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Wednesday 5 February 2026 – Right now, there’s no better strategy for meme coins in a down market than the one SPX6900 (SPX) has shown with cost-averaging.

Since January 22, a popular meme coin investor has proven that consistent purchases have resulted in a lower drawdown compared to holding the token from then to now. But it takes a special kind of token like SPX to make that work, and Maxi Doge (MAXI) is the next one proving it’s cut from the same cloth.

Maxi Doge is channeling that same memetic, belief-driven energy, staying true to the essence of meme coins. It’s all about being detached from the data and numbers that do nothing but miss the point of what a meme coin is all about.

With the 2026 meme coin supercycle just waiting for the right spark, cost-averaging MAXI at presale could be the smartest play before it takes off.

Right now, MAXI is available for just $0.0002802 per token, but only for the next 13 hours before the price rises in the next round.

DCA Worked for SPX – Now It Could Work for MAXI Too

A meme coin investor going by the handle Maddox on X recently shared a series of transactions that showcase his dollar-cost averaging strategy in SPX.

His first purchase dates back to January 22, when he bought 1,000 USDT worth of SPX at a price of $0.4540, acquiring 2,204.8 SPX tokens.

By his most recent buy on Tuesday, Maddox had made 13 total purchases, amounting to 13,014.07 USDT. With SPX now priced at $0.3104, the value of his portfolio is currently 11,239.74 USDT, reflecting a loss of 1,774.34 USDT or approximately 13.6%.

 

https://twitter.com/maddox00000/status/2018480869498069480

When comparing this to a single, lump-sum investment of $13,000, the drop would be much steeper, leaving a portfolio valued at just 9,029.8 USDT, or a 30.54% loss.

What this highlights is the power of a DCA strategy, especially in a down market like the current meme coin dip, where the market cap sits at only $37 billion. By averaging in over time, losses can be mitigated, and the waiting period for the next supercycle won’t feel as painful or close to tapping out.

However, DCA isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy for meme coins. According to Maddox, it’s best suited for tokens with a unique set of qualities: “a mix of intuition, synchronicities, collective emotional alignment, and the most heart-warming human connections you’ve ever experienced…” He continues, “…it inspires consistency, discipline, virtue, and creativity in you that you never thought you had.”

In other words, Maddox believes the token should feel incredibly meaningful, sparking positive changes in your life in ways you didn’t expect.

And while it’s still in presale, Maxi Doge appears to fit this description perfectly. An alpha version of Dogecoin (DOGE), driven by the simple credo of getting to the top by any means necessary, Maxi Doge is made for the crypto bros who share that same relentless drive to stay ahead of the game.

Why MAXI is Cut From the Same Cloth as SPX

The reason Maxi Doge belongs in the same conversation as SPX is not because of the numbers, but because of what it represents: a belief system. It’s not about getting bogged down in data and proof; it’s about being part of something bigger.

As Maddox put it, with SPX, “You no longer need any numerical proof, evidence, or data. You just know.” That’s the same type of belief echoed by Murad Mahmudov, another key meme coin advocate, who sees community as the driving force behind future trillion-dollar assets. He’s even stated that the next big thing won’t be built on cash flow or fundamentals, but on belief.

 

https://twitter.com/MustStopMurad/status/1952377622333112647

This takes us back to the essence of Dogecoin in its early days, when it was created as a mockery of the fundamentalism surrounding BTC. Yet, the collective belief in that joke transformed it into the multi-billion-dollar asset we know today.

Now, think of Maxi Doge as the modern meme coin version of SPX, wearing the OG’s skin but amplified 1,000x. It’s the next-level version of DOGE that resonates with crypto bros who are all about being the underdog, improving every day, and staying relentless in the pursuit of success.

If that doesn’t spark a fire of determination in your bones, then MAXI – or even SPX – might not be for you.

Sure, the comical image of a muscular Kabosu, hyped up on Red Bull, is still there. But that’s part of staying true to what a meme coin is all about, i.e., detachment from the seriousness of crypto and the reminder that it shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

https://twitter.com/MaxiDoge_/status/2018384401936077154

It’s a meme coin, after all but it’s one that you can DCA into at presale, setting yourself up for a meaningful impact when it lists.

How to Get Ahead in the Maxi Doge Presale

As mentioned, there are only 13 hours left to buy MAXI at its current price of $0.0002802 per token. To join, visit the Maxi Doge Token presale site and connect your wallet of choice, such as Best Wallet, rated as the best crypto wallet in the industry.

You can purchase with ETH, BNB, USDT, or USDC – or pay directly with a bank card. Best Wallet is available on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

Newly bought MAXI tokens can earn a dynamic APY of 68% through the project’s staking pool.

Maxi Doge’s smart contract has been thoroughly audited by Coinsult and SOLIDProof, guaranteeing zero errors in its code.

Be part of the Maxi Doge community by joining the degens on X and Telegram. 

Visit Maxi Doge Token.

Quick Facts:

• Payy’s new L2 solves the transparency bottleneck for banks, allowing discreet on-chain settlement compatible with MetaMask.
• Transaction privacy is insufficient without asset security; traditional encryption remains vulnerable to future quantum decryption attacks.
• BMIC provides the necessary post-quantum cryptography layer, securing wallets and staking with zero public-key exposure.
• With over $430k raised, the project targets the intersection of institutional adoption and advanced cryptographic security.

The friction between blockchain’s radical transparency and traditional finance’s need for discretion has long been a bottleneck for institutional adoption. Now, Payy is moving to break that deadlock.

With the launch of its privacy-enabled Ethereum Layer 2, the protocol uses zero-knowledge proofs to offer banks and fintechs a way to settle transactions on-chain without broadcasting their entire ledger to competitors.

This isn’t just about masking transactions. For years, major financial institutions have hesitated to move proprietary trading algorithms or sensitive settlement layers onto public ledgers like Ethereum.

Why? The ‘dark forest’ of the mempool, where MEV bots and rivals front-run visible trades, is simply too risky. While Payy’s integration with MetaMask suggests a seamless bridge for Web3 natives, the real target is the massive institutional flow that demands regulatory compliance paired with on-chain finality.

But let’s be honest: privacy is only half the battle. While Payy obscures the flow of funds, the assets themselves remain vulnerable to a quieter, existential threat: quantum computing. As banks move billions onto these new rails, they face the ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ vector, where hostile actors collect encrypted data today to crack it once quantum processors mature.

This specific gap, protecting the vault rather than just the transaction, is driving smart money toward BMIC ($BMIC), a project building the first quantum-secure financial stack for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Quantum-Proofing the Institutional Ledger

If Payy secures the pipe, BMIC is engineering the steel plating for the vault. The current cryptographic standards securing the $2.5T crypto market (Elliptic Curve Cryptography) are notoriously vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm.

That’s the method quantum computers will eventually use to reverse-engineer private keys from public addresses. For a retail trader, it’s a risk. For a bank moving nine-figure sums on Payy’s L2? It’s an unacceptable systemic failure point.

BMIC addresses this with a full finance stack running on post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Unlike legacy wallets that expose public keys during signing, BMIC uses a zero public-key exposure protocol. That matters.

It neutralizes the primary vector for quantum attacks before they even begin. The platform’s ‘Quantum Meta-Cloud’ architecture insulates assets from underlying chain vulnerabilities, creating an environment where institutions can stake, store, and transact without fear of retrospective decryption.

The technological leap here is the integration of AI-enhanced threat detection within the wallet infrastructure itself. By combining quantum-resistant algorithms with ERC-4337 smart accounts, BMIC offers a user experience that mimics the ease of MetaMask, essential for Payy’s target demographic, while operating on a security standard that exceeds current military-grade requirements.

As the industry pivots toward privacy L2s, the infrastructure securing the keys themselves becomes the most critical, yet undervalued, layer of the stack.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BMIC’S QUANTUM SECURITY

$0.049474 Entry Point Attracts Defensive Capital

The market is waking up to the reality that privacy rails like Payy need quantum-resistant locks. BMIC has already raised over $432K in its ongoing presale, signaling growing awareness of the ‘quantum threat’ among sophisticated investors.

Currently priced at $0.049474, the token offers an entry point into a sector that many analysts predict will be mandatory for institutional volume by 2026. It’s easy to see why it could be the best new cryptocurrency.

