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Whether scrambling for a last-minute gift, looking for something belated to send after the holidays, or just thinking ahead to the next birthday on your calendar, the checkout lines gift card rack has probably crossed your mind. Coffee shops, streaming services, big box retailers. You’ve done this dance before. Grab one, stick it in a card, call it a day. It’s easy. It’s simple. It’s also, for a growing number of Americans, starting to feel stale. Nearly one in five U.S. adults now say they’d rather receive crypto than a gift card this holiday season. That’s according to a new survey from the National Cryptocurrency Association and PayPal, and it’s not a number many saw coming. Gift cards have been the default for decades. They’re what you buy when you don’t know what else to get. But something’s shifting, and it’s worth paying attention to the driver. WHY CRYPTO IS SHOWING UP ON WISH LISTS The case against gift cards isn’t complicated. They can expire. They’re tied to a single store or brand. They sit in wallets and junk drawers until someone remembers they exist, and by then, half the value might be gone to fees or fine print. Americans, on average, waste $90 in unused gift cards every year. That’s not a gift; that’s a slow leak. Crypto doesn’t expire. It’s not locked to a single retailer. And while it can go up or down in value, it has the potential to grow in value. For younger consumers especially, that flexibility matters. According to the survey data, 58% of buyers see the potential for value growth as a real draw. Another 54% like the flexibility and choice that crypto offers. These aren’t abstract preferences; they’re practical. Think about your cousin who’s been slowly building a digital wallet on the side. For them, getting crypto as a gift isn’t weird or complicated. It’s exciting. It’s something they can save, invest, and even spend at checkout. Around 23% of shoppers planned to use crypto to purchase gifts this past holiday season, and 35% say the top reason they dont shop and pay with digital assets more often is that not enough stores accept crypto payments. A MODERN GIFT FOR THE CURIOUS Not everyone wants to learn a new system just to open a present. Crypto is more flexible, sure, and a natural gift for someone already holding crypto. It does ask a bit more of the recipient who is new to crypto. There’s a wallet to set up, an exchange account to pick, and some basic security steps to learn. If the recipient isn’t a little curious about how it all works, the gift can feel more like a homework assignment than a present. Your grandma, for instance, may not appreciate getting crypto when all she asked for was a coffee from her favorite local spot. And while her go-to coffee shop may accept crypto payments, a gift card might still make more sense for her. It’s familiar, immediately usable, and it doesn’t require her to learn any new tech. But as crypto becomes more mainstreamand millions are becoming more crypto curiousthere are plenty of free resources to learn about it, without the confusing hype or jargon. For example, the Crypto, Explained podcast or NCAs 101 courses and simulator let you practice using crypto, without using real funds. When gifting crypto, there’s also the volatility question. The value of crypto can shift between when you buy it and when your recipient opens it. That is part of the appeal for some people, but for others, it could be a deterrent. If youre in the latter group, consider stablecoins, a type of crypto designed to stay flat in value. And today, trusted financial companies like PayPal are processing crypto transactions and managing price changes behind the scenes so the merchant and consumer are unaffected. WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT WHERE WE’RE HEADED The fact that crypto is even in the conversation as a holiday gift option says something about how far digital assets have come. A few years ago, this would have sounded like a tech enthusiast’s fantasy. Now crypto is showing up in gifting, shopping, donating, and beyond. Retailers are watching this closely. Payment platforms are too. The gift card industry isn’t going to disappear overnight, but it’s facing real competition for the first time in a long time (or maybe ever). And the competitors aren’t other retailers; they’re entirely different ways of thinking about value, ownership, and flexibility. For consumers, the takeaway is simple: You have more options now than you did a few years ago. Whether that means grabbing a gift card from the rack or sending some crypto to your friends wallet depends on who you’re buying for and what they actually want. The point isn’t that one is better than the other. It’s that the choice exists at all. SO WHO’S THIS GIFT REALLY FOR? Know your audience. If you’re buying for someone who already holds crypto, or who’s been curious about getting started, this could be the moment to skip the gift card aisle, whether it’s for a belated holiday gift, an upcoming birthday, or just because. Gift cards had a good run. And they’re not going anywhere just yet. But for a surprisingly large slice of the country, crypto is starting to feel like the more interesting option. That shift in consumer behavior, quiet as it is, might be the most telling thing about whats to come next. Stu Alderoty is president of the National Cryptocurrency Association.
