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UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has taken legal action against crypto exchange HTX for illegal promotions to UK-based users.

FCA Has Started Legal Proceedings Against Crypto Exchange HTX

The FCA, UK’s financial watchdog, has begun legal proceedings against HTX, as revealed in a press release on the regulator’s website. The reason for the action is the crypto exchange not complying with FCA’s digital asset promotion rules. “Firms providing crypto products to UK consumers need to comply with rules which protect consumers from unfair and misleading marketing,” noted the regulator.

The rules first came into effect back in October 2023 and since then, the majority of firms that FCA has engaged with have responded positively in complying with the regime. FCA previously served a warning to HTX for illegally promoting services to UK consumers, but unlike other companies, the exchange continued to push financial promotions on its website and social media platforms.

“HTX’s conduct stands in stark contrast to the majority of firms working to comply with the FCA’s regime,” said Steve Smart, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA.

Formerly known as Huobi, HTX is a crypto exchange founded in China that now operates offices in various countries. The FCA has described the platform’s organizational structure as ‘opaque,’ with the identities of the owners and website operators remaining unknown, and repeated attempts by the regulator to engage with the firm ignored.

Following the initiation of the proceedings by FCA, HTX has restricted new accounts from users based in the UK. The crypto platform hasn’t stopped existing users from logging in, however, and has also not given any assurance that the changes are permanent, leaving the regulator concerned that the risk of ongoing breaches continues.

“This is the first time we’ve taken enforcement action against a crypto firm illegally marketing their products to UK consumers,” noted Smart. Alongside the legal action, the FCA has requested Google Play and Apple stores to drop HTX’s applications in the UK. The regulator has also asked social media platforms to block the exchange’s accounts to UK-based users.

Although the ownership structure of HTX is hidden, a name that has publicly been associated with the crypto exchange is billionaire Justin Sun, who serves as a global advisor. Sun’s name, however, doesn’t appear in FCA’s lawsuit.

In some other news, Coinbase Advanced witnessed net outflows of stablecoins earlier, as highlighted by CryptoQuant author Darkfrost in an X post. Stablecoins are digital assets that have their price pegged to a fiat currency. Generally, investors withdraw into these tokens when they want to avoid the volatility associated with cryptos like Bitcoin, so exchange outflows related to stablecoins can be a sign that traders are retreating from the market.

From the chart, it’s visible that recently the trend has started to reverse, with stablecoins flowing into Coinbase Advanced once more, a potential sign that US-based whales are becoming interested in swapping into the volatile side once more.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $68,700, down 6% over the last week.

As Russia moves to regulate the crypto sector later this year, the European Union (EU) is considering implementing strict sanctions on all digital asset transactions linked to the country to curb sanctions evasion.

EU Seeks Sanctions On Russian Crypto Transactions

On Tuesday, the Financial Times (FT) reported that the European Commission (EC) is evaluating measures to prohibit all crypto transactions with Russia, stepping up its efforts to crack down on the country’s use of digital assets to evade sanctions.

According to documents reviewed by the FT, the Commission has seemingly proposed a broader prohibition “instead of attempting to ban copycat Russian crypto entities spun out of already sanctioned platforms.”

“In order to ensure that sanctions achieve their intended effect [the EU] prohibits to engage with any crypto asset service provider, or to make use of any platform allowing the transfer and exchange of crypto assets that is established in Russia,” explained the internal document outlining the proposed sanctions.

The Commission argued that “any further listing of individual crypto asset service providers … is therefore likely to result in the set-up of new ones to circumvent those listings.”

Notably, the proposal reportedly focuses on preventing the growth of successors to the Russia-linked crypto exchange Garantex. In 2022, the US sanctioned the platform for “operating as the exchange of choice for cybercriminals”.

Moreover, the document is aimed at the payments platform A7, a company reportedly conceived as a mechanism to facilitate cross-border trades due to sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine, and its connected ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5, previously used by Garantex to transfer funds to Kyrgyz exchange Grinex.

As reported by Bitcoinist, the EU, UK, and US have adopted restrictive measures against the payment platform. Despite this, recent reports revealed the stablecoin has an aggregate transaction volume of $100 billion.

In addition, the EC suggested adding 20 banks to the list of sanctioned entities and a ban on any digital ruble-related transactions. The Commission also proposed a ban on the export of certain dual-use goods to Kyrgyzstan, claiming that local companies have sold prohibited goods to Russia.

Nonetheless, imposing the measures would require the unanimous support of member states, and three of the bloc’s countries have reportedly expressed doubts, three diplomats briefed on discussions told the FT.

Russia’s Digital Assets Landscape

The potential crackdown comes as Russia continues to develop its upcoming digital assets framework. The CBR recently unveiled its comprehensive regulatory proposals to enable retail and qualified investors to buy digital assets through licensed platforms in the country.

Last month, the Committee on State Building and Legislation at the State Duma also advanced a bill to regulate the seizure of crypto assets in criminal proceedings and reduce the risks associated with the use of digital assets in criminal activities, including money laundering, corruption, and terrorist financing.

Meanwhile, Russia’s largest bank by assets, Sberbank, recently announced that it is preparing to offer crypto-backed loans to corporate clients following strong corporate interest.

The bank affirmed its readiness to work with the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) to develop regulations, and it is finalizing the necessary infrastructure and procedures for potential scaling of crypto-backed lending.

Project 11 CEO Alex Pruden is challenging a CoinShares estimate that only 10,200 bitcoin sit in “genuinely” quantum-vulnerable legacy addresses, arguing instead that roughly 6.9 million BTC could be exposed if cryptographically relevant quantum computers arrive sooner than the market expects.

The dispute, amplified by Castle Island partner Nic Carter, goes to the heart of a debate that has started to spill out of academic circles and into investor-facing research: not whether quantum computing would be catastrophic for today’s signature schemes, but how much Bitcoin is already exposed given how keys are used on-chain and how quickly the ecosystem would need to coordinate a migration.

Why ‘Only 10,000’ Bitcoin Are The Wrong Estimate

Pruden’s core objection to the “only 10k BTC” framing is definitional. In his thread, he argues quantum vulnerability extends well beyond old-style pay-to-public-key (P2PK) outputs and includes “any address that has signed a transaction once (and left residual funds there),” because the public key becomes visible on-chain once a spend is signed. In that model, coins left behind in those UTXOs could be vulnerable to an attacker able to derive a private key from a known public key.

He points to a “constantly updated tracker” run by Project Eleven listing 6,910,186 BTC as quantum-vulnerable, and cites Chaincode Labs’ technical report on post-quantum threats to Bitcoin as a cross-reference.

Pruden also singles out Satoshi Nakamoto’s presumed holdings as a large, dormant target surface. “The entity believed to be Satoshi alone holds 1,096,152 BTC across 21,924 addresses. All vulnerable,” he wrote, framing those coins as exposed under his broader definition.

Carter, responding to coverage circulating around the CoinShares number, said: “re that number of ‘only 10k quantum-vulnerable BTC’ you are seeing reported today… as much as I respect Chris and his work at Coinshares, he’s wrong on this one.”

Pruden situates the Bitcoin debate inside a wider shift among large tech companies and security institutions toward post-quantum planning. He cites a Google blog post by Hartmut Neven and Kent Walker that characterizes post-quantum cryptography as an urgent, systemic transition requiring coordinated action and accelerated adoption.

