and income data.
The subfactor with the most substantial impact on income is the impartiality of courts. Property rights and judicial independence follow. Among the least correlated to income per capita are those related to central bank policies, such as money growth and interest rate controls.
The graph below illustrates a strong correlation between the Freedom Index and its most significant relationship, impartial courts. Interestingly, the graph displays a consistent positive relationship between impartial courts and the Freedom Index across the entire range of the Index. As you may recall, our previous graphs show little correlation between the Freedom Index and income and GDP when the Freedom Index is below 7, and a positive correlation when it exceeds that level.
Global And USA Trends
Unfortunately, as we share below, courtesy of the Fraser Institute, the average economic freedom index for all nations has been declining since the Pandemic. Based on the relationships we established earlier, if this trend continues, we should expect global GDP and incomes for most of the largest developed countries to grow at slower rates or decline in some instances.Â
In 2000, the USA ranked 4th on the Freedom Index. Only Hong Kong (1st), Switzerland (2nd), and New Zealand (3rd) ranked higher. The USA remains highly ranked at 5th, but as we detail below, its overall score has declined over the past 20 years. Singapore moved ahead of the US and into the top five.
Meanwhile, China, which is slowly shifting from communism toward capitalism, has seen its Freedom Index score steadily improve. Note that the graph uses two axes, which can be a little misleading. The US still has a much higher Freedom Index score than China.
Surprisingly, Hong Kong still has the highest Freedom Index score, despite Chinaâs growing interference in its governmentâs affairs.
Does Economic Freedom Also Promote Happiness
Before we summarize this article, we would be negligent if we didnât determine whether there is a relationship between happiness and economic freedom. The index we use to quantify happiness is from the 
Summary
No country operates entirely under pure capitalism. Nor do they employ a strictly socialist or communist system. For instance, communist nations like China and Russia are gradually allowing capitalism to enter their economies. Therefore, while we have ideas about where countries might fall on the economic and political spectrums, this data helps us better quantify the accuracy of said ideas. From an investing perspective, the trends in a nationâs index help us appreciate its future growth potential.
Connecting the dots, we found that a nationâs court system and level of justice have the most significant impact on its Freedom Index, and therefore, by extension, on the wealth and happiness of its citizens.
Aristotle connected these ideas over 2000 years ago when he opined:
 A just life is inherently a happy one.
Federal judge Susan Illston on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from firing workers during the government shutdown - ruling that she believes the evidence would ultimately show that the firings were illegal and in excess of authority.Â
Federal agencies began issuing layoff notices on Friday aimed at reducing the size of the federal government and pressure Democratic lawmakers while the government shutdown continues.Â
According to Illston, the administration has been acting without thinking things through.Â
"It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost," she said, adding "Itâs a human cost that cannot be tolerated."
In response to the layoffs, the American Federation of Government Employees and other federal labor unions filed suit, asking Illston for a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from issuing new layoff notices, calling the firings an abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.Â
The administration has already taken the first steps toward dismissing approximately 4,000 workers.Â
Illston said she would detailer her ruling in writing later Wednesday.Â
Reminder:
If you donât impeach the corrupt judges, you CANNOT fix the country.
They will form a cartel (a judicial dictatorship) and block all reforms, protecting the systemic corruption that put them in their seats. 
