TheChek News Flow

Christian Candy and his wife, Emily Crompton-Candy, are trading their Upper East Side home for a triplex on Billionaires’ Row

THE DEAL: After buying a Billionaires’ Row condo, British property developer Christian Candy and his wife, Emily Crompton-Candy, have sold their Manhattan townhouse for $55 million, according to a person familiar with the situation.

THE SELLERS:

The Candys own properties around the world, and at one point lived in the Bahamas. They bought the Upper East Side townhouse for $48 million in 2022, renovated it, and put it on the market for $70 million in April 2025. It was later delisted, and returned to market earlier this month for $57.5 million.

About a year ago, the couple paid about $45 million for a four-bedroom triplex at 111 West 57th Street, one of Midtown’s new supertall condominiums. They got a significant discount on the unit, which was listed for $66 million in 2020.

The couple declined to comment. Christian Candy and his brother, Nick Candy, were behind the development of the ultraluxury London condominium One Hyde Park.

THE BUYER: The purchaser’s identity couldn’t be determined.

THE PROPERTY: Less than a block from Central Park, the limestone townhouse spans about 15,000 square feet with six bedrooms. The Beaux-Arts house dates to around 1903, according to the listing with Adam Modlin of Modlin Group.

The home has a grand entry gallery with mosaic flooring and a marble staircase, the listing says. The reception room has a 32-bulb Baccarat chandelier.

THE MARKET: The Candy home went into contract within just six days after returning to market, according to the person familiar with the situation. The deal was a quick sale for a pricey Manhattan townhouse: In recent years, a handful of significant townhouses have sold—often for far less than their original asking prices—and usually after years on the market.

A townhouse owned by financier Ron Perelman sold for $46.75 million earlier this year after being on and off the market since 2020. In 2023, a townhouse once owned by the late banking titan David Rockefeller sold for $47 million after listing for $57.5 million.

Christian Candy and his wife, Emily Crompton-Candy, are trading their Upper East Side home for a triplex on Billionaires’ Row

THE DEAL: After buying a Billionaires’ Row condo, British property developer Christian Candy and his wife, Emily Crompton-Candy, have sold their Manhattan townhouse for $55 million, according to a person familiar with the situation.

THE SELLERS:

The Candys own properties around the world, and at one point lived in the Bahamas. They bought the Upper East Side townhouse for $48 million in 2022, renovated it, and put it on the market for $70 million in April 2025. It was later delisted, and returned to market earlier this month for $57.5 million.

About a year ago, the couple paid about $45 million for a four-bedroom triplex at 111 West 57th Street, one of Midtown’s new supertall condominiums. They got a significant discount on the unit, which was listed for $66 million in 2020.

The couple declined to comment. Christian Candy and his brother, Nick Candy, were behind the development of the ultraluxury London condominium One Hyde Park.

THE BUYER: The purchaser’s identity couldn’t be determined.

THE PROPERTY: Less than a block from Central Park, the limestone townhouse spans about 15,000 square feet with six bedrooms. The Beaux-Arts house dates to around 1903, according to the listing with Adam Modlin of Modlin Group.

The home has a grand entry gallery with mosaic flooring and a marble staircase, the listing says. The reception room has a 32-bulb Baccarat chandelier.

THE MARKET: The Candy home went into contract within just six days after returning to market, according to the person familiar with the situation. The deal was a quick sale for a pricey Manhattan townhouse: In recent years, a handful of significant townhouses have sold—often for far less than their original asking prices—and usually after years on the market.

A townhouse owned by financier Ron Perelman sold for $46.75 million earlier this year after being on and off the market since 2020. In 2023, a townhouse once owned by the late banking titan David Rockefeller sold for $47 million after listing for $57.5 million.

Activist has privately assured government that it is not pushing for a spin-off of exchange

US activist hedge fund Elliott Management has privately assured the UK government about its intentions for the future of the London Stock Exchange after building a significant stake in its parent group.

There have been talks between the activist investor and government officials to assuage fears that Elliott might push for a break-up of the group or a spin-off of the LSE, according to people familiar with the discussions.