He also references a Google research result suggesting breaking RSA-2048 may require “~1 million noisy qubits,” lower than earlier estimates, and argues this compresses perceived timelines — even if Bitcoin uses ECDSA rather than RSA. To reinforce the uncertainty, Pruden quotes prominent theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson warning against complacency around Shor-vulnerable systems:

“On the other hand, if you think Bitcoin, and SSL, and all the other protocols based on Shor-breakable cryptography, are almost certainly safe for the next 5 years … then I submit that your confidence is also unwarranted. Your confidence might then be like most physicists’ confidence in 1938 that nuclear weapons were decades away, or like my own confidence in 2015 that an AI able to pass a reasonable Turing Test was decades away… The trouble is that sometimes people, y’know, do that.”

Pruden’s conclusion from that framing is less about predicting a date and more about avoiding a planning regime built on “it’ll be slow.”

Pruden argues the CoinShares post underestimates the operational reality of a post-quantum transition for an already-deployed, decentralized system. He highlights the need to migrate “millions of distributed keys,” the lack of a centralized authority, and the fact that asset ownership is enforced purely by digital signatures, with “no fallback.”

He also cites peer-reviewed research claiming “the BTC blockchain would have to shut down for 76 days” to process migration transactions for the existing UTXO set in a best-case scenario — a datapoint meant to stress that even a distant threat can demand near-term engineering and governance work.

Pruden further criticizes what he calls an appeal to authority in citing a hardware-wallet executive as evidence quantum is far away, arguing vendors may have incentives to downplay urgency if quantum-resistant signatures would obsolete existing devices.

At press time, BTC traded at $69,050.

Bitcoin is struggling to reclaim key resistance levels as the broader market navigates a phase of heightened uncertainty and weakening demand. Despite multiple rebound attempts, price action remains constrained, reflecting a lack of sustained buying interest and fragile investor sentiment. According to a recent CryptoQuant report, a critical shift is occurring beneath the surface: new investor inflows have turned negative, suggesting that the ongoing sell-off is not being absorbed by fresh capital entering the market.

Data shows that cumulative 30-day flows have dropped to approximately −$2.6 billion, highlighting persistent capital outflows rather than accumulation. This dynamic contrasts sharply with typical bull-market corrections, where price dips tend to attract new participants seeking discounted entry points. Instead, current declines appear to be met with caution, reinforcing a defensive market posture.

The absence of the strong inflow spikes historically associated with sustained uptrends further underscores this shift. Liquidity conditions remain tight, and participation appears to be narrowing, with existing holders rotating positions rather than new investors driving demand. Until consistent inflows resume, upside momentum may remain limited, and Bitcoin could continue facing resistance pressure as the market searches for a clearer directional catalyst.

Bitcoin Liquidity Contraction Signals Fragile Market Structure

According to the report, Bitcoin’s current market behavior increasingly resembles the transitional phase that typically follows a cycle peak. In strong bull markets, price corrections tend to attract accelerating capital inflows, as investors view pullbacks as opportunities to accumulate. By contrast, early bear-market environments often show the opposite dynamic: weakening price action triggers capital withdrawal rather than fresh demand. Current on-chain readings suggest Bitcoin may be entering this latter phase.

Data indicates that marginal buyers — those who usually provide incremental liquidity during uptrends — are stepping back. As a result, price movements appear increasingly driven by internal capital rotation rather than genuine net inflows. This means existing participants are repositioning funds within the market instead of new investors entering, which typically reduces momentum and amplifies volatility.

Without renewed inflows, any upward price movement is more likely to represent corrective rebounds than sustainable trend reversals. This aligns with early bear-market conditions characterized by contracting liquidity, declining participation breadth, and cautious investor behavior. Historically, markets tend to remain fragile until new demand returns consistently.

The absence of strong inflows suggests that Bitcoin’s recovery potential may remain constrained, with price action likely dependent on whether fresh capital eventually re-enters the ecosystem.

Critical Support Zone Comes Into Focus

Bitcoin’s weekly chart shows a clear deterioration in market structure following the rejection from the $120K–$125K region. Since that peak, price action has transitioned from a higher-high sequence into a pattern of lower highs and expanding downside volatility, a classic characteristic of mid-cycle bearish phases. The latest drop toward the $65K–$70K zone confirms that sellers continue to dominate momentum.

Technically, BTC has now broken below its short- and medium-term moving averages, while the longer-term trend line near the high-$50K region remains the last major structural support. Historically, sustained trading below the 50-week average often signals prolonged consolidation or deeper corrective phases rather than quick V-shaped recoveries.

Volume behavior also deserves attention. The recent decline occurred alongside elevated sell-side activity, suggesting forced liquidations or distribution rather than orderly profit taking. This tends to prolong volatility because coins change hands from weaker holders to stronger balance sheets.

From a macro perspective, the $62K–$65K range emerges as a critical demand zone. Holding this region could stabilize sentiment and enable accumulation. A decisive breakdown, however, would likely expose the market to deeper retracement levels, potentially toward the realized price cluster seen in previous bear phases.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

BitMine Immersion Technologies kept buying as prices fell, scooping up 40,613 ETH during last week’s sell-off. Reports say the purchase totaled roughly $83–$84 million, made when Ether traded near $2,020 per token.

BitMine’s Growing Stake And The Man At The Helm

According to recent coverage, the move pushed BitMine’s total Ethereum holdings to around 4.32–4.33 million ETH, a stash worth billions at current prices. Executive chairman Tom Lee has framed the dip as an attractive entry point and has voiced confidence in a bounce back.

Paper Losses Widen As Prices Slide

Reports note that the firm’s large cost basis for its accumulated ETH has left its treasury sitting on multibillion-dollar unrealized losses.

Estimates in the latest pieces place those paper losses between about $7.5 billion and $8 billion, depending on which price is used to mark the holdings. That gap widened as Ether fell from higher levels into the low-$2Ks.

Market And Shareholder Response

BitMine’s aggressive buying did not calm all investors. News outlets tracked a drop in the company’s stock (BMNR), which was reported down roughly 5% in pre-market trading around the same time the ETH buy was disclosed.

Traders appear to be weighing the long-term thesis against the immediate hit to the company’s net asset value.

Why The Company Is Still Adding

Reports say BitMine sees this as part of an intentional treasury play. Some of the firm’s ETH is staked, which generates yield and can help offset paper losses over time.

Tom Lee has forecast a strong rebound, calling for a V-shaped recovery in ether. That kind of outlook explains why purchases came even while the market was weak.

What To Watch Next

Short term, price moves in ether and shifts in investor sentiment will be the clearest signals. If ETH stages a steady climb, the unrealized losses will shrink quickly.

If the token continues to trade lower, the company’s paper loss metrics will remain a headline for shareholders and analysts.

Reports say details such as financing, staking returns, and any further disclosed buys will shape how investors view the firm’s risk profile.

BitMine’s choice to keep buying at lower levels is a clear bet on future price recovery. Whether that bet pays off for shareholders depends on the market’s next moves, and on whether patience and staking income can outweigh a large short-term drawdown.

Featured image from Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin miner Cango has announced it offloaded BTC worth $305 million over the weekend as it looks to fund a strategic pivot into AI compute.

