WSJ What’s News - Why Crypto Die-Hards Are Flocking to a More Secret Version of Bitcoin

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

P.M. Edition for May 14. A privacy-focused alternative to bitcoin called Zcash is winning over crypto evangelists. WSJ special writer Greg Zuckerman explains what’s got the crypto community so excited, along with the risks of the coin. Plus, Pentagon leaders say the war in Iran is costing so much that they’re running out of money for other operations. And New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to merge with the Neue Galerie, cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder’s esteemed museum for German and Austrian modern art. We hear from Journal reporter Kelly Crow about why that’s an important move for the Met. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're early in your career and looking for insight, inspiration, and honest advice, listen to the Capital Ideas podcast. Hear from Capital Group professionals about leaning into the differences that make you unique, making decisions that last, and what it means to lead with purpose. The Capital Ideas Podcast, from Capital Group, available wherever you listen. Published by Capital Client Group, Inc. The Pentagon says the growing cost of the Iran War is going to leave them short of money for other operations. Plus, why Bitcoin evangelists are hyped for a different coin called Zcash. Bitcoin is just an object of speculation. It's digital gold at this point.

And the argument for Zcash is it's digital gold plus because you've got this ability to shield yourself from the government. And Anthropics AI model mythos helped researchers find a way to crack Apple's famously secure software. It's Thursday, May 14th. I'm Alex Oslo for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We start today's show in Washington, talking about the consequences of the Iran War.

The war, along with troop deployments along the southern U.S. border, are eating up military funding. Pentagon leaders say they could start running out of money for operations this summer unless Congress passes a new wartime spending bill. Defense officials also haven't said when they intend to ask Congress for more money for the war. The latest estimate of the conflict's cost so far is $29 billion. In the meantime, the entire military is exploring ways to save money. That could include holding back on training or denying flying hours for pilots.

Turning to the summit between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China, another day of talks will be kicking off Friday morning in business. Beijing. U.S. allies in Asia, like South Korea and Japan, are paying close attention to discussions about Taiwan. As we mentioned on this morning show, she told Trump that any mishandling of Taiwan could lead to, quote, an extremely dangerous situation. So what do regional U.S. allies want out of these meetings? WS.J. Tokyo Bureau Chief Jason Douglas says their goal is status quo. They didn't want any rocking of the boat, if you know what I mean? There has been and there still is a bit of anxiety, particularly around Taiwan. There's this lingering concern that President Trump,

in this pursuit of some grand bargain or trade deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, will in some way weaken American commitments to Taiwan and American commitments to the region. They would probably take a degree of reassurance from what we've heard so far. But we're only halfway through the summit, so I don't think nerves would make entirely soothe until the whole thing is over. The US has a longstanding policy of not supporting Taiwan independence, while also stopping short of formally opposing it. The China summit doesn't seem to have affected that, as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear in an interview with NBC today. U.S. policy on the issue of Taiwan is unchanged as of today and as of the meeting that we had here

today. It was raised. They always raise it on their side. We always make clear our position and we move on to the other topics. We know where they stand and I think they know where we stand. In Cuba, the government says the country has completely run out of fuel oil and diesel. Officials blamed the U.S. energy blockade. Since January, only one shipment of Russian crude has reached Cuban ports. In the capital, Havana, protests have erupted as days-long blackouts lead to deteriorating living conditions. Last night, residents showed their anger by banging pots and burning garbage. The Trump administration said that it continues to seek meaningful reforms to Cuba's communist system.

Cuba's foreign minister says Cuba was ready to hear the U.S. offer, but it heard no details of the plan. And back in the U.S., the latest census data show that some of the country's fastest growing cities are its exurbs, communities that sit a long or longish commute away from a larger city. That's the case in places where the populations of cities themselves are shrinking, like in Dallas and Boston. But in cities that themselves are growing like Phoenix, the exurb cities, such as Goodyear, Buckeye, Surprise, and Avondale are growing even faster. Coming up, the market debut of Chip Company Cerebrus shows how excited investors are about AI, and we'll give you the details about the merger of two major Manhattan art museums. That's after the break. How are the U.S. businesses of Philip Morris International invested in America?