Frankly, the token utility distinguishes the presale raise. $BMIC isn’t just for governance; it fuels the ecosystem’s computational power (via the ‘Burn-to-Compute’ mechanism) and is required for quantum-secure staking. In a market where yield often carries the risk of smart contract exploits or key exposure, BMIC offers a secure staking environment where cryptographic integrity beats complex, risky DeFi loops.

For investors watching the infrastructure narrative, the correlation is clear: as adoption of privacy L2s like Payy grows, the underlying security layer must scale to match the assets it protects. With the presale still under half a million dollars, the valuation hasn’t yet priced in the inevitable shift toward post-quantum standards.

As regulatory frameworks tighten around data security, protocols offering harvest-resistant encryption could decouple from the broader altcoin market.

CHECK OUT THE $BMIC PRESALE PAGE

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets. The “harvest now, decrypt later” threat is a long-term projection. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing.

Punti Chiave

• CME Group sta esplorando il lancio di un token digitale per consentire il trading 24 ore su 24, 7 giorni su 7, e il movimento istantaneo dei collaterali, segnando una svolta epocale nella finanza istituzionale.

• Questa mossa convalida la tecnologia blockchain come superiore ai sistemi bancari tradizionali per la gestione della liquidità e dei regolamenti.

• Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) risponde alla necessità di velocità sulla rete Bitcoin integrando la Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) per un’esecuzione Layer 2 ad alte prestazioni.

• L’interesse del mercato è evidente, con oltre 31 milioni di dollari già raccolti nella prevendita.

Il confine tra finanza tradizionale ed economia decentralizzata si sta sfumando più velocemente di quanto i regolatori riescano a gestire.

CME Group, la borsa di derivati più grande al mondo, starebbe esplorando il lancio di un proprio token digitale, segnalando un cambiamento fondamentale nella struttura del mercato istituzionale. L’obiettivo? Il movimento quasi istantaneo dei collaterali per supportare il trading 24/7.

Chi è nativo del mondo cripto dà tutto questo per scontato, ma per le istituzioni legacy, frenate dagli orari bancari, questo rappresenta il “Sacro Graal”.

Non si tratta solo del token in sé, ma di ciò che rende possibile: tokenizzando i collaterali, il CME sta di fatto ammettendo che l’attuale infrastruttura della finanza globale — con i suoi cicli di regolamento T+1 e le chiusure nei fine settimana — è ormai superata. Il rischio per le banche tradizionali è reale: se un gigante dei derivati costruisce i propri binari di regolamento, chi avrà ancora bisogno delle banche d’affari come intermediari? Lo “smart money” osserva tutto questo non solo come un aggiornamento infrastrutturale, ma come un tacito avallo dell’efficienza della blockchain ai massimi livelli della finanza.

Bitcoin Hyper colma il divario tra sicurezza e velocità

Mentre il CME si concentra sul livello di trading, rimane un collo di bottiglia critico sul livello di esecuzione dell’asset più prezioso al mondo: Bitcoin stesso. Poiché le istituzioni richiedono liquidità 24/7, aumenta la pressione sulla rete Bitcoin affinché gestisca volumi ad alta frequenza.

Francamente, i tempi dei blocchi di 10 minuti del layer di base non possono supportare da soli questo flusso. Questo divario infrastrutturale ha scatenato una corsa verso soluzioni Layer 2 ad alte prestazioni. In prima fila c’è Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), un protocollo progettato esplicitamente per portare l’esecuzione ad alta velocità nell’ecosistema Bitcoin, posizionandosi come il potenziale “motore” per questa nuova era di liquidità istituzionale.

La narrativa che domina questo ciclo non è solo comprare Bitcoin, ma renderlo produttivo. Il CME Group gestisce il modo in cui le istituzioni scambiano; Bitcoin Hyper gestisce il modo in cui l’asset funziona. Essendo il primo Layer 2 di Bitcoin a integrare la Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), il progetto tenta di risolvere un trilemma decennale: mantenere la sicurezza di Bitcoin pur raggiungendo la definitività delle transazioni in meno di un secondo, richiesta dalla moderna DeFi.

Questa convergenza è fondamentale perché permette agli sviluppatori di scrivere smart contract in Rust, il linguaggio preferito per le dApp ad alte prestazioni, ancorando al contempo il regolamento finale su Bitcoin. Pensatela come un passaggio dal concetto di “oro digitale” a quello di “petrolio digitale”.

Utilizzando un’architettura blockchain modulare con un singolo sequencer affidabile e un ancoraggio periodico dello stato al Layer 1 (L1), Bitcoin Hyper offre velocità di transazione che, secondo quanto riferito, superano la stessa Solana, mantenendo al contempo commissioni di gas trascurabili. Volete un’analisi completa del suo funzionamento? Trovate tutto nella nostra guida “Che cos’è Bitcoin Hyper”.

Per un mercato istituzionale che punta al trading 24 ore su 24, 7 giorni su 7, questa utilità è imprescindibile. Un bridge canonico decentralizzato facilita trasferimenti fluidi di $BTC, consentendo la creazione di canali di pagamento in “wrapped $BTC” e protocolli di prestito complessi che non dipendono da custodi centralizzati. I dati indicano una tendenza chiara: man mano che il capitale affluisce verso Bitcoin tramite ETF e futures, la domanda di un livello applicativo scalabile (L2) crea un’opportunità asimmetrica per progetti infrastrutturali come $HYPER.

Vai a Bitcoin Hyper Lo Smart Money fluisce nella prevendita di $HYPER mentre le balene accumulano

Mentre i mercati tradizionali attendono chiarezza normativa sul potenziale token del CME, le metriche on-chain suggeriscono che la liquidità nativa del mondo cripto stia già anticipando la narrativa dei Layer 2. Bitcoin Hyper ha guadagnato un notevole slancio, con la crypto presale che ha raccolto oltre 31 milioni di dollari fino ad oggi. Un’iniezione di capitale di questo livello indica una forte convinzione da parte degli investitori che cercano giocate ad alto potenziale (beta plays) legate al successo di Bitcoin.

L’attuale prezzo del token di 0,0136751 $ offre una barriera d’ingresso contenuta rispetto alla roadmap del progetto. Le balene se ne stanno accorgendo: i dati di Etherscan mostrano che tre wallet “balena” hanno accumulato oltre 1 milione di dollari, con l’acquisto più massiccio registrato a 500.000 $ il 15 gennaio 2026. Gli investitori ad alto patrimonio si stanno posizionando prima che il token approdi sui mercati aperti.

Non si tratta solo di afflussi di capitale grezzo: anche la meccanica di staking del protocollo sta favorendo la fidelizzazione. Gli investitori possono ottenere premi con un APY elevato (stimato intorno al 37-40%) immediatamente dopo il Token Generation Event (TGE), con un modesto periodo di vesting di 7 giorni per chi partecipa alla prevendita.

Questa struttura incoraggia il possesso a lungo termine rispetto alle vendite rapide (“quick flips”), allineando gli interessi della community con la stabilità del protocollo. Con l’ecosistema Bitcoin che evolve da riserva di valore passiva a layer finanziario attivo, i progetti in grado di fondere con successo la velocità (SVM) con la sicurezza (BTC) hanno maggiori probabilità di catturare la parte del leone nell’attività degli sviluppatori.

Scopri Bitcoin Hyper

Quick Facts:

• The CFTC rescinds Biden-era proposals to ban political and event wagering, signaling a major deregulation of prediction markets.
• This regulatory pivot validates high-risk trading strategies, creating a bullish environment for assets centered on leverage and conviction.
• Maxi Doge ($MAXI) capitalizes on this shift by gamifying trading through holder-only competitions and a ‘Leverage King’ brand identity.
• Presale figures top $4.5M.

The regulatory pendulum in Washington hasn’t just swung; it snapped back toward free markets.

By officially rescinding the Biden-era proposal to ban contracts involving political contests, gaming, and war, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fundamentally altered the landscape for high-risk derivatives. This withdrawal, originally spearheaded by former Chair Rostin Behnam, marks a hard stop to the aggressive ‘nanny state’ oversight that characterized the previous administration’s approach to event contracts.