Cango Has Offloaded 4,451 Bitcoin To Fund AI Pivot

As announced in a press release, Cango has completed a Bitcoin sale involving 4,451 tokens. The company’s offloading occurred on the open market over the weekend and was settled directly in the stablecoin USDT.

In total, the sale produced proceeds of about $305 million. “The full amount of the USDT proceeds has been utilized to partially repay a Bitcoin-collateralized loan,” noted the press release.

Founded in 2010, Cango was originally an automotive transaction service platform connecting car buyers, dealers, and financial institutions. In 2024, the firm diversified into Bitcoin mining, initially deploying 32 EH/s in hashrate and then upgrading it to 50 EH/s in 2025. At the same time, it also started accumulating the cryptocurrency.

After its buying over the course of 2025, Cango’s holdings grew to 7,528.3 BTC by the end of the year. In 2026, however, the company witnessed a change of strategy. The firm sold 550.03 BTC during January and now, an even larger sale of 4,451 BTC has come in February.

The Bitcoin distribution has arrived as Cango gears up for a shift into the AI compute business. As the statement said:

The Company is executing a strategic pivot by utilizing its globally accessed, grid-connected infrastructure to provide distributed compute capacity for the AI industry.

Cango plans to pivot into AI through a phased roadmap, with the first phase involving serving demand from small and medium enterprises. A subsequent phase will see the firm develop a software orchestration platform to unify its distributed compute resources. The firm has also announced the appointment of Jack Jin, who previously worked at Zoom Communications, as its AI business’ chief technology officer (CTO).

While Cango is diversifying into AI, it doesn’t seem to be leaving behind Bitcoin mining, at least not yet. “Cango remains committed to its mining operations, with a continued focus on enhancing mining economics and seeking an optimal balance between hashrate scale and operational efficiency,” noted the firm.

The firm’s mining operations are spread across 40 sites spanning North America, the Middle East, South America, and East Africa. In terms of the installed hashrate, the company is currently the joint third-largest public BTC miner in the world.

Cango isn’t the only Bitcoin mining company that is pivoting into AI. Bitfarms, another large public miner, announced last year that it plans to wind down its mining business over the course of 2026 and 2027 as it adopts a GPU-as-a-service model.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has made some recovery since last week’s low as the cryptocurrency’s price is now trading around $68,900.

Bitcoin continues to struggle below the $70,000 threshold, reflecting persistent market pressure after weeks of volatility and weak recovery attempts. Despite occasional rebounds from the $60,000 region, upside momentum remains limited, suggesting that demand has yet to return in a meaningful way. Market sentiment has shifted toward caution, with traders increasingly focused on downside risk rather than breakout potential.

Recent on-chain analysis from Darkfost indicates that realized losses are still dominating market activity. This imbalance implies that a large portion of investors entered positions near recent highs and are now exiting at a loss. Such behavior typically emerges during late-stage corrections, when conviction weakens, and participants prioritize capital preservation over long-term positioning.

Notably, some digital asset treasuries and large investors who accumulated Bitcoin at significantly higher levels are also reducing exposure. While this does not necessarily indicate structural capitulation, it reinforces the perception that confidence remains fragile. Historically, phases where realized losses outweigh profits often coincide with transitional market periods, either preceding deeper corrections or setting the stage for eventual accumulation.

Realized Losses Signal Ongoing Market Stress

On-chain analysis shared by Darkfost highlights a notable deterioration in Bitcoin’s profit-to-loss dynamics. The realized profit-to-loss ratio currently stands near 0.25, meaning that for every $1 of profit realized on-chain, roughly $4 in losses are being locked in. Such a skewed balance reflects a market still processing recent drawdowns, where a significant portion of participants are exiting underwater positions rather than securing gains.

The seven-day moving average of this ratio is now approaching levels typically associated with bear market conditions. This shift suggests that short-term sentiment remains fragile and that selling pressure continues to dominate recent transaction flows. For context, the annual average ratio sits around 6.33, indicating that, over longer horizons, profit realization still outweighs losses due to the inertia embedded in yearly data.

Importantly, realized profits have recently begun to slightly exceed losses after several weeks of persistent deficit, hinting at tentative stabilization rather than confirmed recovery. Historically, periods characterized by panic selling or capitulation can extend for months, particularly during broader bearish phases.

For a durable recovery to emerge, this ongoing purge of weaker hands must likely conclude, allowing unrealized profits to rebuild and restore investor confidence.

Bitcoin Price Tests Key Support After Sharp Breakdown

Bitcoin’s recent price structure reflects a clear deterioration in momentum, with the asset now struggling around the $68,000–$70,000 region after a sharp decline from late-2025 highs. The chart shows a decisive breakdown below intermediate support levels that had previously held during consolidation phases, confirming a transition from corrective pullback to a more pronounced bearish trend.

Price action has also slipped below the short- and medium-term moving averages, both of which are now sloping downward. This configuration typically signals sustained selling pressure rather than a temporary retracement. Meanwhile, the longer-term moving average continues to flatten, suggesting that macro trend support has not yet fully failed but is increasingly under threat.

Volume behavior adds another layer of caution. The latest selloff was accompanied by a noticeable increase in trading activity, often interpreted as distribution rather than passive drift lower. Such spikes frequently appear during liquidation cascades or institutional repositioning.

From a technical standpoint, the $60,000–$65,000 range now stands out as the next critical demand zone. Holding above this region could stabilize sentiment and allow for consolidation. Failure to defend it, however, would likely confirm deeper bear-market continuation rather than a simple correction phase.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Ethereum’s core backers have stepped up after a string of clever thefts that empty users’ wallets in seconds. A new link between the Ethereum Foundation and Security Alliance, known as SEAL, aims to make those quick hits harder to pull off. Reports say the move will widen who watches for threats and how quickly fixes are pushed out.

Ethereum Foundation Joins SEAL

According to coverage from multiple outlets, the Foundation is sponsoring a dedicated security engineer within SEAL to chase down wallet drainers and phishing networks.

SEAL will receive funding to bring in one specialist whose role centers on tracking harmful infrastructure. That includes fake websites, hidden scripts, and backend tools that allow funds to be pulled the moment a user signs the wrong request.

Based on reports, this work sits under the Trillion Dollar Security effort, which maps weak spots across user design, smart contracts, and social attack routes. The goal is simple. Turn scattered warnings into faster alerts that wallets can act on before damage spreads.

Huge thanks to the @ethereumfndn for sponsoring a security researcher to work with SEAL Intel and disrupt drainers targeting Ethereum users!https://t.co/qrlBwLI2fj

— Security Alliance (@_SEAL_Org) February 9, 2026

The Old Tricks Come Back With New Tweaks

Reports note that losses from drainer attacks fell last year, but attackers keep trying. Security trackers recorded a steep drop in stolen funds tied to wallet drainers during the past year.

That decline, however, did not end the threat. Groups behind these scams now rely on trusted web hosts, rapid page switching, and selective targeting that hides attacks from scanners.

Wallet teams noticed the pattern. Some defenses improved. Others lagged. The addition of a Foundation-backed engineer inside SEAL is meant to tighten response times when these tricks resurface.

Behind the scenes, a shared view of attack data is being built. It shows how scams move, how long they stay active, and which wallets are being targeted. Parts of this system are visible to partners, while other sections remain restricted to prevent misuse.

