Axios

Gambling company Penn Entertainment has been struggling with parlays on ESPN Bet.

• By the numbers: Penn today reported a little more than 30% of bets placed on the platform in December and January were of the combo-bet variety.
• Market leaders DraftKings and FanDuel are at 50% or higher depending on the month, illustrating how much ESPN Bet continues to trail the industry standard.

Why it matters: Parlays — combination bets that pay out only when multiple wagers win — are the most profitable type of bet for sportsbooks.

Zoom out: Disney signed a sportsbook branding deal with Penn Entertainment in 2023 to rebrand the Barstool Sportsbook as ESPN Bet.

Tesla is taking steps to launch a ride-sharing service that could compete directly with Uber, Lyft and Waymo.

Why it matters: Tesla has long pledged to run an autonomous vehicle network, which could become a significant new source of revenue at a time when its sales have flattened.

Elon Musk called Thursday for retired air traffic controllers to consider returning to work amid staffing shortages — but a federal law means doing so isn't so simple.

The big picture: Hiring shortages have long plagued air traffic controllers in already stressful roles overseeing critical airspace, but the job is under more scrutiny following a deadly midair collision at Reagan National Airport and several other close calls between aircraft at other U.S. airports.

When the most famous man in the world cashes in on a crypto trend, that's a strong top signal.

Why it matters: Revenue has been falling for the leading meme-coin platform since the Trump Organization launched the Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania Meme (MELANIA) coins Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, respectively.

• Those coins have been plunging too, and are now worth a small fraction of their peak values.

How it works: Meme coins are nothing new in crypto, but Pump.fun made it easy for anyone to launch one on the Solana blockchain, and people have launched thousands.

• It has caused a giant speculative boom in the crypto markets, a sort of 24/7 social casino that eager people have traded while bitcoin has climbed in a steady but rather boring way.
• Frequently imitated, Pump's success remains the bellwether for the meme coin bonanza.

By the numbers: The chart above shows the revenue Pump earns from fees. As long as people buy coins on its platform, it earns a little cut.

• Then it charges 6 SOL (around $900 these days) if a token does great on its platform and graduates to trade on the Solana blockchain — but not many do.
• These simple fees have been earning it tens of millions of dollars a week.

What they're saying: "It definitely doesn't help that a significant amount of the money that was put in by retail traders at the top of $TRUMP has been lost," Alon, the pseudonymous co-founder of Pump.fun, tells Axios over Telegram.

• But he doesn't think that's what's dampened the market. To him, these tokens are simply sensitive to the prices of the big coins (such as BTC and SOL), and those "have been getting crushed."
• Total crypto market cap has fallen more than 12% since Feb. 20, per CoinGecko data. Bitcoin, which dominates the market, is off 21% from its all-time highs, which were notched the day President Trump was inaugurated.

Reality check: The Trump coins were not launched using Pump.fun. They had their own bespoke code (which reserved lots and lots of tokens for them to sell later).

• However, the entrance of the man about to become the U.S. president caused a flush of excitement in the meme-coin market.
• It didn't last.

Between the lines: The truth is that the fun in any ebullient crypto market led by normal humans always gets throttled out by the sharks, who start building trading bots that suck out all the opportunities.

• As the bot strategies get better, people have less fun. When the fun runs low, people start feeling taken advantage of, they quit trading, and the bots don't have anyone to dump on any longer.

The bottom line: It's too soon to say if this market is done for. It has dipped before, but the Trump coins' launch put most experienced traders on high alert.

• Then the LIBRA debacle out of Argentina left an extremely bad taste.

One House Democrat is looking to make it illegal for the president, members of Congress — and their families — to cash in on the meme-coin game.

Zoom in: Freshman lawmaker Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) plans to introduce the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement Act today.

• The MEME Act would prohibit the president, VP, members of Congress, senior executive branch officials and their spouses and dependent children "from issuing, sponsoring, or endorsing a security, future, commodity, or digital asset."

What he's saying: "Our public offices belong to the public, not the officeholders, nor should officials leverage their political authority for financial gain," Liccardo said in a statement.

They're mere tremors at this point, not an earthquake. But worries about the outlook for U.S. economic growth are starting to mount.

Why it matters: On-again, off-again tariffs on major trading partners have added uncertainty to the business outlook, making hiring and investment decisions more complex.

Investors are questioning whether Tesla's recently weakened stock and slipping sales are due to CEO Elon Musk's political involvement and online presence.

Why it matters: A vocal CEO can cast a halo or dark cloud over the company they lead, impacting their ability to attract customers, employees and investors.

Stripe this morning announced a new employee tender offer that values the payments giant at $91.5 billion.

Why it matters: This will be used as a proof point by both venture capital optimists and pessimists, as industry sentiment gets increasingly bifurcated.

Seven & i, the Japanese owner of 7-Eleven, said that its founding family no longer is seeking to acquire the company for $58 billion, after failing to secure adequate financing.

Why it matters: This will put pressure on the retailer to revisit a takeover offer from Canadian rival Alimentation Couche-Tard, the owner of Circle-K, although it still could opt to remain independent and pursue select divestitures.

President Trump is widening the scope of goods and nations that might face tariffs — a growing list of plans closely tracked by financial markets, CEOs and consumers.

• Here is a list of the White House's tariff orders and when those import taxes might take effect.

Why it matters: The tariffs could jolt the global trading system and stoke tensions with allies and adversaries. Few tariffs have been implemented so far, though the risk alone is weighing on U.S. businesses and shoppers.

The U.S. will raise tariffs on China another 10% on Tuesday, citing the flow of illegal drugs into the country, President Trump said.

Why it matters: It's an escalation of the growing tariff war with one of the largest U.S. trading partners.

Target is doubling down on its store-within-a-store strategy and will open small Warby Parker eyewear shops in some locations, the Minneapolis-based retailer shared exclusively with Axios Thursday.

Why it matters: Teaming up with national brands has helped Target attract consumers and grow sales.

Federal employees are anxious, frightened and doing less work as they deal with rolling shocks from DOGE and the White House, with the latest coming yesterday, when agencies were ordered to prepare for large-scale job cuts.

Why it matters: Someone needs to operate the day-to-day functions of the federal government, even as Elon Musk tries to shrink it as much as possible.

Last week, President Trump threatened tariffs on pharmaceuticals if manufacturers don't relocate operations to the U.S. On Wednesday, the CEO of Eli Lilly stood with Trump's commerce secretary in Washington, D.C., to announce a $27 billion plan to build four manufacturing "mega-sites" in the U.S.

Why it matters: The commitment illustrates the dance much of Big Pharma is engaged in as it tries to make inroads with a new administration bent on reshoring business activity and reducing dependence on China.