This creates a massive liquidity vacuum. Previously, platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket faced existential threats just for listing congressional control contracts. Now? The rescission (frankly, a surprise to many legal observers) effectively legalizes the financialization of real-world outcomes.

Markets aren’t just seeing this as a win for election betting; they’re interpreting it as a green light for risk assets across the board. When the regulator steps back, volatility steps up. The psychological impact on retail traders is immediate.

Removing these barriers validates the ‘high-stakes’ culture that crypto natives have been building for years. Capital previously sidelined by regulatory fear is now hunting for assets that embody this renewed spirit of conviction and leverage.

As the traditional financial guardrails come down, traders are rotating into projects that gamify volatility rather than run from it. That is the exact macro environment fueling the rise of Maxi Doge ($MAXI).

Unleashing The Leverage Economy With Gym-Bro Precision

The CFTC’s retreat creates a specific narrative opening: the normalization of ‘degen’ trading culture. While traditional finance builds products for safety, the current crypto zeitgeist demands products for amplification.

Maxi Doge sits right at that intersection. Unlike typical meme coins that rely solely on passive holding, this project identifies as a ‘trading community’ built for the 1000X mindset. The branding isn’t about cuteness.

With a 240-lb canine juggernaut mascot, it’s about the ‘heavy lifting’ required to survive a volatile bull market.

Why does this matter to the post-CFTC news cycle? It comes down to utility. As prediction markets open up, retail traders are looking for arenas to prove their edge. $MAXI plans to integrate ‘Holder-Only Trading Competitions’ directly into its ecosystem, gamifying the very activity regulators tried to suppress.

By offering leaderboard rewards to top ROI hunters, the project creates a synergy with the broader market’s shift toward speculative freedom.

Plus, the ‘Maxi Fund’ treasury introduces a layer of strategic capital management often missing in this sector. (The risk here is usually treasury mismanagement, but the project’s smart contract governance aims to mitigate that).

Rather than just a token, it hopes to function as a localized economy for traders who believe leverage is a feature, not a bug. In an environment where the government has stopped trying to protect traders from themselves, tools empowering aggressive strategies are primed to capture market share.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT $MAXI

Smart Money Rotates Into High-Octane Assets

While headlines focus on the CFTC’s legal maneuvering, on-chain data suggests institutional capital is already front-running the expected surge in risk appetite. Smart money is moving.

Etherscan data reveals high-net-worth wallets buying $MAXI, up to sums as large as $314K . This specific timing, aligning with the shifting regulatory rumors, suggests sophisticated actors are positioning for a breakout in ‘culture coins’ offering leverage-like returns.

The financial metrics of the Maxi Doge presale back this up. According to the official presale page, the project has already raised over $4.5M, with tokens currently priced at $0.0002802. That level of capital injection during a presale phase indicates a conviction that extends well beyond simple retail FOMO.

Investors are also looking at yield sustainability. The project offers staking rewards with daily automatic distribution, but unlike static yield farms, the dynamic APY is designed to reward long-term conviction. Think of it as the ‘never skip leg day’ philosophy applied to your portfolio.

For traders watching the CFTC clear the runway for speculative markets, the combination of a $4.5M+ raise and significant whale accumulation signals that $MAXI is positioning itself as a primary vehicle for this new, deregulated cycle.

GET YOUR $MAXI BEFORE THE NEXT PRICE INCREASE

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets, and presale tokens carry significant volatility. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing.

Quick Facts:

• CME Group is exploring a digital token to enable 24/7 trading and instant collateral movement, signaling a major shift in institutional finance.
• The move validates blockchain technology as superior to traditional banking rails for settlement and liquidity management.
• Bitcoin Hyper addresses the need for speed on the Bitcoin network by integrating the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) for high-performance Layer 2 execution.
• Early market interest is evident, with over $31M raised in the presale.

The line between traditional finance and the decentralized economy is blurring faster than regulators can keep up.

CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, is reportedly exploring the launch of its own digital token, signaling a fundamental shift in institutional market structure. The objective? Near-instant collateral movement to support 24/7 trading.

Crypto natives take this for granted, but for legacy institutions shackled by banking hours, it’s the holy grail.

It’s less about the token itself and more about what it unlocks. By tokenizing collateral, CME is effectively admitting that the existing plumbing of global finance, T+1 settlement cycles, and weekend closures, is cooked. The risk for traditional banks is real.

If a derivatives giant builds its own settlement rails, who needs intermediary clearing banks? Smart money is watching this not just as an infrastructure upgrade, but as a tacit endorsement of blockchain efficiency at the highest level of finance.

While CME focuses on the trading layer, a critical bottleneck remains on the execution layer of the world’s most valuable asset: Bitcoin itself. As institutions demand 24/7 liquidity, pressure mounts on Bitcoin’s network to handle high-frequency volume.

Frankly, the base layer’s 10-minute block times can’t support this throughput alone. That infrastructure gap triggered a rush into high-performance Layer 2 solutions. Leading the charge? Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), a protocol explicitly engineered to bring high-speed execution to the Bitcoin ecosystem, is positioning itself as the potential engine room for this new era of institutional liquidity.

Bitcoin Hyper Bridges The Gap Between Security And Speed

The narrative dominating this cycle isn’t just buying Bitcoin, it’s making it productive. CME Group handles how institutions trade; Bitcoin Hyper handles how the asset functions. As the first Bitcoin Layer 2 to integrate the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), the project attempts to solve a decade-old trilemma: maintaining Bitcoin’s security while hitting the sub-second finality modern DeFi demands.

That convergence matters. It allows developers to write smart contracts in Rust, the language of choice for high-performance dApps, while anchoring final settlement on Bitcoin. Think of it as a shift from ‘digital gold’ to ‘digital oil.’

Using a modular blockchain architecture with a single trusted sequencer and periodic L1 state anchoring, Bitcoin Hyper delivers transaction speeds that reportedly outpace Solana itself, all while keeping gas fees negligible. Want a full breakdown of how it works? We’ve got you covered in our ‘What is Bitcoin Hyper‘ guide.

For an institutional market eyeing 24/7 trading, this utility is non-negotiable. A decentralized canonical bridge facilitates seamless $BTC transfers, allowing for the creation of wrapped $BTC payment rails and complex lending protocols that don’t rely on centralized custodians. The data points to a clear trend: as capital flows into Bitcoin via ETFs and futures, the demand for a scalable application layer (L2) creates an asymmetric opportunity for infrastructure plays like $HYPER.

EXplore the $HYPER presale

Smart Money Flows Into $HYPER Presale As Whales Accumulate

While legacy markets wait for regulatory clarity on CME’s potential token, on-chain metrics suggest crypto-native liquidity is already front-running the L2 narrative. Bitcoin Hyper has picked up serious steam, with the official presale raising over $31M to date. That level of capital injection hints at high conviction from investors looking for beta plays on Bitcoin’s success.

The current token price of $0.0136751 offers a low entry barrier relative to the roadmap. Whales are taking notice. Check the chain: Etherscan records show 3 whale wallets accumulated over $1M with the largest buy at $500K. High-net-worth individuals are positioning themselves before the token hits open markets.

It’s not just raw capital inflows—the protocol’s staking mechanics are driving retention too. Investors can snag high APY rewards immediately after the Token Generation Event (TGE), with a modest 7-day vesting period for presale stakers.

This structure encourages long-term holding over quick flips, aligning community interests with protocol stability. With the Bitcoin ecosystem evolving from a passive store of value to an active financial layer, projects that can successfully merge speed (SVM) with security (BTC) are likely to capture the lion’s share of developer activity.

HOP ON THE $HYPER TRAIL HERE

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry inherent risks, including volatility and market unpredictability. Always conduct your own due diligence.

Vitalik Buterin is signaling a major reframing of Ethereum’s layer-2 narrative: not the death of rollups, but the end of the idea that L2s are shards whose primary job is scaling the network. With L1 fees now low and gas limit projected to rise sharply in 2026, he argues the rollup-centric roadmap’s original premise no longer fits the reality on the ground.

Buterin opened his X post on Feb. 3 by pointing to two pressures that have been building in parallel: L2s have moved to “stage 2” far more slowly than expected, and Ethereum mainnet is scaling in its own right. In his telling, those trends break the old mental model in both directions.