Real-Time Alerts And A Shared Watchlist

Reports say the alliance will expand data sharing between wallets, researchers, and platforms. One focus is speed. When a harmful site or contract behavior is confirmed, alerts can be pushed out across connected wallets almost immediately.

Some blocks happen automatically. Others rely on human checks before warnings go live. That balance helps catch unusual attacks that automated tools might miss.

This approach mirrors strategies used in other security fields, where shared intelligence often cuts losses even if it cannot stop every breach. Wallet providers involved in earlier efforts have already seen fewer repeat attacks once data flows improved.

The Pressure Move

The partnership between the Ethereum Foundation and SEAL is not framed as a final fix. It is a pressure move. One designed to slow attackers, shorten response time, and give users a better chance to stay ahead of the next drain attempt.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bernstein analysts have reiterated that Bitcoin could still rally to $150,000 this year. These experts noted that BTC was experiencing what they described as the “worst bear case” in its history, suggesting that this bear market may not be as deep as previous cycles. 

Bernstein Predicts Bitcoin Rally To $150,000 By Year-End

Bernstein analysts, led by Guatam Chhugani, have maintained that Bitcoin could still reach $150,000 by year-end despite its recent crash to as low as $60,000. The analysts stated that this is the weakest BTC bear case in its history. They added that what the market is currently experiencing is a “self-imposed crisis of confidence” rather than a failure in the system. 

Furthermore, the analysts explained that there hasn’t been any blow-up or other major catalyst that typically triggers Bitcoin bear markets. On the other hand, they believe the fundamentals are stronger than ever, citing the regulatory-friendly climate under President Donald Trump and growing institutional adoption through BTC ETFs and firms like Strategy. 

Bernstein analysts also addressed quantum threats to Bitcoin, noting that these threats affect not only the leading crypto but also the banking industry and other mission-critical systems. These analysts believe that this will be addressed when the time comes, with all these systems adopting quantum-resistant standards. 

Michael Saylor’s Strategy already plans to launch a Bitcoin security program to prepare for the threats posed by quantum computing. However, Saylor opined that the threat of quantum computing is still about ten years away, thereby urging investors not to panic. Meanwhile, Bernstein addressed concerns that large corporate holders, such as Strategy, could liquidate their holdings amid this market downturn. 

The firm stated that large corporate Bitcoin holders, such as Strategy, have structured their balance sheets to handle such market conditions. They alluded to Strategy CEO Phong Le’s statement that they won’t have to liquidate unless BTC drops to $8,000 and remains there for up to five years. 

BTC To Pick Up As Liquidity Conditions Ease Up

Bernstein analysts have indicated that Bitcoin will rally again as liquidity conditions ease, noting that ETFs and corporations are well-positioned to accumulate more BTC as conditions improve. They also explained that the leading crypto continues to trade as a liquidity-sensitive risk asset rather than ‘digital gold,’ which is why it is underperforming gold, as liquidity remains concentrated in specific assets. 

It is worth noting that Bernstein analysts aren’t the only ones who have predicted that Bitcoin could still rally to a new all-time high (ATH) this year. TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza also stated last week that they expect BTC to reach a new ATH this year, with their base case being the third quarter of this year.    

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $69,700, down almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum’s price has managed to hold above the $2,000 even as heightened volatility persists in the market. During the recent pullback, investors’ sentiment appears to be slowly leaning toward a bullish outlook, which is primarily indicated by the notable ETH withdrawals from crypto exchanges, matching key past levels.

Exchanges Are Seeing Massive Ethereum Withdrawals 

Following the sharp pullback in price, Ethereum’s on-chain supply dynamics have now reached a striking milestone. This milestone is taking place on the ETH exchange reserves, which have experienced one of their steepest drop in years.

In a post on the social media platform X, CryptoRus revealed that the ETH supply on crypto exchanges has fallen back to levels last seen in mid-2016. “That’s wild when you think about how much bigger the ecosystem is today,” CryptoRus added.

The significant decline in ETH on centralized platforms indicates that, instead of having their coins easily accessible for sale, more investors are transferring them into long-term storage, staking, or self-custody. Such a development often signals reduced selling pressure and a stronger long-term holder base.

Ethereum investors are showing more notable bullish sentiment towards the altcoin than Bitcoin investors. While Bitcoin has recently returned to crypto exchanges, ETH has been silently disappearing from these platforms. The behavior underscores increasing conviction in the altcoin’s near-term and long-term prospects compared to BTC.

The majority of this ETH is not lost or abandoned. Rather, it is owned by investors, and they are not sitting on the sidelines. At the same time, Over-The-Counter (OTC) supply has also increased, but it is still far behind in comparison to the total supply of Ethereum.

If OTC liquidity also dries up and ETH exchange balances remain this tight, price discovery will occur quickly rather than smoothly. Nonetheless, when demand returns to the market, there may not be enough ETH available to fill that desire. 

Institutions Are Still Buying More ETH In Unfavorable Conditions 

Despite the ongoing volatile landscape, Ethereum institutional accumulation has continued, and big firms like Bitmine Immersion are not done buying the dip. The leading public company has recently made another ETH purchase that is making waves in the cryptocurrency community.

On-chain data shared by Ash Crypto, a market expert and investor, shows that Bitmine bought about 20,000 ETH valued at $41.08 million on Monday. This purchase implies that big players are displaying renewed confidence and betting on a potential bounce in the near future.

According to the expert, the company’s total ETH purchase last week alone was valued at $83.45 million. After the purchase, Bitmine’s ETH holdings skyrocketed to $9.19 billion, representing over 3.6% of the total ETH supply. Bitmine’s persistent ETH purchase underscores the firm’s unwavering goal to become the largest Ethereum treasury company in the world.

XRP’s price action took a bearish turn last week, but not everyone is viewing the decline as a negative development. A technical outlook shared by crypto analyst Diana asserts that the current move may represent a decisive moment in XRP’s broader market structure. According to the technical outlook, the ongoing selloff is now in a final shakeout zone, which is creating a deep undervaluation before expansion.

XRP Is In A Shakeout Phase

Technical analysis of XRP’s price action shows that the cryptocurrency is currently behaving exactly as it tends to during periods when market sentiment turns excessively pessimistic. Price is moving lower even as fundamentals continue to strengthen in the background, a divergence that historically preceded deep undervaluation phases. 

In terms of a structural perspective, XRP is trading inside a bearish corrective channel. These moves usually end with a liquidity sweep that is designed to force weak holders out of their positions.

According to the analyst, this move looks like the altcoin is in the shakeout phase, where weak hands exit and smart money steps in. As it stands, the weekly RSI is falling toward unseen oversold levels, and there’s a possibility that the XRP price can fall further. Keeping the shakeout thesis in mind, the analyst highlighted the $0.84 as a high-probability demand zone. This demand zone aligns with the 161.8% Fibonacci extension and the weekly 200 moving average. 

Below that, XRP bulls must hold above $0.69 in order to preserve the broader bullish structure. A lasting breakdown beneath $0.69 on the weekly timeframe would invalidate the shakeout thesis. The strategy is focused on a reaction around $0.84, followed by a repricing if the structure holds and a final move back to $3.65.