They added that the hedge fund also dispelled concerns that it might push to shift the group to a New York listing, where rival venues trade at a higher valuation multiple.

Elliott had taken a position in London Stock Exchange Group and is engaging with the company to improve its performance, the FT reported earlier this month. LSEG shares have fallen by 31 per cent over the past year.

The hedge fund run by billionaire Paul Singer reached out proactively to the UK government, said one person familiar with the discussions. The activist investor also holds stakes in other London-listed companies, including BP and Anglo American.

The Treasury is sensitive to the health and fortunes of the LSE and the news of Elliott’s investment immediately triggered discussions within the department, a second person close to the situation added.

The Treasury, LSEG and Elliott declined to comment.

News of talks between the government and Elliott comes as LSEG prepares to unveil its annual results on Thursday, during which chief executive David Schwimmer is expected to publicly address the group’s engagement with Elliott for the first time.

Investors will be scrutinising whether LSEG will reveal further share buybacks, a move that Elliott is pushing for, according to people familiar with discussions between the company and the activist.

Schwimmer is likely also to address concerns over the future of the business in the face of AI. The exchange group’s shares have dropped over the past year as shareholders worry about how disruptive AI will be to the business.

The Treasury has made reviving the UK’s capital markets a priority and has worked with regulators and the LSE on slashing red tape to encourage more companies to list and raise money in London. Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last month that she believed the City was entering a “new golden age” amid hopes there could soon be a revival in London listings after they hit their lowest level in 30 years.

Another person familiar with the discussions said it was “unsurprising” that the government had a dialogue with Elliott, given LSEG’s “national importance” to capital markets and the flow of money in the UK.

Through its $27bn acquisition of data group Refinitiv in 2019, LSEG has grown into a financial data giant, making most of its money by selling markets data to banks, brokers and investors. The company made less than 5 per cent of its revenues from equities in the third quarter of 2025.

Previous takeover attempts of LSEG by Deutsche Börse in 2016 and Hong Kong’s HKEX in 2019 provoked concern among British politicians because of the stock exchange’s role at the heart of the UK financial markets.

The UK’s national security regime was “sufficiently open to interpretation” that the government could review an overseas investor’s stake in the LSE, one City lawyer said.

The National Security and Investment Act includes aspects of financial and data infrastructure, which it defines as “physical or virtualised infrastructure used for storing, processing or transmitting data in digital form or infrastructure” — which could capture LSEG.

The City lawyer, who is not advising either the activist or the company, said: “Elliott’s proactive approach could be a way of assuring the government there is no threat or need to trigger review.”

World’s second-biggest stablecoin grew in late 2025, defying a crash in bitcoin and other digital assets

Circle Internet Group CRCL 29.72%increase; green up pointing triangle said its fourth-quarter profit jumped after crypto investors continued to flock to its stablecoin despite the late 2025 meltdown in digital-asset prices.

The company’s shares jumped 20% in midmorning trading.

Circle, the issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin, reported a net income from continuing operations of $133.4 million, or 43 cents a share, in the fourth quarter. The company earned $4.4 million in the year-earlier period, according to a regulatory filing. Total revenue surged 77% to $770 million. Wall Street analysts expected the company to earn 16 cents a share on revenue of $747 million.

Circle had a blockbuster stock-market debut in June last year, with shares surging far above its initial offering price. The shares have since tanked nearly 80% from their peak amid a crypto downturn that pummeled token prices and dampened investor sentiment.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies typically pegged to the U.S. dollar and have a fixed value of $1. They are considered a critical foundation of the crypto ecosystem, enabling people to quickly trade in and out of positions and move money across borders.

On Wednesday, Circle said its flagship stablecoin, USDC, ended 2025 with $75.3 billion in circulation, up 72% from a year ago.

“Circle typically benefits when you see increased volatility in the market because people liquidate their tokens and then they go into USDC,” Citigroup analyst Peter Christiansen said.