“Ethereum needs to scale,” he wrote, recapping what he framed as the original thesis. “The definition of ‘Ethereum scaling’ is the existence of large quantities of block space that is backed by the full faith and credit of Ethereum… block space where, if you do things (including with ETH) inside that block space, your activities are guaranteed to be valid, uncensored, unreverted, untouched, as long as Ethereum itself functions. If you create a 10000 TPS EVM where its connection to L1 is mediated by a multisig bridge, then you are not scaling Ethereum.”

The punchline is blunt: “This vision no longer makes sense.” Buterin says L1 doesn’t need L2s to serve as “branded shards” if base-layer capacity is expanding, and he’s increasingly skeptical that many L2s either can or want to meet the security and control expectations that label implies. He pointed to at least one L2 that, in his words, “may never want to go beyond stage 1,” citing not only technical concerns around ZK-EVM safety but also customer-driven regulatory requirements that “require them to have ultimate control.”

Ethereum Layer-2’s Need To Change

That’s not presented as an indictment so much as a categorization shift. If an L2 retains ultimate control, it may still be a valid product for its users, Buterin suggested, but it shouldn’t be marketed as “scaling Ethereum” in the strict sense envisioned by the rollup-centric roadmap. In that context, he argues, “we should stop thinking about L2s as literally being ‘branded shards’, with the social status and responsibilities that this entails.”

Instead, he sketches a spectrum model: some L2s can be tightly backed by ETH’s security guarantees, while others can be looser and more optional depending on user needs. That spectrum framing implicitly makes room for app-specific chains, different trust models, and non-EVM environments—without forcing them into a single “rollup as shard” storyline.

For L2 teams, Buterin’s guidance is straightforward: stop anchoring your identity on scaling alone. If you’re handling ETH or Ethereum-issued assets, he argues “stage 1 at the minimum” matters; otherwise, you’re effectively operating as “just a separate L1 with a bridge.” The real differentiator, in his view, should be features and properties that a larger L1 still won’t provide—whether that’s specialized execution environments, privacy, sequencing characteristics like ultra-low latency, or non-financial use cases.

Buterin says he’s become “more convinced of the value of the native rollup precompile,” especially once Ethereum has enshrined the ZK-EVM proof verification it “need[s] anyway to scale L1.” The idea is a protocol-level precompile that verifies ZK-EVM proofs and is treated as part of Ethereum itself, meaning it would “auto-upgrade along with Ethereum,” and if it shipped with a bug, “Ethereum will hard-fork to fix the bug.”

That last point is the subtext: he wants a path where trustless verification and interoperability are easier to achieve without a “security council,” and where rollups can add custom features while still anchoring their EVM correctness directly to Ethereum. He also tied this direction to the prospect of synchronous composability: transactions that can safely span L1 and L2 liquidity with tight coupling, referencing ongoing research on combining preconfirmations with based rollups and real-time proving.

Buterin’s conclusion leaves room for uncomfortable outcomes. A permissionless ecosystem will produce chains with “trust-dependent, or backdoored, or otherwise insecure” elements, he wrote, calling that “unavoidable.” The job, as he frames it, is to make guarantees legible to users while strengthening Ethereum’s base layer, suggesting that the next phase of L2 competition may be less about who “scales Ethereum,” and more about who can credibly define, and prove, what they’re actually offering.

At press time, ETH traded at $2,256.

Questions around whether XRP can be copied often focus on open-source code and blockchain forks, but a recent explanation shared by an XRP community member points attention to something deeper. 

His comments are focused on Ripple’s patented payment architecture and how XRP’s real function is protected not just by network effects and liquidity but by intellectual property that governs how value actually moves across financial systems.

XRP Is Legally Protected By Patents

The XRP community member, known as Wilberforce Theophilus, pointed to U.S. Patent No. 10,902,416 as a reason why XRP cannot be recreated by another cryptocurrency. This patent covers a system for settling cross-border payments using a digital asset as a bridge between different currencies and institutions. 

The focus is on the full settlement process that removes the need for pre-funded accounts and reduces cost and time. The patented flow describes how liquidity is sourced, exchanged, and settled using XRP. With this patent, it means that no cryptocurrency can perform this function without XRP. 

The second patent, U.S. Patent No. 11,998,003, builds on Ripple’s earlier designs and is designed to cover advanced interoperability between different ledgers and payment networks. This protection applies to how disparate systems are linked together into a single payment flow that can operate across jurisdictions and infrastructures. 

According to Wilberforce’s explanation, this is where replication becomes impossible in practice. Even if another project designs a fast blockchain, it cannot copy Ripple’s exact architecture for connecting banks, payment providers, and blockchains with XRP embedded as the settlement medium. That architecture is legally protected.

Why Copying The Code Is Not The Same As Copying XRP

The patents mentioned above are only a few from the total number of patents held by Ripple Labs, XRP’s parent company. As it stands, Ripple Labs holds approximately 39 patents globally, out of which 18 have been granted. 

At a surface level, parts of the XRP Ledger are open source, which means developers can study the code and even fork it to create similar-looking networks. This has led to assumptions that XRP itself can be easily replicated. 

A team could replicate the consensus mechanism, transaction speed, and fee structure and even issue a new token that functions almost identically on paper. In that narrow technical sense, then XRP can be copied. However, XRP’s value does not come from the code alone.

XRP’s value can be attributed to over a decade of live operation, deep exchange liquidity across jurisdictions, and its association with Ripple, which has spent years building relationships with banks, payment providers, regulators, and institutions. 

The software defines how transactions are processed on a ledger, but it does not define the legally protected system that uses XRP as a bridge asset between financial institutions. Ripple, for one, is working fervently to position XRP as the bridge asset, with a recent example being the expansion into the Middle East with a partnership with Riyad Bank.

BitMine chairman Tom Lee has responded to talks about the firm’s unrealized Ethereum treaury losses, arguing they are part of the design.

BitMine’s Ethereum Holdings Are In Notable Loss After The Crash

The digital asset sector has seen a major bearish turn over the past week and Ethereum has been among the worst-hit assets, declining by nearly 25%. A consequence of this drawdown has been that BitMine, the largest corporate holder of ETH, has witnessed its reserves go into a significant loss.

BitMine is still relatively new in the treasury space, having adopted Ethereum on its balance sheet in only June of last year. Despite the short span that the strategy has had to run, the firm has already accumulated a notable amount of the cryptocurrency. As of a Monday press release, BitMine holds 4,285,125 ETH, equivalent to 3.55% of the asset’s total supply in circulation.

However, since BitMine started buying right on the heels of the ETH bull rally, a lot of its tokens were purchased at levels much higher than today’s. The market downturn that followed the price growth already pushed the company’s holdings into loss, and the latest price crash has magnified them further.

Discussions related to BitMine’s upwards of $6 billion in unrealized Ethereum losses have begun circulating on social media, with some users criticizing the treasury company. Chairman Thomas “Tom” Lee has addressed the topic in an X post, quote-reposting one such user.

Lee said that the criticism “misses the point of an ethereum treasury,” explaining that BitMine is designed to track the ETH price and outperform it over a cycle. With the market currently being in a downturn, he added, unrealized losses on the company’s holdings are to be expected during such periods.

The chairman argued that this isn’t a bug, rather “it’s a feature.” He compared the firm’s situation to that of index exchange-traded funds (ETFs), saying, “shall we call out all index ETFs for their losses?”

During this downtrend, BitMine has been making a push toward staking, rapidly locking up its supply in the Ethereum staking contract to generate some passive income. So far, the firm has staked 2,897,459 ETH, corresponding to roughly 67% of its holdings.

The recent market downturn has been so intense that even the longstanding Strategy has seen its profit-loss status come under threat, with Bitcoin currently trading right around its cost basis. Strategy is the largest digital asset treasury company in the world with 713,502 BTC sitting in its reserves, but these massive $54.3 billion holdings would go underwater if the cryptocurrency losses $76,000.

ETH Price

Ethereum saw a drop into the low $2,100 levels on Tuesday, but the coin has since seen a rebound back to $2,250.

Galaxy Digital posted a heavy loss for the year as the crypto slump bit into its holdings and trading business. The numbers show a company that weathered big markdowns on digital assets while trying to bulk up its cash and new revenue streams.