Short-Term Pain To Long-Term Targets

Diana’s outlook also ties into a macro structure she first discussed earlier this month, right when XRP was crashing to $1.15. In that earlier analysis, the analyst described the token as in the process of completing an eight-year cup-and-handle formation that began after the 2017 peak and rounded out through the 2020 to 2021 lows before returning to the $3.60 area in 2025. The current pullback, according to that framework, is playing out the handle portion of the pattern.

The cup and handle is a bullish continuation pattern. The larger structure is expected to maintain its bullish outlook as long as the altcoin holds above the $0.84 to $0.69 support zone. A successful defense of this region keeps the path open for a move back to $3.65, which is the first major repricing level. The longer-term projections based on the cup and handle pattern after $3.65 extend into the $7 range and higher if momentum expands as expected.

Sam Bankman‑Fried, the co-founder and former chief executive of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has filed a request for a new trial in New York on Tuesday, arguing that fresh witness testimony could undermine the government’s case against him. 

Bid To Revive FTX Trial

As reported by Bloomberg, the motion, dated February 5 and entered into the docket on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, was submitted pro se, meaning Bankman‑Fried is acting on his own behalf rather than through legal counsel. 

In the filing, Bankman‑Fried contends that testimony from new witnesses could challenge key aspects of the prosecution’s narrative and potentially cast doubt on the verdict. He argues that this evidence was not previously presented and could materially affect the outcome of the case. 

The motion does not replace his ongoing appeal but represents an additional attempt to reopen the proceedings. The request follows comments Bankman‑Fried made earlier on Tuesday on social media in which he again disputed the legitimacy of FTX’s bankruptcy. 

Bankman‑Fried Denies Insolvency Issues

From prison, he has increasingly advanced the argument that the company’s collapse was driven by legal and financial maneuvering rather than criminal wrongdoing. 

He claimed that FTX was not insolvent and said he never authorized a bankruptcy filing, alleging instead that lawyers assumed control of the company and quickly initiated bankruptcy proceedings for their own financial benefit.

Bankman‑Fried was convicted on all seven counts he faced, including fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, in the case United States v. Bankman‑Fried. 

On March 28, 2024, the court sentenced him to 25 years in federal prison and ordered him to forfeit approximately $11 billion, reflecting the scale of losses tied to the collapse of FTX.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Since the broader cryptocurrency market correction began, the price of Cardano (ADA) has steadily declined, reaching as low as $0.22. While prices are experiencing a steady downward trend, Cardano is starting to see a drop in multiple critical areas, such as its derivatives market, as Open Interest declines.

Derivatives Cool Off As Cardano Open Interest Plunges

Cardano’s ongoing decline has intensified and is beginning to reflect on its derivatives market as its Open Interest (OI) undergoes a sharp decrease. Its open interest has collapsed following a sudden unwind of leveraged positions, as shown in a report from Joao Wedson, a market expert and founder of Alphractal.

The sharp drop implies that traders have been driven out or have closed positions due to increased volatility, flushing out speculative exposure. By removing extra leverage from the system, these resets frequently signal a move away from overheated situations.

According to the expert, ADA open interest fell from about $1.6 billion to $334 million, but a trend is subtly unfolding underneath. Data shows that major players are aggressively closing their ADA positions. However, the key insight here lies in the direction that the open interest is now concentrated.

Wedson highlighted that Binance, the leading crypto exchange, controlled over 80% of ADA’s open interest back in 2023, with the remaining 20% collectively controlled by 17 other exchanges. Meanwhile, in 2026, this structure has completely flipped.

As seen on the chart, Binance currently holds just 22% of Cardano’s open interest, while Gateio is leading the charge with about 31% dominance. Although it may seem less impulsive, the expert stated that the shift is more important than most people in the sector realize.

The same was observed with Solana when it rallied from the $20 level to $200 between late 2023 and 2024, and Binance’s open interest dominance grew by 10%, reaching 52%. However, Binance’s dominance has declined again since 2024, and Solana’s price momentum has clearly weakened.

Wedson noted that the pattern is consistent. When open interest becomes fragmented and Binance’s share drops, altcoins typically lose their upward strength, and this is exactly what is happening with Cardano. Binance is frequently the exchange that drives significant altcoin rallies, but only when competition is constrained and leverage is concentrated.

ADA In An Accumulation Range

After a steep drop, Cardano’s price is sitting inside a long-term accumulation range. The structure is akin to the end of a corrective phase and preparation for a new cycle, and a break from the long-term downtrend supports a bullish continuation setup.

Once the breakout occurs, Wolf of Crypto predicts a move to $2 and $3, marking the mid-cycle target. Meanwhile, the full cycle target is set at $6 and $10 in a strong altcoin season scenario. 

Currently, Cardano is still one of the best active chains in developer activity, focusing on governance, scaling, and real-world utility. Historically, after Bitcoin bottoms out, capital moves into high beta Layer 1s like Cardano, which could spur a bounce in ADA’s price.

Cardano’s native token ADA is caught between emerging institutional interest and persistent selling pressure, with prices trading in a tight range around roughly $0.27 as of this week.

Related Reading: Convicted FTX CEO SBF Cries ‘Biden Lawfare’ In Trump Pardon Pitch

According to current market data, ADA’s price sits near $0.2670, with modest intraday fluctuation and a market capitalization approaching $9.6 billion. This reflects a notable slide from its 2021 peak above $3 but shows the coin remains among the top crypto assets by market cap.

The broader picture emerging from price action, on-chain metrics, and derivative markets points to a market at a crossroads. Sellers still influence price direction, yet some signals hint at a potential shift if conditions change.

Cardano (ADA) Selling Pressure Persists Amid Structural Weakness

Technical indicators in recent market reports show Cardano (ADA) struggling to break above key resistance zones, reinforcing the idea that sellers currently hold the upper hand.

Price action remains below several important moving averages, a sign traders interpret as a bearish bias, and momentum oscillators such as the RSI and MACD reflect neutral to weak momentum. Volume metrics are also subdued, running below their averages, suggesting limited conviction behind price moves.

Chart patterns further underscore this uncertainty. Analysts have noted Cardano trading within a long-standing descending formation, a structure that historically signals continued downside risk if breached to the downside.

A failure to hold critical support levels near recent lows could exacerbate losses, with analysts pointing to deeper retracement zones if sellers regain aggressive control.

Despite these pressures, some on-chain indicators show that selling incentives have eased, with a significant drop in the share of ADA held in profit compared to recent weeks.

Institutional Interest and Market Dynamics

Parallel to the technical backdrop, institutional engagement with Cardano has increased. Regulated futures products recently launched on major exchanges have broadened access for professional investors, marking a milestone that places Cardano derivatives alongside established assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Grayscale and other funds have also reportedly adjusted allocations to include ADA, signaling a degree of longer-term interest from some financial firms.

Related Reading: Important Bitcoin Macro Cycle Durations You Should Know About

However, open interest in Cardano futures has at times shown sharp declines, an indicator that leverage and speculative positioning have cooled. This divergence between structural adoption and active trading participation highlights the complexity of Cardano’s current market environment.

Cover image from ChatGPT, ADAUSD chart on Tradingview

With the market shaky and cryptocurrencies continuing their downtrend, an XRP investor has abandoned the token in favor of dog-themed meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB). Her sudden portfolio shift has drawn significant attention in the broader crypto community, with some criticizing her choice of coins and others labeling the move a big mistake.  