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E-Commerce
Luigi Mangione is due in federal court Friday for a pivotal hearing in his fight to bar the government from seeking the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.Mangione’s lawyers contend that authorities prejudiced his case by turning his December 2024 arrest into a “Marvel movie” spectacle and by publicly declaring their desire to see him executed even before he was formally indicted.If that doesn’t work, they argue, the charge that has enabled the government to seek the death penalty murder by firearm should be thrown out because it is legally flawed.Federal prosecutors say Mangione’s lawyers are wrong, countering that the murder charge is legally sufficient and that “pretrial publicity, even when intense” is hardly a constitutional crisis. Any concerns about public perceptions can be alleviated by carefully questioning prospective jurors about their knowledge of the case, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.Mangione has pleaded not guilty to federal and state murder charges, which carry the possibility of life in prison.Friday’s hearing, Mangione’s first trip to Manhattan federal court since his April 25 arraignment, is also expected to cover the defense’s bid to exclude certain evidence. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett has said she also plans to set a trial date.A cause célbre for people upset with the health insurance industry, Mangione’s court appearances have draw dozens of supporters, some of whom wear green clothing or carry signs expressing solidarity with him.Mangione’s lawyers have asked the judge to bar the government from using certain items found in a backpack during his arrest, arguing that the search was illegal because police had not yet obtained a warrant.Those items include a gun that police said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which he purportedly described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.One big question is whether Garnett will need to hold a separate hearing on the evidence issue like one last month that took three weeks in Mangione’s parallel state murder case.Mangione’s lawyers want one. Prosecutors don’t. They contend police were justified in searching the backpack to make sure there were no dangerous items and that the gun, notebook and other evidence would have eventually been found anyway.Thompson, 50, was killed Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.Mangione, 27, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.He’s already had success paring down his state case. In September, a judge threw out state terrorism charges against him.U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last year that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty, declaring that capital punishment was warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”Mangione’s lawyers argue that Bondi’s announcement, which she followed with Instagram posts and a TV appearance, showed the decision was “based on politics, not merit.” Her remarks tainted the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment a few weeks later, they said.Bondi’s statements and other official actions, including a choreographed perp walk in which armed officers led Mangione from a Manhattan pier, “have violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights and have fatally prejudiced this death penalty case,” his lawyers said.On Wednesday, federal prosecutors pushed back on what they said were the defense’s “meritless” and “misleading” claims that Bondi’s decision was tainted by her past work as a lobbyist for a firm whose clients include UnitedHealthcare’s parent company. Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Hiring likely remained subdued last month as many companies have sought to avoid expanding their workforces, though the job gains may be enough to bring down the unemployment rate.December’s jobs report, to be released Friday, is likely to show that employers added a modest 55,000 jobs, economists forecast. That figure would be below November’s 64,000 but an improvement after the economy lost jobs in October. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 4.5%, according to data provider FactSet, from a four-year high of 4.6% in November.The figures will be closely watched on Wall Street and in Washington because they will be the first clean readings on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.Another wrinkle: The economy lost 105,000 jobs in October, mostly because federal government employment fell 162,000, reflecting a purge of federal workers earlier last year by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. That drop won’t be repeated.Still, sluggish hiring in December would underscore a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid. Yet they acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.Economists do expect Friday’s jobs report to have some good news, driven partly by a rebound from the government shutdown, which likely drove a higher unemployment rate in November. Still, should the rate remain at 4.6% or even tick higher, that would be a cause for concern.“I’m really looking for a lot of that weakness to reverse in December,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director of the Yale Budget Lab, “and if it doesn’t, I am going to start getting much iffier about the labor market.”Either way, December’s report will cap a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after “liberation day” in April when President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries, though many were later delayed or softened.The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of the year. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.Even those figures are likely to be revised lower in February, when the government completes an annual benchmarking of the jobs figures to an actual count of jobs derived from companies’ unemployment insurance filings. A preliminary estimate of that revision showed it could reduce total jobs as of March 2025 by 911,000.And last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the government could still be overstating job gains by about 60,000 a month because of shortcomings in how it accounts for new companies as well as those that have gone out of business. The Labor Department is expected to update those methods in its report next month.Last November, the U.S. economy had just 770,000 more jobs than 12 months earlier, down from 1.9 million in the 12 months ending in November 2024 and the smallest yearly gain since early 2021. The benchmark revisions next month will likely reduce that figure even further.With hiring so weak, the Federal Reserve cut its key short-term interest rate three times late last year, in an effort to boost borrowing, spending, and hiring. Yet Powell signaled that the central bank may keep its rate unchanged in the coming months as it evaluates how the economy evolves.Should December’s jobs report come in surprisingly weak, it could strengthen case for a rate reduction at the Fed’s next meeting Jan. 27-28.Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year’s July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.Many economists are optimistic that growth will pick up in 2026, in part because Trump’s tax legislation, approved last summer, should lead to outsize tax refunds this spring. If growth does accelerate, it’s possible hiring may as well. At the same time, there are signs that companies are using technology and other tools to make their workers more efficient, which can spur growth without requiring more jobs.At the same time, inflation remains elevated, eroding the value of Americans’ paychecks. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in November compared with a year ago, little changed from the beginning of the year and above the Fed’s 2% target. Christopher Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
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