The company has also profited from the pro-crypto stance of the Trump administration, which enacted the stablecoin bill known as the Genius Act into law last year. Circle now sits at the heart of a fight between crypto firms and the banking lobby that has stalled the Clarity Act, a measure that would provide the first comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. The impasse centers on stablecoin rewards, yield-bearing token products that banks claim are unregulated deposits that threaten traditional savings accounts.

Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that he was “cautiously optimistic” the legislation would pass in April or May. “My view is it’s a critical and necessary piece of legislation to fulfill the president’s goal of making the United States the crypto capital of the world,” he said.

For the full year, Circle reported a loss of $70 million on revenue of $2.7 billion. The loss was mainly driven by expenses for stock-based compensation unlocked by its initial public offering.

Circle generates interest income on short-term Treasurys and other cash-equivalents that back its USDC stablecoin, leaving it vulnerable to the volatility of interest rates.

To make its business less reliant on interest income, the company launched a payments network and its own blockchain, called Arc. It is also spending a lot of time on artificial intelligence, including helping developers who are building AI agents and building systems to better support agentic payments, Allaire said on Wednesday’s earnings call.

Circle paid $461 million in distribution and transaction costs to partners such as Coinbase Global and Binance to facilitate USDC’s use and adoption. The figure rose 52% from a year ago as Circle expanded its strategic partnerships with other companies.

Analysts and investors have noted that competition is likely to intensify in the stablecoin sector as traditional players enter the market. Tether’s stablecoin, the world’s biggest, boasts a $184 billion market value that is more than double USDC’s. Smaller rivals, including USD1, the $4.7 billion stablecoin launched by the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial, have also emerged.

Allaire said he is confident about Circle’s position.

“Importantly, it’s a market that, despite the efforts of many other firms to enter and compete, is really a market of two major issuers,” he said. “And this reflects the very durable network effects that we maintain that are significant barriers to entry and adoption.”

The Galaxy S26 phones will hit the shelves in the U.S. and other markets on March 11

SEOUL—Samsung 005930 1.75%increase; green up pointing triangle Electronics said the artificial-intelligence features on its latest flagship Galaxy smartphones unveiled Wednesday were designed to work effortlessly without the user needing to figure out the technology.

“AI provides exactly what you need, exactly when you need it, without you having to go looking for it,” said Kang Min-seok, a Samsung executive vice president who leads smartphone product planning.

In one example, users of the new phones can press the side button to call up an Uber ride, entering the destination by voice or text. In partnership with Google’s Gemini AI, the phone will take care of opening the Uber app, inputting the address and finding a driver.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 phones, the company’s flagship lineup, will hit the shelves in the U.S. and other markets on March 11.

Reflecting higher memory-chip prices, the price of the base model will rise $40 from the prior generation to about $900. The larger-screen Galaxy S26 Plus costs about $1,100, an increase of $100. The top-line Galaxy S26 Ultra is priced at $1,300, the same as the prior year’s model.

Samsung says it has the most AI-enabled mobile devices of any company. It said roughly 800 million of its mobile devices—including smartphones, tablets, wearables and laptops—would be AI-enabled by the end of this year.

The South Korean company has often been ahead of Apple in bringing generative AI features to smartphones, such as the “circle-to-search” feature offered with Google that lets users search an image on the screen by circling it.

Samsung’s internal research has found more than 80% of consumers think AI will be useful or necessary but the same proportion feel actually using it is hard. The Galaxy S26 phones deploy AI “without you even having to think about it,” Kang said.

He said he expected the smartphone to be the main vehicle through which people make use of AI because its tools and hardware such as the screen make it hard to be fully replaced by AI-dedicated devices such as AI glasses.

With the Galaxy S26, photos can be edited directly in the gallery app by entering a prompt, such as a command to make a rainy day look sunny. If someone asks in a message about making lunch plans on a certain date, the user’s schedule for the date will automatically appear on the side.

Some AI features are offered by connecting to outside services via the cloud, while others run locally on the device using Samsung’s proprietary generative AI model called Gauss, Kang said. The company is continuing to develop Gauss for products and internal company systems, he said.