Crypto Investor Dumps XRP For Shiba Inu 

Dubai-based XRP investor Sheikhah Alya recently announced on X that she has officially sold all her XRP holdings and bought Shiba Inu. The short post immediately caught the attention of members of the crypto community, with many questioning her decision. 

Although the move may have seemed sudden, Alya has long been a vocal supporter of Shiba Inu, often touting the popular meme coin on her social media page. The former investor had projected earlier on January 30, 2026, that Shiba Inu could reach $1 per token. This ambitious forecast, along with her confidence in the meme coin’s future price, likely motivated her decision to switch from XRP to SHIB.

Alya has faced significant backlash from members of the crypto community who do not share her enthusiasm for Shiba Inu. One member said, “Selling XRP was the wrong choice,” underscoring the cryptocurrency’s previous performance and long-term potential. Others labeled her move “a bad trade” and a mistake, questioning why she chose SHIB over XRP. 

While many disapproved of Alya’s SHIB move, one community member questioned why she chose meme coins at all rather than alternative cryptocurrencies. He called her investment “a bad decision,” reflecting broader skepticism toward meme-based cryptocurrencies, which are known for their highly volatility and risk in certain market conditions. Despite the criticism, a portion of the crypto community supported her SHIB choice and bullish sentiments. 

The Altcoin Price Performance Compared To SHIB This Week

Over the past week, the Shiba Inu price has crashed more than 13%, pushing the meme coin down to $0.0000059. CoinMarketCap data shows that SHIB is down today because its price is moving in line with Bitcoin’s, which recently fell below $70,000. SHIB’s downtrend has also been attributed to extreme fear sentiment, as investors’ confidence in the meme coin continues to deteriorate. 

Despite SHIB’s weak performance, many advocates like Crypto SHIB maintain overly positive outlooks, predicting that the meme coin could reach $1 in the next 30 days. 

In contrast, the XRP price has declined by more than 12% over the past week, and is currently trading above $1.40. The cryptocurrency is only down slightly today, driven by the broader market sell-off. Market analyst CryptoSensei has said that XRP is already showing a strong recovery among top altcoins. He forecasts that the cryptocurrency could soon head back towards $2.

Quick Facts:

• Bybit’s partnership with the Stockholm Open signals a strategic pivot toward high-net-worth and institutional demographics in Europe.
• The gap between institutional interest and on-chain user experience is driving demand for unified infrastructure solutions.
• LiquidChain is addressing liquidity fragmentation by fusing BTC, ETH, and SOL ecosystems into a single execution layer.
• Infrastructure projects are seeing steady capital inflows, with early backers focusing on utility-driven tokenomics over pure governance rights.

The intersection of digital assets and elite sports hit another milestone this week.

Bybit announced its title partnership with the Stockholm Open, rebranding the tournament to the ‘BNP Paribas Nordic Open’ with the exchange as a top-tier partner. This isn’t just about slapping a logo on a court; it’s a calculated push into high-net-worth territory.

By aligning with the oldest ATP indoor tournament, Bybit is positioning itself directly in front of a European institutional audience, a demographic that has historically been skittish about entering the volatile crypto fray.

Why the shift? Sports sponsorships have evolved from simple awareness plays to strategic credibility moves. Just as Crypto.com’s arena naming rights tried to normalize digital assets for retail, Bybit’s entry into the ‘gentleman’s sport’ of tennis targets a sophisticated, capital-rich investor class.

The data suggests exchanges are pivoting marketing spend toward trust-building, anticipating a market shift from retail speculators to long-term holders.

But there’s a catch. Bringing institutional capital on-chain exposes a glaring weakness in the current market structure: infrastructure fragmentation. While exchanges smooth the on-ramp, the actual on-chain experience is still plagued by complex bridging, wrapped asset risks, and liquidity that’s fractured across chains like Ethereum and Solana.

As traditional finance (TradFi) eyes the exit, the rails they’re expected to run on are still being built. This gap between marketing promise and technical reality has shifted smart money focus toward Layer 3 (L3) solutions capable of unifying these ecosystems.

Among the protocols addressing this friction is LiquidChain ($LIQUID), a cross-chain liquidity layer that has quietly started accumulating capital in its early presale stages.

Read more about $LIQUID here.

Unifying Fragmented Liquidity Across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana

The current DeFi landscape effectively forces users and developers into silos. A developer building on Solana can’t easily access Ethereum liquidity without relying on cumbersome bridges or wrapped tokens, mechanisms that have historically been vectors for major hacks.

LiquidChain ($LIQUID) aims to solve this via its Layer 3 infrastructure, designed to fuse Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into a single execution environment.

This distinction is critical. Most ‘interoperability’ protocols merely message between chains. LiquidChain operates as a Cross-Chain Virtual Machine (VM), enabling what the protocol calls ‘Single-Step Execution.’ In practice, a user could stake an asset on Ethereum and take a loan against it on Solana in a single transaction, without manually bridging funds.

For developers, the appeal lies in the ‘Deploy-Once’ architecture, writing code once that can simultaneously tap into the user bases of the three largest blockchains.

Of course, the risk here is execution complexity. Building an L3 that handles verifiable settlement across non-EVM (Bitcoin) and high-speed (Solana) chains is a heavy technical lift. Yet, the demand for a Unified Liquidity Layer is undeniable.

As liquidity fragmentation continues to dilute capital efficiency, protocols that can abstract away the underlying chain are positioned to capture the next wave of DeFi volume.

$LIQUID is available here.

Early Capital Flows Into LiquidChain’s $0.0135 Presale Round

While the broader market reacts to macro signals and exchange partnerships, on-chain metrics show a rotation into infrastructure plays.

LiquidChain has currently raised $533K in its ongoing presale, with tokens priced at $0.0136. This raise amount is notable not for its size relative to the massive ICOs of 2017, but for the steady accumulation during a period where capital is generally risk-averse.

The pricing structure suggests early positioning before the protocol moves toward mainnet deployment. Investors seem to be betting on the ‘transaction fuel’ narrative, where the native $LIQUID token is required to power cross-chain operations and liquidity staking.

Unlike governance-only tokens, infrastructure tokens often derive value from network usage volume. If LiquidChain succeeds in capturing even a fraction of the cross-chain arbitrage and settlement market, the utility demand for the token could theoretically decouple from pure speculation.

What most coverage misses is the timing. With Bitcoin’s ecosystem expanding via L2s and Solana’s dominance in retail memes, the need for a connecting layer hasn’t been higher. The presale data points to a subset of the market hedging against the “winner takes all” chain thesis, opting instead to invest in the rails that connect them all.

$LIQUID is available here.

This article is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments, including presales and Layer 3 protocols, carry high risks, including total loss of capital. Always conduct independent due diligence before investing.

Vitalik Buterin is pushing back against the dominant narrative shaping today’s artificial intelligence industry. As major AI labs frame progress as a competitive sprint toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), the Ethereum co-founder argues that the premise itself is flawed.

In a series of recent posts and comments, Buterin outlined a different approach, one that prioritizes decentralization, privacy, and verification over scale and speed, with Ethereum positioned as a key piece of enabling infrastructure rather than a vehicle for AGI acceleration.