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Special writer Greg Zuckerman is here to tell us more about it. Greg, there are plenty of other cryptocurrencies out there that say that they're going to improve on Bitcoin. What makes Zcash different? It's got more privacy. Bitcoin lets users send and receive funds on this public ledger. And the difference is Zcash gives users the option to use these shielded addresses. You can hide sensitive data. You want to send. You want to receive money. And you can hide it a lot better. Part of it is this reaction to the fact that Bitcoin has been embraced by a lot of high-profile politicians and such, and that's kind of not the ethos. Now it's sort of mainstreaming,

people looking for an alternative. So they want to bring crypto back to the people? Or kind of make it anti-authoritarian. And part of the idea of Bitcoin, especially abroad, was to protect your money, your wealth from the authorities and their ability to kind of swoop in and take it away. And then now, you can watch it on the blockchain. You can trace it. When you're saying that Zcash has more of these privacy features, criminal activity was one of the first things that came to mind for me. Is there a reason to be wary of Zcash? Are the risks that it carries? Yeah, I'm nervous, frankly, because Hamas, Hezbollah, they've been proven to have used crypto in the past. And if we're now going to embrace and have some liquidity in another alternative,

that's harder to trace and understand what they're doing, well, that raises all kinds of troubles and challenges for the authorities and for all of us in society. The proponents of Zcash will say, well, yeah, maybe some of the bad guys will use it, but a lot of the good guys will too, and the good offsets the bad. Well, no matter where you come out on it, Zcash is taking off right now. It's up 50% over the past month and more than a thousand percent over the past year. By comparison, Bitcoin has gained 8% in the past month and dropped 24% in the past year. What is driving Zcash's increase? So listen, we have to keep in mind that it's tiny.

It's only about $9 billion in market cap and Bitcoin is $1.6 trillion. And these things sometimes come and go where people get all excited and then they collapse. But that said, it's seen by even established players, investors and such, as a better alternative. Turn to Bitcoin, a new and improved version of it. At the end of the day, Bitcoin is just an object of speculation. We're still using PayPal and Zelle and our credit cards. It's digital gold at this point. And the argument for Zcash is it's digital gold plus because you've got this ability to shield yourself from the government such that if you want to do transactions, you want to spend for legitimate reasons. You're a business and such, but you don't want authorities keeping an eye on you, then this is the alternative. That was WSJ special writer, Greg Zuckerman. Thanks, Greg. Thank you. Crypto's becoming more mainstream in finance. Well, so are prediction markets. We're exclusively reporting that online brokerage interactive brokers is expanding its business for trading users yes or no bets.

It's launching a platform where people can do that on its own existing platform, as well as through Kalshi and KME Group. WSJ reporter Crystal Heur says prediction markets like Kalshi are trying to gain more institutional investors. People on interactive brokers previously could only trade on their own ForecastX platform. Now they can also trade through CME and Calshi, which is one of the largest players in the prediction market space. And so that should give them access to more liquidity. Their own forecast X platform had not drawn too much volumes since they launched. And so with integration of Calci and CME, I would expect that it would draw more users to your platform. It's also a big deal for Calci because it expands.

how their uses are able to access their platform to. In today's stock market trading, companies tied to artificial intelligence kept gaining. Cisco climbed 13% after the tech company said it would cut jobs so it can invest more in AI. The NASDAQ led the gains, closing up almost 1%. But the NASDAQ and the S&P closed at their latest record highs, while the Dow finished over 50,000 for the first time since February. And one standout trade today, shares of AI chip company's Cerebris, jumped almost 70% in their stock market debut.

Its IPO, the biggest of the year so far, raised $5.6 billion. Investor demand for Cerebrus sets the stage for much bigger AI IPOs, from OpenAI and Anthropic that are expected later this year. And speaking of Anthropic, its mythos model is known for its ability to find and exploit software vulnerabilities. Now we're exclusively reporting that an early version of mythos helped security researchers find bugs in Apple's state-of-the-art security technology. Apple has put a lot of effort into locking down its computer operating system MacOS, making it one of the toughest targets for hackers. The researchers

say what they created could corrupt the Mac's memory and then gain access to parts of the device that should be inaccessible. The company is reviewing the researchers' findings, and an Apple spokeswoman said that security is the company's top priority. And finally, a big announcement from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art today. It's agreed to merge with the Noia Gallery. That's cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder's Museum for German and Austrian Modern Art, and it's conveniently located just up Fifth Avenue. The financial details of the deal weren't disclosed, but the Noya collection is valued around $1.5 billion. Kelly Crow, who covers art for the journal, says that's a big asset for the Met. The Met has strong holdings in so many areas, but they don't have huge holdings in

modern art, particularly German and Austrian art, and part because basically Ron Lauder bought it all over the years. And so he has this trove of really iconic pieces by Klimt and Kirshner and Sheila, and the Met has always probably lusted over those pieces. And then for the Lauder family, it's an elegant solution to what to do with their space. And now the Met can take it over. And very importantly, keep it intact, similar to what they did with the Rockefeller's medieval collection of the coasters, keep it sort of this distinct identity. The Met said it will assume ownership and operation of the Noia Museum in 28, informally renaming it the Met Noya Gallery.

This summer, the Noya will close for renovations and will reopen in the fall for a 25th anniversary show. 82-year-old Lauder says he plans to stand at the front doors and welcome visitors himself to that exhibit. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bancy and Danny Lewis with supervising producer Tali Arbell. I'm Alex O'SAv for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees that I don't really need it.

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