Our whole lives flash across our mobile display—bank balances, passwords and much, much more. This new tech could keep us safer.

I tried a new Samsung 005930 1.75%increase; green up pointing triangle smartphone feature called Privacy Display—and I’m convinced that every device needs it. The tool obscures what’s on your screen from the people around you. It’s the first security screen built into a mobile device, the new Galaxy S26 Ultra, announced Wednesday.

Someone who can see your screen can learn a lot about you: how much is in your bank account, what corporate secrets lurk in your email or—most sensitively—the code you type to unlock your phone. We’ve reported that thieves who spied on people entering their passcodes could use them to lock victims out of their digital lives.

Samsung’s Privacy Display would defend against those intruders. After a few hours playing with it, I see how it could be an essential security tool—and also shield your fellow airplane passengers from that graphic HBO binge-watch. Apple and everyone else making smartphones should adopt this.

How it works

When you’re looking directly at the screen, everything looks…normal. When I picked up the S26 Ultra at a demo in San Francisco, I had to ask if the Privacy Display was active. Then, as I tilted the phone to the side, the display went dark, like it was turned off.

This isn’t a software trick but an innovation of the physical OLED display itself. Wide pixels, which emit light to the sides, are separated from narrow, front-pointing pixels. In privacy mode, the device dims those wide pixels, while the narrow pixels emit light only at your face. Within a 30-degree viewing angle, the screen is visible. Beyond that, it’s dark.

The result emulates those cheap plastic screen privacy filters, but without the downsides: A plastic filter might only block snoopers from side to side, not from all angles, and can get in the way when you don’t want them. Because Samsung’s software can control which pixels to disable—and when—it can selectively obstruct parts of the screen, then turn off the shield when you don’t need it.

You can set Privacy Display to turn on only when you’re typing your device’s passcode, or using certain apps, such as your password manager. It can shield incoming notifications—just the pop-up and nothing else. You can also create routines to, for example, disable Privacy Display when you get home.

The feature doesn’t protect you from all prying eyes. I could still see the PIN pad as I stood directly behind a representative holding a protected screen.

Samsung product manager Charles Uptegrove said the technology was five years in the making. The feature could extend battery life, because shutting off the wide pixels means less power is needed. The company isn’t making that claim but I am going to try it out in my own testing.

For now, Privacy Display is only available on S26 Ultra, the top-of-the-line $1,300 model shipping on March 11. The feature requires special hardware, so it can’t become available on other phones via software update.

I’m hopeful this essential, security-preserving technology will go beyond this year’s Ultra, maybe even beyond the company’s own line. Apple relies heavily on Samsung’s displays for iPhones, so it’s possible the functionality could cross over. Uptegrove said he couldn’t comment on that side of the business and any of the company’s future plans.

As a fan of iPhones and Google Pixel phones as well as Samsung’s Galaxy phones, here’s my plea: We carry our entire lives in our pockets, and that six-digit code protecting our phones is the master key. If every phone adopted this disappearing act, we could all be safer.

The prediction-market platform is cracking down on potential instances where users may have traded on inside information or manipulated markets

A former California gubernatorial candidate and a video editor to YouTube streamer MrBeast were fined by Kalshi for violating its rules for making prediction-market wagers on its platform.

Their fines were the first disciplinary actions to be disclosed publicly by Kalshi, the company said.

Kyle Langford, who ran for governor in California, was fined $2,246.36, including the amount related to his trades and penalties of $2,000, and banned on the platform for five years after posting a video on X seemingly showing him betting on his victory, according to a notice posted on Kalshi’s website.

Kalshi prohibits candidates of political race from making bets in markets related to their own elections, as well as those employed by political-action committees.

“As a candidate, Langford qualified as a direct decision maker for this contract and had direct influence on the outcome of the underlying event,” Kalshi said in the notice.

Kalshi also invoked disciplinary action against Artem Kaptur, who traded around $4,000 on markets tied to MrBeast’s videos while working for the YouTube star. Kalshi said it fined the user $20,397.58, including his profits and penalties of $15,000, and enacted a 2-year account suspension.