Losses And Liquidity

Reports say Galaxy recorded a GAAP net loss of $241 million for the full year, and a much larger hit in the fourth quarter alone: a $482 million net loss.

The quarterly shortfall came after a steep drop in the value of the firm’s crypto holdings and lower trading volumes, which together pushed reported results well below Wall Street expectations.

The Downturn Behind The Numbers

According to the company’s results, the value of its digital assets and investments fell sharply late in the year, producing most of the headline losses.

Trading activity cooled, and that reduced fees and transaction income. At the same time, one-time charges tied to mining infrastructure and a corporate reorganization added to the drag on annual results.

Data Center And New Business

Galaxy has not only been a crypto trading and asset management shop. It has been building out a large data-center footprint in Texas, including the Helios campus with approvals to scale power capacity to over 1.6 GW.

The company says that infrastructure work and deals with cloud partners could produce steadier revenue streams over time, even if crypto markets stay weak in the near term.

Cash Cushion And Balance-Sheet Moves

Reports note that Galaxy finished the year with roughly $2.6 billion in cash and stablecoins, a position management highlights as a buffer against further market volatility.

The firm also raised capital and tapped debt markets late in the year, steps meant to preserve optionality while trading revenues slump.

At the same time, some asset management lines reported record activity, which helped offset a part of the losses when measured on an adjusted basis.

Market Reaction And Outlook

The market reacted quickly. Shares slid in premarket trading after the release and then fell further as investors digested the scale of the write-downs.

Analysts are split: some see the data-center push as a sensible hedge against volatile crypto returns, while others point out that near-term earnings will remain pressured until trading volumes and asset prices recover.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

After a significant pullback this week and a bottom at $74,000, analysts suggest Bitcoin (BTC) is now poised to test former resistance levels around $80,600. According to technical analysis from market expert Tara, Bitcoin’s structure remains bullish, with technical indicators pointing to further upside despite the ongoing downtrend. She has identified potential price targets that could be reached if momentum continues, and outlined invalidation zones that traders should monitor closely. 

Bitcoin To Test Key Resistance After Double Bottom

In a Monday X post, Tara noted that Bitcoin has formed a classic double bottom around $74,000, following last week’s significant price crash. She noted that the cryptocurrency is now retracing upward from that zone and steadily approaching its next resistance level. 

Tara has said that the market is entering the final stages of its prolonged corrective cycle. As a result, she has outlined her expectations for BTC’s next moves, presenting both bullish and bearish scenarios depending on how the cryptocurrency’s price reacts to key resistance levels. 

The analyst anticipates a three-step movement. First, Bitcoin is expected to climb toward the Wave A resistance level near $80,600 in the chart. Afterwhich, she expects the cryptocurrency to experience a minor retracement down to $77,600. Following this pullback, Tara believes BTC could see a bullish reversal and return above the $80,000 region. She has projected a surge toward the 0.382 macro Fibonacci level, which also approximately aligns with $83,700. 

Tara’s projection does not stop there. She believes that after this initial climb to $83,700, BTC could experience one final pullback, targeting the macro 0.5 support level around $70,700. She identifies this area as the Wave 4 invalidation level and noted that it would be unsurprising for Bitcoin to test this new low as support before entering Wave 5.  

Invalidation Levels And Wave 5 Expectations

When asked by a community member what Bitcoin’s next move could be if it drops further and invalidates Wave 4, Tara responded that even if Bitcoin targets Wave 2 lows, it will still find and hold support at $70,700. She added that the cryptocurrency would inevitably test the $100,000 level, which would be a defining moment for the cryptocurrency.

The analyst also shared her bullish target for Wave 5. She forecasted that once Bitcoin enters this final wave, it could skyrocket to $150,000. She added that if the cryptocurrency were to drop to the $70,700 support level, then the Wave 5 target would adjust slightly to $145,000, still marking a fresh all-time high for BTC.

As of now, Tara says Bitcoin is filling up support at every macro level. She noted that it has already filled the 0.236 and 0.382 Fibonacci support levels and is now targeting the final 0.5 Fib support. The analyst also emphasized that Bitcoin’s $150,000 Wave 5 target has not changed since the Wave 3 top, reinforcing the cryptocurrency’s long-term bullish outlook.

Bitcoin’s price is experiencing one of its steepest declines ever for this cycle, after falling by nearly 50% from its all-time high of $126,000. The decline has ultimately triggered a crucial shift in the sentiment of BTC large holders and retail investors, who appear to be moving on separate trajectories.

Smart Money Steps Back, Retail Embraces Risk

While the price of Bitcoin has fallen sharply towards the $73,000 mark, a key divergence has emerged among BTC investors, which could play a role in its next direction. Specifically, this ongoing divergence is being observed among large BTC holders or whales and retail holders.

A recent analysis by Joao Wedson, a market expert and founder of Alphractal, shows that whales are starting to close their long positions in BTC while retail traders move in the opposite direction. Looking at the chart, the high-net-worth investors are closing their longs opened around the $75,000 price level.

Wedson’s research is primarily centered on the Bitcoin Whale vs Retail Delta metric, which is a powerful tool as it typically anticipates what price will do next. The trend suggests that large players are reducing risk and locking in gains. Meanwhile, smaller traders are increasing their bullish exposure in anticipation of a potential rebound.

This is a typical trend in a highly volatile market, as institutional traders are often opportunistic. During periods like this, these major investors tend to hunt for volatility, open longs and shorts aggressively, and later reduce exposure. 

On the other hand, retail investors tend to be stubborn, which is evidenced by them holding positions longer than they are supposed to. A key driver of this action from the investors is greed rather than structure. According to the expert, two scenarios appear extremely likely now that whales are closing longs or starting new shorts at these levels. 

The first scenario is that Bitcoin will experience steady sideways movement for a few days before deciding its next trajectory. For the second scenario, the price of BTC may continue to move lower. In the meantime, the imbalance raises questions about the short-term viability of the current market structure.

BTC Addresses Are In Distribution Mode

Given the ongoing decline in the Bitcoin price, Joao Wedson shared in another post on X that many BTC wallet addresses appear to be shifting toward a distribution mode. Such a development directly contradicts what most market participants believe in. 

In the past, addresses holding 0.1 BTC to 100 BTC have been the most effective group. When prices are low, this group tends to build up and then disperse into strength when prices are higher. 

Furthermore, this trend challenges a common misconception that relying solely on mega-whale addresses is an unreliable tactic. However, market structure is shaped by coordinated behavior across cohorts, not by isolated large wallets.

Coinbase is facing a civil enforcement action in Nevada after state gaming regulators said the company offered event contracts that look like wagers to local users.

Based on reports, the Nevada Gaming Control Board filed suit in state court asking a judge to stop Coinbase from offering these contracts inside Nevada and to grant a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

Nevada Files Civil Enforcement Action

The complaint says Coinbase’s event contracts operate like unlicensed sports betting under Nevada law, and that the exchange did not hold the required state gaming license to offer them.

The filing seeks immediate court steps to halt the products while the state pursues its claims. Reports note the move follows similar actions against other prediction platforms and comes as the legal fight over where these products belong—state gaming law or federal derivatives law—intensifies.

Background On Prediction Markets And Coinbase’s Response

Prediction markets have grown quickly. Coinbase rolled out a prediction market product that lets customers take positions on the outcomes of sports and other real-world events, working with established market operators.

Coinbase has pushed back by suing multiple states in federal court, arguing that event contracts are regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and not by individual state gaming regulators. Those federal suits targeted Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan, among others.

Federal Regulator Signals New Rules

Reports say the CFTC’s chair has signaled a shift toward clearer federal rules for event contracts and suggested the agency may issue new guidance that affects ongoing state cases.

That announcement could change the legal balance, since a stronger federal stance would bolster exchanges that claim CFTC jurisdiction over these products. Still, state claims press on, and courts will have to sort out who has the power to regulate.

Nevada’s Push Comes As Other States Act

Nevada’s action is not isolated. A Nevada state court recently granted a temporary restraining order that barred another major prediction platform from offering event contracts in the state for a short period while the matter moved toward a hearing.

Regulators in several states have issued cease-and-desist letters or sued operators they say are offering unlicensed wagering.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView

The release of documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has sparked renewed debate within the crypto community, as newly surfaced details appear to show deeper — though still indirect — links between Epstein and some of the earliest institutions and figures connected to Bitcoin (BTC). 