Buterin likens the phrase “working on AGI” to describing Ethereum as simply “working in finance” or “working on computing.” In his view, such framing obscures questions about direction, values, and risk.

Ethereum as Infrastructure for Private and Verifiable AI

A central theme in Buterin’s vision is privacy-preserving interaction with AI systems. He points to growing concerns around data leakage and identity exposure from large language models, especially as AI tools become more embedded in daily decision-making.

To address this, Buterin proposes local LLM tooling that allows AI models to run on user devices, alongside zero-knowledge payment systems that enable anonymous API calls. These tools would make it possible to use remote AI services without linking requests to persistent identities.

He also highlights the importance of client-side verification, cryptographic proofs, and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) attestations to ensure AI outputs can be checked rather than blindly trusted.

This approach reflects a broader “don’t trust, verify” ethos, with AI systems assisting users in auditing smart contracts, interpreting formal proofs, and validating onchain activity.

An Economic Layer for AI-to-AI Coordination

Beyond privacy, Buterin sees Ethereum playing a role as an economic coordination layer for autonomous AI agents. In this model, AI systems could pay each other for services, post security deposits, and resolve disputes using smart contracts rather than centralized platforms.

Use cases include bot-to-bot hiring, API payments, and reputation systems backed by proposed ERC standards such as ERC-8004. Supporters argue that these mechanisms could enable decentralized agent markets where coordination emerges from programmable incentives instead of institutional control.

Buterin has stressed that this economic layer would likely operate on rollups and application-specific layer-2 networks, rather than Ethereum’s base layer.

AI-Assisted Governance and Market Design

The final pillar of Buterin’s framework focuses on governance and market mechanisms that have historically struggled due to human attention limits.

Prediction markets, quadratic voting, and decentralized governance systems often falter at scale. Buterin believes LLMs could help process complexity, aggregate information, and support decision-making without removing human oversight.

Rather than racing toward AGI, Buterin’s vision frames Ethereum as a tool for shaping how AI integrates with society. The emphasis is on coordination, safeguards, and practical infrastructure, an alternative path that challenges the prevailing acceleration-first mindset.

Cover image from ChatGPT, ETHUSD chart on Tradingview

Quick Facts:

• Retail liquidity is fleeing stagnant blue-chip cryptocurrencies and rotating into the meme coin sector for higher volatility.
• Maxi Doge differentiates itself by gamifying the ‘leverage culture’ with holder-only trading competitions and a viral ‘gym bro’ narrative.
• Whale activity confirms institutional interest, with over $628K accumulated in two major transactions, signaling smart money confidence.
• The project combines viral marketing with robust tokenomics, including a $4.5M raise and a staking protocol designed to squeeze circulating supply.

The crypto market is splitting in two.

While major assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum drift sideways, pinned down by macro headwinds and regulatory fog, the meme coin sector is breaking loose. Retail liquidity, frankly bored by the low volatility of ‘blue chip’ assets, is aggressively rotating into high-beta speculative plays.

It’s not just random pumps. It’s a structural shift in how traders behave. Why chase a 2x return on a multi-billion dollar utility token that needs massive capital inflow to move? Traders are increasingly bypassing those giants for micro-caps driven by culture.

The on-chain data backs this up: while ETH gas fees sit at historic lows (signaling weak mainnet activity), decentralized exchange (DEX) volume on meme-heavy chains is cooking.

This rotation cracks open a window for projects blending viral aesthetics with actual utility. The market isn’t just looking for another cute dog anymore; they want a vehicle matching the aggressive, high-leverage mindset of this cycle.

Capitalizing on this demand for ‘high-T’ narratives is Maxi Doge ($MAXI) a project built for the ‘leverage king’ culture. Its presale volume is spiking as traders hunt for the next breakout.

Learn more about Maxi Doge.

1,000x Leverage Culture and The ‘Gym Bro’ Pivot

The gap between winners and dust in the meme sector comes down to the ‘meta.’

The era of lazy derivatives is over. Maxi Doge ($MAXI) positions itself as the antidote to the passive investing style currently failing retail traders. Branding itself around the ‘Never skip leg-day, never skip a pump’ ethos, the project taps into the viral ‘gym bro’ humor dominating Crypto Twitter. But it layers this with a mechanism for active players: holder-only trading competitions.

The project faces a harsh reality of this bull market: retail traders often lack the capital to battle institutional whales. $MAXI attempts to solve this by gamifying the trade. Through its decentralized app (dApp), the project hosts contests where top ROI hunters climb leaderboards for rewards, turning the token from a passive hold into an active participation ticket.

This gamification of volatility matters. It suggests the market is moving toward Play-to-Trade models where community engagement is tied to market performance, not just social media hype.

Plus, the Maxi Fund treasury introduces some staying power often missing in this sector. Rather than relying solely on new buyers for liquidity, a portion of transaction fees goes to a treasury for strategic buybacks and partnership incentives.

This creates a feedback loop where volume, up or down, strengthens the project’s base. That’s crucial when the broader market is chopping sideways.

Check out the Maxi Doge presale.

Whale Wallets Signal Conviction Amidst $4.5M Capital Raise

Retail noise is one thing, but on-chain data shows where the smart money is actually parking. The split between stagnant major coins and exploding presales is clear in Maxi Doge’s recent inflows.

According to the official site, Maxi Doge has raised $4.58M, a figure that stands out given the risk-off mood in traditional finance. With tokens currently priced at $0.0002803, early adopters are betting on significant upside before the public listing.

 

Even more telling than the total raise? The behavior of the heavy hitters. Smart money is moving. Etherscan data shows two high-net-worth wallets accumulated $628K in recent weeks, with the largest single buy hitting $314K on Oct 11, 2025. That kind of accumulation suggests sophisticated actors are hedging their major cap exposure with concentrated bets on early-stage volatility.

The tokenomics encourage this holding pattern through a dynamic staking setup. The smart contract allocates 5% of the total supply to a staking pool, offering daily automatic distribution. This creates a supply shock; as whales lock tokens to capture yield, the circulating supply tightens.

If demand spikes during a meme supercycle, that reduced liquidity can trigger rapid price appreciation. The mix of heavy whale buying and a high-yield staking floor offers a sharp risk-reward ratio for traders tired of watching Bitcoin move 1% a week.

Buy your $MAXI here.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments, especially in presale phases, carry high risks. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing.

Quick Facts:

• Experts like Nickel Digital’s Anatoly Crachilov argue that AI is a tool for efficiency, not a magical solution for market volatility or prediction.
• The market is rotating focus from speculative AI trading bots to projects using AI to solve tangible infrastructure problems.
• SUBBD Token uses AI automation and Web3 rails to disrupt the $85 billion creator economy, offering a solution to high fees and censorship.
• The project offers a fixed 20% APY in its first year to encourage long-term holding and stabilize the token economy during its launch phase.

The idea that artificial intelligence serves as a fail-safe against market volatility is starting to crack. While algorithmic trading and predictive models have become sophisticated, they aren’t immune to the chaotic human elements driving crypto cycles.

Anatoly Crachilov of Nickel Digital Asset Management put it best recently: relying solely on AI to navigate rough market conditions is a flawed strategy. Algorithms crush pattern recognition in stable environments. But during black swan events or extreme macro-economic stress? Human intuition still wins.