Kalshi was notified of the trades by its surveillance systems and users who noticed Kaptur’s “near-perfect trading success on markets with low odds, which were statistically anomalous”

“In both cases, our team collected evidence, applied Kalshi’s disciplinary process fairly, and concluded there was sufficient evidence that a trading violation occurred,” Bobby DeNault, head of enforcement, wrote in a post on Kalshi’s website.

A representative for MrBeast didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Tensions between the U.S.A. and Iran are at an all-time high and the media has chosen to cover a $200 campaign gimmick (aka betting on I, myself) from last year,” Langford said in a statement. “Is this really the state of our political discourse?”

The proliferation of prediction markets has raised concerns about users making trades using inside information and manipulating markets to score windfalls.

The prediction market platform said it reported both cases to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The fines were imposed by Kalshi, depending on the size of the trades and which rules they violated, which said it would donate them to a nonprofit organization. Neither trader withdrew their profits from their accounts.

Kalshi and Polymarket, a rival prediction-markets platform, let users bet on everything from election victories to the outcome of sporting events to how many inches of snow New York City will receive this week.

As prediction markets explode in popularity, Kalshi said that it has opened 200 investigations over the past year on potential cases of insider trading on its platform and that more than a dozen so far have been found to be possibly in violation of Kalshi’s rules.

“No financial exchange is immune from bad actors,” wrote DeNault. “We’re committed to deterring and finding the bad actors, manipulators, and those who willingly cheat.”

The prediction-market platform is cracking down on potential instances where users may have traded on inside information or manipulated markets

A former California gubernatorial candidate and a video editor to YouTube streamer MrBeast were fined by Kalshi for violating its rules for making prediction-market wagers on its platform.

Their fines were the first disciplinary actions to be disclosed publicly by Kalshi, the company said.

Kyle Langford, who ran for governor in California, was fined $2,246.36, including the amount related to his trades and penalties of $2,000, and banned on the platform for five years after posting a video on X seemingly showing him betting on his victory, according to a notice posted on Kalshi’s website.

Kalshi prohibits candidates of political race from making bets in markets related to their own elections, as well as those employed by political-action committees.

“As a candidate, Langford qualified as a direct decision maker for this contract and had direct influence on the outcome of the underlying event,” Kalshi said in the notice.

Kalshi also invoked disciplinary action against Artem Kaptur, who traded around $4,000 on markets tied to MrBeast’s videos while working for the YouTube star. Kalshi said it fined the user $20,397.58, including his profits and penalties of $15,000, and enacted a 2-year account suspension.

Kalshi was notified of the trades by its surveillance systems and users who noticed Kaptur’s “near-perfect trading success on markets with low odds, which were statistically anomalous”

“In both cases, our team collected evidence, applied Kalshi’s disciplinary process fairly, and concluded there was sufficient evidence that a trading violation occurred,” Bobby DeNault, head of enforcement, wrote in a post on Kalshi’s website.

A representative for MrBeast didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Tensions between the U.S.A. and Iran are at an all-time high and the media has chosen to cover a $200 campaign gimmick (aka betting on I, myself) from last year,” Langford said in a statement. “Is this really the state of our political discourse?”

The proliferation of prediction markets has raised concerns about users making trades using inside information and manipulating markets to score windfalls.

The prediction market platform said it reported both cases to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The fines were imposed by Kalshi, depending on the size of the trades and which rules they violated, which said it would donate them to a nonprofit organization. Neither trader withdrew their profits from their accounts.

Kalshi and Polymarket, a rival prediction-markets platform, let users bet on everything from election victories to the outcome of sporting events to how many inches of snow New York City will receive this week.

As prediction markets explode in popularity, Kalshi said that it has opened 200 investigations over the past year on potential cases of insider trading on its platform and that more than a dozen so far have been found to be possibly in violation of Kalshi’s rules.

“No financial exchange is immune from bad actors,” wrote DeNault. “We’re committed to deterring and finding the bad actors, manipulators, and those who willingly cheat.”