While none of the material provides evidence that Epstein played a role in creating Bitcoin itself, the disclosures have fueled questions about how early crypto infrastructure was funded during a critical period.

Epstein’s Alleged Crypto Investments

The discussion gained momentum after a widely shared social media post by market analyst Hugo Crypto, who summarized what he described as verified information drawn from DOJ documents. 

According to that assessment, Epstein’s involvement with crypto was primarily as an investor and networker, rather than a technical contributor. 

One of the most notable revelations involves US-based crypto exchange Coinbase. DOJ records reportedly show that Epstein invested approximately $3 million into Coinbase in 2014 through IGO Company LLC, an entity organized by Brock Pierce and Blockchain Capital. 

The documents further suggest that Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam was aware of Epstein’s involvement and had expressed interest in meeting him personally. In 2018, Epstein allegedly sold part of his Coinbase stake back to the company for roughly $15 million. 

Another area drawing attention is Blockstream, a major Bitcoin infrastructure company. According to the documents, Epstein participated in Blockstream’s seed round through Joi Ito, with an initial commitment of $50,000 that was later increased to $500,000. 

An April 2014 email attributed to Epstein shows him telling Bitcoin developer Amir Taaki that he had recently hosted “Andy Back,” understood to mean Adam Back, on his private island, Little Saint James. Adam Back has since stated that Epstein’s investment in Blockstream was unwound.

Early Bitcoin Funding At MIT Media Lab

The documents also shed light on Epstein’s indirect connection to Bitcoin Core developers through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. 

After the collapse of the Bitcoin Foundation in 2015 left core developers without funding, Joi Ito reportedly helped bring three of the five core developers — Wladimir van der Laan, Gavin Andresen, and Cory Fields — to MIT’s “Digital Currency Initiative.” 

That initiative was allegedly funded by Epstein’s donations to MIT, which totaled about $850,000 between 2002 and 2017, with roughly $525,000 directed specifically to the Digital Currency Initiative. 

In an internal message cited in the files, Ito allegedly thanked Epstein for gift funds that allowed MIT to “move quickly and win this round.” The developers themselves have said they were unaware of the source of the funding, and internal MIT communications reportedly referred to Epstein as “Voldemort.”

Satoshi Nakamoto Speculation

Speculation around Bitcoin’s anonymous creator has also resurfaced. A screenshot of an email allegedly sent by Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell, claiming that “the pseudonym Satoshi works perfectly,” circulated widely online but has since been debunked. 

Hugo Crypto asserts that the documents confirm that in a 2016 email, Epstein claimed he had “spoken with some of the founders of Bitcoin.” 

Additionally, Epstein’s personal guest lists reportedly include an entry labeled “satoshi (bitcoin)” for a United Nations (UN) Climate Week event, listed alongside figures such as Larry Summers and Peter Thiel. Who that reference was meant to identify remains unknown.

While the documents suggest Epstein had financial exposure to early crypto companies and supported institutions that housed Bitcoin developers, there is no evidence linking him to Bitcoin’s code, cryptography, wallets, or technical design. In that sense, claims that Epstein “built” Bitcoin appear unfounded.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Controversy is sweeping across the XRP community after a crypto market commentator shared shocking details linking Coinbase and American financier and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, with former regulatory actions that impacted XRP. The claims have ignited debate within the community over whether compliance concerns solely drove previous exchange decisions and enforcement activity targeting XRP.

Claimed Ties Connect Coinbase, Epstein, And XRP’s SEC Lawsuit

Shocked reactions have emerged from XRP community members after market expert Crypto Bitlord raised allegations suggesting a possible link between Coinbase’s early investment history, communications tied to Epstein’s legal counsel, and subsequent events surrounding XRP. He argued that emails shared from Coinbase’s early fundraising period showed that entities connected to Epstein invested early in the crypto exchange through intermediary Limited Liability Companies (LLCs). 

The emails show Coinbase Co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong communicating with Darren Indyke, a lawyer who represented Epstein, about a $3 million investment made when Coinbase was still in its early stages. In the messages, Armstrong discussed the possibility of buying back the early investors’ stake since Coinbase had grown in value. He also mentioned changing the name of the company that had initially invested, possibly for privacy or legal reasons.  

Crypto Bitlord claimed that these Epstein emails suggest that funds linked to the deceased sex offender were previously invested in Coinbase. He argued that this link might help explain why the crypto exchange delisted XRP in the US after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple Labs. 

According to the expert, the timing of XRP’s delisting and the SEC investigations suggests coordinated pressure from early Coinbase investors allegedly linked to Epstein, who reportedly wanted to limit XRP’s growth during its formative years. He claimed these investors had pushed for XRP to be removed from the market long before regulatory action followed. As a result, Crypto Bitlord described the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple as a “rigged setup from day one.” 

While there is no public evidence supporting Crypto Bitlord’s claims, he said he is working to piece together the timelines and gather proof. So far, neither Coinbase nor the US SEC has confirmed any Epstein-linked involvement with XRP. The SEC has also consistently maintained that its lawsuit against Ripple was based on securities law concerns. 

Leaked Emails Show The Bill Gates Foundation Evaluating Ripple In 2017

In other news, leaked emails from the Bill Gates-backed Foundation reveal early assessments of Ripple and Stellar compared to the Mojaloop payment platform. The messages, dating back to October 2017, were shared by crypto analyst SMQKE and highlighted internal discussions on overlaps between blockchain systems and potential integrations. 

Myrle Krantz, a developer associated with Apache Fineract, an open-source platform for core banking systems, noted that Mojaloop, a Ripple fork, shares similarities with Stellar, which was also created as a fork of the original Ripple codebase. The correspondence highlights the Gates Foundation’s focus on Ripple’s technology and its influence on Mojaloop’s design. 

With volatility intensifying in the broader cryptocurrency market, the price of Ethereum has fallen sharply, drawing dangerously close to the $2,000 level. While there are speculations that the ongoing trend is akin to a bear market phase, investors seem to be unshaken by the sharp pullback in ETH’s price, with accumulation not showing signs of slowing down.

Investors’ Behavior After Ethereum’s Drop Below Realized Price

Following the sharp pullback on Tuesday, the Ethereum price has now fallen below a key level regarded as the Realized Price. Despite the price experiencing steady downside movements, investors are moving in the opposite direction, as evidenced by their continued interest in the leading altcoin.

Related Reading: Ethereum Holders Jump 3% In January, Clear 175 Million Milestone

According to CW, a market expert and investor, investors continue to steadily stack the altcoin even with ETH trading below its realized price, which puts a large portion of the market in unrealized loss territory. On-chain data points to continued accumulation from large holders or whales and conviction-driven buyers.

What’s interesting about the whale’s action is that these investors are persistently accumulating Ethereum despite being in a loss. Large investors sitting on unrealized losses are still buying, which is a pattern typically linked to heightened stress and shifting sentiment across the network.

Even with the current pullback, ETH inflows into accumulation addresses have also increased. CW highlighted that Ethereum had previously hit this level in April of last year, but it swiftly recovered before rising again. When the buying power of whales remains intact, this implies that the group has found the current price attractive. As a result, a significant rebound in ETH’s price is expected in the near future. 

ETH Seeing Heightened Social Media Interest

Ethereum may be struggling with volatility, but the leading altcoin is experiencing increased interest from investors and social media participants. This is because of price movements, investment strategies, staking, and its potential as a deflationary asset following upgrades like EIP-1559 and the merge.

Related Reading: Here’s How Ethereum Staking Transforms Into A Multi-Billion-Dollar Bet For Bitmine Immersion

Data from Santiment, a popular on-chain data analytics firm, shows that ETH is commonly brought up in flash deals and cryptocurrency trading services, emphasizing its usage across platforms such as Binance, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet. 

ETH’s increased social media mentions are attributed to the massive buying activity by BitMine. The company recently bought a large amount of ETH, signaling robust confidence in the altcoin’s future despite ongoing market volatility and unrealized losses.

CW reported that the company has acquired another 20,000 ETH, valued at approximately $46.04 million, through FalconX. With this purchase, Tom Lee’s Bitmine now boasts over 4.305 million ETH, worth a staggering $9.99 billion, which represents about 3.56% of the total ETH supply. 

Despite this massive figure, Bitmine’s goal is to own 5% of all ETH supply. Bitmine remains the largest Ethereum treasury company in the world, with 2.87 million of its ETH holdings being locked away in staking. Other coins owned by the company include Bitcoin, of which they hold over 193 BTC.

Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama has returned to the X platform, teasing an important update for the SHIB community. This comes just as the meme coin’s price crashed to a 3-year low amid the recent crypto market crash. 

Shiba Inu Lead Developer Returns as Price Hits New Lows

In an X post, the Shiba Inu lead developer revealed that he had an “ultra important” update for the SHIB community. Shytoshi indicated that it was a very important update, noting how it could take 2 more hours to explain and that it was “extremely important to many.” Meanwhile, in a subsequent X post, the developer hinted that the update may be related to AI and a potential integration.

Meanwhile, Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya has yet to comment on what the update may be about. However, he defended Shytoshi following criticisms from some members of the SHIB community over the developer’s cryptic comments. SHIB marketing lead Lucie also commented on Shytoshi’s statement, indicating that she was waiting on the update. 

The Shiba Inu lead developer’s return comes amid the recent crash in the Shiba Inu price, with the meme coin falling to a 3-year low of $0.000006461. SHIB’s crash follows the broader crypto market downtrend, with Bitcoin dropping to a new yearly low of $73,000. Crypto traders also appear to be bearish on the meme coin at the moment as CoinGlass data shows a 4% drop in SHIB’s open interest. 

Furthermore, the long/short ratio is currently below 1, signaling that more traders are shorting Shiba Inu in anticipation of lower prices. The SHIB price is now down year-to-date (YTD), erasing the double-digit gains that it recorded at the start of the year. 

SHIB’s Rebuild Depends On Execution, Not Price

In an X article, Lucie indicated that the key to rebuilding confidence in the Shiba Inu ecosystem is execution and not price. She remarked that real confidence would show up first in behavior, not charts. She outlined ways they can improve this execution, including ensuring steady activity on the Ethereum layer-2 network, Shibarium. 

Furthermore, the Shiba Inu marketing lead stated that they must avoid repeating exploit patterns and ensure a smooth LEASH migration. She also addressed the developers, saying that they have to ship new upgrades without drama. 

Meanwhile, Lucie noted that users must continue interacting on the network even when the Shiba Inu price is stagnant, as this is what a recovery phase looks like. The SHIB executive added that the meme coin sits between two states as an asset that is no longer just a meme coin but one that isn’t yet a mature infrastructure network. 

At the time of writing, the Shiba Inu price is trading at around $0.000006774, down almost 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

A fresh bout of “quantum panic” broke out across Bitcoin X on Tuesday after Castle Island’s Nic Carter and longtime Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo sparred over whether the ecosystem is treating post-quantum security as an urgent protocol priority or a speculative distraction. The exchange landed on a familiar Bitcoin fault line: decentralized development culture versus the market’s appetite for visible coordination and timelines.

The flare-up began with a prompt from Kellan Grenier, who said he wished a “Tier 1 custodian” would partner with Castle Island to “spin up a Quantum Resistance BTC dev tiger team,” arguing there’s a “building wall of worry” that needs to be addressed “head on by reputable forces.” Corallo shot back that prominent Bitcoin developers have been “hard at work on QC for a while,” rejecting the premise that the space is asleep at the wheel.

Post-Quantum Bitcoin Plan Debate Heats Up

Carter disagreed sharply, arguing that scattered individual efforts don’t address the core bottleneck in Bitcoin upgrades: social consensus among the small set of developers and institutions who typically “set pace” for changes that actually ship and get adopted.

He pointed to Bitcoin’s historical upgrade cadence, saying the last two major upgrades took “7–8 years from first proposal to meaningful adoption on chain,” and added that the only named Bitcoin Improvement Proposal he cited as “pertaining to quantum,” BIP360, “has not been co-signed by any major dev,” describing it as “only a first of many, many steps that need to be made.”

Carter’s central claim was that Bitcoin can’t afford to wait for cryptographically relevant quantum computers to be demonstrably real before mobilizing, because the migration burden is asymmetric and slow. “And no, you cannot just ‘wait until CRQCs are real’ to act,” he wrote. “You need to act with a 5–10 year lead time. So if you think QCs might exist in 2035, you need to start acting now.”

He framed the risk in operational terms: custodians, exchanges, and individual holders would need to rotate keys across the entire network within a finite window or face catastrophic loss. He repeatedly linked to his essays arguing quantum timelines are accelerating and that Bitcoin developers should treat the threat proactively.

Corallo rejected both the tone and the factual framing, accusing Carter of manufacturing fear and ignoring ongoing institutional work. “Man you seriously need to stop talking out of your ass,” Corallo wrote, disputing the characterization of post-quantum work as “minuscule” and “scattered.”

He argued that “the top two Bitcoin developer institutions (Blockstream Research and Chaincode) each [have] several people working hard on what a post-quantum Bitcoin upgrade should look like,” and said he has not heard influential developers dismiss quantum as “only driven by investors” or “hype.”

Sleepwalking Or FUD?

The argument also rewound to 2021 debates around Taproot. Carter claimed quantum concerns were raised then and dismissed, calling the risk “far more urgent since.” Corallo countered that Carter was misrepresenting the earlier discussion: “The concern that was dismissed is that taproot made it materially worse, not that there was no risk and that there would never be any risk,” he wrote, adding that he still believes that narrower claim is correct.

As the thread escalated, Carter argued that Bitcoin’s culture of obscured influence and informal governance makes accountability difficult even when the stakes are existential. “There has been turnover in core dev, there has been a deliberate attempt to disguise who is a core dev for liability reasons, and because the most influential bitcoin devs try to keep their importance obscure,” he wrote, suggesting that outsiders can’t easily verify where “consensus” actually sits.

Corallo’s rebuttal was that the work exists, even if it doesn’t present as a public campaign. “That is what it looks like when devs take a problem seriously — research into available options, new cryptographic primitives that are better for Bitcoin than available standard PQC options,” he wrote, arguing that absence of conference-stage messaging is not evidence of inactivity.

A key technical disagreement surfaced late in the exchange: whether post-quantum safety would require essentially every user to migrate. After Carter told another developer it was “a lot more complicated than a simple patch” because “every user individually” would need to migrate “in a finite period of time,” Corallo responded: “No it doesn’t. If you have a wallet derived from a seedphrase, that is actually fine (assuming unsafe spend paths are disabled).”

Christine D. Kim, founder of Protocol Watch, jumped in to argue that Carter’s comparisons to councils and roadmaps in other ecosystems miss Bitcoin’s structure. Bitcoin “isn’t a company,” she wrote, and post-quantum discussions already occur through the usual venues — “the mailing list, IRC meetings, delving bitcoin”, adding that what Carter cited elsewhere can be “marketing… it’s just more centralized.”

At press time, BTC traded at $76,268.

Alors que le marché crypto tente de retrouver un second souffle, certaines projections commencent à faire beaucoup de bruit. Dernière en date : une prédiction avancée par Gemini AI concernant XRP à l’horizon 2026. Une estimation ambitieuse, presque provocante, qui relance le débat autour du potentiel réel du jeton de Ripple.

XRP : au bord d’une explosion inédite ?

XRP est loin d’être un nouvel arrivant. Lancé pour faciliter les paiements transfrontaliers rapides et peu coûteux, le token est au cœur de l’écosystème Ripple, une entreprise qui vise clairement les institutions financières plutôt que le grand public. Cette orientation a longtemps été un frein en termes de narration crypto, mais elle pourrait aussi devenir un atout dans un contexte de régulation accrue.

Sur le plan fondamental, XRP sort progressivement d’une période extrêmement tendue. Le feuilleton judiciaire avec la SEC a pesé lourd sur le prix et la perception du projet. Pourtant, ces derniers mois, le climat s’est nettement apaisé. Ripple continue de signer des partenariats bancaires, notamment en Asie et au Moyen-Orient, là où l’adoption institutionnelle avance plus vite qu’en Europe ou aux États-Unis. Ce n’est pas spectaculaire, mais c’est solide.

Techniquement, la situation est plus intéressante qu’il n’y paraît. XRP évolue depuis longtemps dans une large zone de compression, avec une volatilité historiquement basse pour un actif de cette taille. Ce genre de configuration précède souvent des mouvements violents, sans que l’on sache dans quel sens. Les volumes restent modestes, mais stables. Certains analystes y voient un manque d’intérêt, d’autres une phase d’accumulation discrète. La vérité est probablement entre les deux.

XRP n’est donc pas un pari évident. Mais c’est précisément ce flou qui nourrit aujourd’hui les scénarios les plus extrêmes.

Gemini fait une prédiction impressionnante pour XRP en 2026

C’est dans ce contexte que Gemini AI avance une projection qui a surpris une partie de la communauté. Selon les simulations du modèle, basées sur des cycles de marché, l’évolution de la régulation et l’adoption institutionnelle, XRP pourrait atteindre une zone de prix comprise entre 8 et 12 dollars d’ici 2026, dans un scénario haussier crédible mais non garanti.

Si XRP parvient à consolider sa position comme infrastructure de paiement transfrontalier de référence, tout en bénéficiant d’un marché crypto globalement haussier, une valorisation à deux chiffres devient mathématiquement envisageable à l’horizon 2026. Ce scénario repose toutefois sur une adoption institutionnelle continue et un cadre réglementaire stabilisé.

Cette projection ne doit pas être lue comme une certitude. Gemini AI évoque d’ailleurs plusieurs scénarios alternatifs, dont un plus conservateur où XRP resterait coincé sous les 3 dollars pendant encore plusieurs années. Tout dépendra de facteurs externes difficiles à anticiper : décisions politiques, concurrence d’autres blockchains de paiement, et surtout dynamique globale du marché crypto.

Ce qui rend cette prédiction intéressante, ce n’est pas tant le chiffre avancé que le raisonnement derrière. XRP n’est plus perçu uniquement comme un token spéculatif, mais comme une brique potentielle de l’infrastructure financière mondiale. Cela ne garantit rien, mais cela change la grille de lecture.

En clair, XRP reste un actif clivant. Capable de décevoir pendant longtemps… puis de surprendre brutalement. La prédiction de Gemini AI est peut-être optimiste. Elle n’est pas absurde pour autant. Et c’est précisément ce qui la rend dérangeante.

As uncertainty grows around the fate of the crypto market structure bill (CLARITY Act), newly appointed Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Michael Selig is making a strong case for its passage. 

Selig argues that the legislation moving through Congress could position the United States as the global benchmark — or “gold standard” — for crypto regulation, addressing what he described as years of regulatory ambiguity that have held the industry back.

Clear Crypto Rules Could Arrive Within Months

Speaking in an interview with FOX Business, Selig said the US has long suffered from a lack of clear oversight for digital assets, forcing innovation and capital to move offshore. 

He explained that the proposed crypto market structure legislation is designed to introduce long‑needed clarity by defining a “token taxonomy” and clearly outlining which regulators have authority over different parts of the crypto market. 

For the first time, he added, developers and investors may soon have a framework that clearly defines what qualifies as a security, what does not, and how digital assets should be treated under US law.

Selig also challenged the approach of treating nearly all digital assets as securities, calling it outdated. He argued that many cryptocurrencies function more like commodities and should therefore fall under the CFTC’s jurisdiction rather than being regulated exclusively by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Looking ahead, Selig said he believes the market structure bill could reach President Donald Trump’s desk within the next couple of months. He also praised the president’s leadership and vocal support of the crypto sector, suggesting that executive backing could help push the legislation across the finish line.

Senate Democrats Plan Closed‑Door Meeting

Meanwhile, activity is picking up on Capitol Hill. Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X  (formerly Twitter) that Senate Democrats are planning to reconvene for a closed‑door meeting on crypto market structure.

The meeting, expected to take place this week, would mark the first member‑level Democratic caucus discussion on the issue since the Senate Banking Committee postponed its markup last month.

This comes as the delayed markup occurred last month after pushback from the industry. That opposition included crypto exchange Coinbase withdrawing its support over provisions related to tokenized equities, decentralized finance, and stablecoin rewards and yields. 

As a result, the bill stalled in the Senate Banking Committee, increasing the uncertainty surrounding its eventual passing schedule, even though the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version of the bill passed during last week’s vote.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Quick Facts:

• Dubai’s $280M diamond tokenization validates the trend of moving high-value physical assets onto the blockchain for better liquidity.
• Bitcoin Hyper utilizes the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to bring high-speed smart contracts to Bitcoin, solving the network’s historical speed limitations.
• The project has raised over $31.2M in presale, with whale wallets accumulating significant positions ahead of the public launch.
• The combination of Bitcoin’s security and SVM speed positions this Layer 2 as a prime candidate for hosting future institutional financial products.

The United Arab Emirates is ditching petrodollars for digital infrastructure, fast. The latest move? A massive initiative to tokenize $280 million worth of diamonds in Dubai. Led by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), this isn’t just a fancy ledger entry; it’s the ‘welcome’ mat for Real World Assets (RWAs) entering the institutional blockchain space.

By putting physical gems on a decentralized ledger, Dubai is tackling a liquidity nightmare that has plagued traders for centuries. Diamonds are notoriously hard to move, verification is slow, shipping is risky, and fees are high. Tokenization changes the game. It renders them divisible, instantly transferable, and transparent.

That matters because it provides a blueprint for how trillions of dollars in traditional assets, from real estate to fine art, will eventually migrate on-chain.

But there’s a snag. The infrastructure to handle institutional assets barely exists. While Ethereum ran the early pilots, smart money is looking toward the deepest liquidity pool in crypto: Bitcoin. The problem? Bitcoin doesn’t do complex programmability well, and it’s too slow for modern finance.

That gap has sparked a rush toward Layer 2 solutions capable of handling the load, fueling the rapid ascent of Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER).

As Dubai creates demand for high-value asset tokenization, the market is funding the technical solution. Bitcoin Hyper has emerged as a frontrunner, bridging the gap between Bitcoin’s security and the speed institutions demand.

Get your $HYPER today.

SVM Integration Redefines Bitcoin Scalability

The main bottleneck preventing Bitcoin from hosting high-frequency trading is the network’s 10-minute block time. Wall Street needs sub-second finality. Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) addresses this (somewhat radically) by integrating the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) directly into a Bitcoin Layer 2 framework.

This architectural pivot is crucial. Rather than building a sluggish EVM-compatible layer on top of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Hyper leverages the SVM’s parallel processing. The result? Thousands of transactions per second, a prerequisite for any platform aiming to handle tokenized commodities like Dubai’s diamond initiative.

The project operates as a modular blockchain, using Bitcoin L1 strictly for settlement while the SVM L2 does the heavy lifting.

For developers, this opens the door to writing smart contracts in Rust. It enables complex DeFi applications, high-speed payments, and NFT platforms secured by Bitcoin’s hash power. Plus, the Decentralized Canonical Bridge ensures that $BTC transfers remain trustless, solving a critical vulnerability that plagued previous generation bridges.

Market observers note that this ,best of both worlds, approach, Bitcoin’s security plus Solana’s speed, is exactly the environment RWAs need to flourish on the Bitcoin network.

Whale Accumulation Accelerates as Presale Hits $31.2M

Money talks, and right now, the capital flows suggest the market is betting big on this infrastructure play. According to official data, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) has raised a staggering $31.2M in its ongoing presale. The token, currently priced at $0.0136751, is attracting serious attention from investors seeking exposure to the Bitcoin Layer 2 narrative before the network goes public.

On-chain analysis suggests high-net-worth individuals are positioning themselves aggressively. This specific concentration of capital from ‘smart money’ wallets often precedes broader retail interest, suggesting insiders are betting on the protocol’s long-term utility rather than a quick flip.

The tokenomics structure supports this outlook. With a staking model that offers high APY immediately after the Token Generation Event (TGE), the protocol incentivizes holding. Presale stakers face a reasonable 7-day vesting period, a mechanism designed to prevent immediate sell pressure and stabilize the price during discovery.

As Dubai proves the utility of tokenizing $280 million in hard assets, the protocols that can actually support that volume on Bitcoin are becoming the sector’s most watched assets.

Buy your $HYPER today.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments, including presales, carry inherent risks. Always perform your own due diligence before making investment decisions.