That distinction signals a maturity in how the crypto sector views this technology. The ‘AI as a savior’ narrative is fading, replaced by a pragmatic ‘AI as a utility’ thesis. The market is realizing that AI’s true value isn’t in predicting Bitcoin’s price with 100% accuracy, an impossible feat, but in optimizing workflows and disrupting legacy industries.

Smart money is moving away from speculative trading bots and toward infrastructure projects that apply machine learning to solve tangible problems.

When the speculative froth settles, the projects left standing are those offering genuine utility. Nowhere is this more evident than in the $191B content creation industry, where the convergence of Web3 and generative AI is fixing inefficiencies traditional platforms can’t touch.

As the market seeks refuge in utility over hype, SUBBD Token ($SUBBD) has emerged as a solution, merging decentralized finance with advanced AI tools to return control to creators.

Learn more about $SUBBD here.

Transforming the $191B Creator Economy With Decentralized AI Tools

Right now, a centralized monopoly strangles the creator economy. Platforms frequently extract up to 70% of creator earnings while retaining the right to arbitrary bans and shadow-banning.

That centralization creates a single point of failure for millions of livelihoods. SUBBD Token ($SUBBD) addresses these systemic risks by deploying a suite of AI-driven tools on the Ethereum blockchain, ensuring transparency and ownership that Web2 platforms simply can’t match.

It’s not just about payments; it’s about workflow. SUBBD integrates an AI Personal Assistant designed to automate creator interactions, alongside AI Voice Cloning and AI Influencer Creation tools. These features allow creators to scale their output without increasing labor hours—a critical factor in an industry where burnout is rampant.

By using EVM-compatible smart contracts, the project ensures payment flows are automated and immune to the delays typical of traditional banking rails.

The utility here extends to the consumers, too. Users gain access to token-gated exclusive content and loyalty rewards, creating a circular economy. Governance is also decentralized; token holders vote on feature rollouts and creator onboarding, shifting the power dynamic from corporate boardrooms to the community.

In a market skeptical of vaporware, SUBBD’s deployment of proprietary AI models for object recognition and chatbots demonstrates they are actually building.

You can buy $SUBBD here.

SUBBD Token Presale Metrics Signal Shift Toward Utility-Based Assets

While the broader market grapples with volatility, capital is rotating into early-stage projects with clear revenue models. The SUBBD Token presale data reflects this appetite for utility-focused assets.

According to live metrics, the project has successfully raised $1.47M, with tokens currently priced at $0.057495. This capital inflow suggests that despite broader market uncertainty, investors are willing to back protocols that disrupt high-value sectors like the content economy.

The project’s tokenomics are structured to incentivize the long haul rather than short-term flipping. A key feature is the staking protocol, which offers a fixed 20% APY for the first year. This high yield serves a dual purpose: it rewards early adopters for their capital commitment and reduces circulating supply during the critical development phase.

Beyond simple yield, staking unlocks ‘platform benefits,’ including access to exclusive livestreams, behind-the-scenes drops, and XP multipliers for the platform’s gamified elements.

The risk here, as with any utility token, is adoption execution. Can the platform onboard enough creators? However, by targeting both the payment friction (Web3) and the production friction (AI) of the creator economy simultaneously, SUBBD positions itself to capture value from two high-growth narratives.

The data points to a growing demand for platforms that offer reduced fees and greater autonomy, and SUBBD’s presale performance indicates it’s capitalizing on this shift.

Buy $SUBBD here.

The content provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments, including presales and AI-related tokens, carry high risks, including the potential for total loss. Always perform independent due diligence.

Quick Facts:

• Russian official Anatoly Aksakov predicts Bitcoin’s collapse due to lack of state backing, though market data contradicts this outlook.
• Bitcoin Hyper counters utility concerns by integrating the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to bring high-speed smart contracts to Bitcoin.
• Sophisticated investors have poured over $31.3M into the project’s presale, signaling a shift toward Layer 2 infrastructure.
• Whale wallets are actively accumulating, with recent on-chain activity showing seven-figure positioning in the protocol.

Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Market, is at it again. He has once again targeted the world’s leading cryptocurrency, asserting that Bitcoin is ‘destined to collapse.’

As a vocal fan of the Digital Ruble, Aksakov argues that without state backing, decentralized assets simply can’t survive the long haul. It’s a bold stance, especially given Russia’s mixed signals, legalizing industrial mining for tax revenue while strictly banning crypto for buying your morning coffee.

Headline-grabbing doom predictions from central bankers are nothing new (sound familiar?), but the market isn’t flinching. Institutional flows into Bitcoin products remain strong, suggesting investors see this as protectionist noise rather than serious analysis. Yet, Aksakov accidentally hits on a real issue: utility.

If Bitcoin wants to be more than just ‘digital gold’ and survive the pressures Aksakov describes, it has to evolve beyond simple storage.

Traders aren’t fleeing; they’re building. We’re seeing a massive capital rotation into high-performance infrastructure layers. Why? Because the base layer is slow and expensive. Liquidity is aggressively hunting for speed and programmability.

That’s where Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) enters the picture, a project aiming to bridge Bitcoin’s ironclad security with the execution speed modern finance actually demands.

Learn more about $HYPER here.

The First SVM-Powered Bitcoin Layer 2 Redefines Scalability

The main knock against Bitcoin, that it’s too rigid for mass adoption, is being fixed.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) addresses this not by altering the base layer, but by expanding it. By integrating the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) directly as a Bitcoin Layer 2, the network allows for sub-second finality while keeping settlement anchored to Bitcoin’s proof-of-work. In plain English: it’s fast, but it’s still Bitcoin-secure.

This opens up a massive design space for developers. Before now, building complex DeFi or gaming apps on Bitcoin was a nightmare due to Script limitations. With the SVM, Bitcoin Hyper lets devs write in Rust and deploy dApps with Solana-like speeds, thousands of transactions per second, without leaving the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The liquidity implications are huge. A Decentralized Canonical Bridge lets holders actually use their $BTC in high-frequency trading or yield protocols instead of letting it gather dust. This utility effectively counters the ‘collapse’ narrative by turning Bitcoin from a passive rock into a programmable, active capital base.

Get your $HYPER today.

Smart Money Accumulates $31M as Whales Target Infrastructure

While regulators argue over theory, on-chain data shows where the smart money is actually going. The demand for Layer 2 infrastructure isn’t hypothetical.

According to the official presale page, Bitcoin Hyper has already raised $31.3M, signaling strong conviction from early-stage investors betting on the ‘fat protocol’ thesis applied to Bitcoin L2s.

With tokens currently priced at $0.0136754, the project is attracting high-value participants hedging their Bitcoin bets. Smart money is moving.

Etherscan data confirms the trend: two high-net-worth wallets recently scooped up $1M+ worth of tokens, with the largest single buy hitting $500K. This kind of accumulation often happens right before retail catches on, large holders positioning themselves before the wider market grasps the full implications of SVM on Bitcoin.

It’s not just about price appreciation, either. The protocol offers immediate staking after the Token Generation Event (TGE). For yield-focused investors currently priced out of Ethereum’s mainnet (low APYs, high gas), this is a serious draw. By tackling the security-scalability-decentralization trilemma, this Layer 2 is shaping up to be a major liquidity sink for the next cycle.

Buy $HYPER here.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments are volatile and high-risk. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing.