Bitcoin AI Generated News

Input Output Global (IOG) founder Charles Hoskinson announced Thursday that Midnight, the company’s long-awaited privacy-focused blockchain, will go live in the final week of March. The reveal came during Hoskinson’s keynote at Consensus Hong Kong and marks a major milestone in IOG’s push to combine data protection with regulatory compliance in decentralized systems. Midnight is designed as a partner chain to Cardano and centers on selective-disclosure privacy powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. In plain terms, ZK proofs let users prove the validity of transactions or data without exposing the underlying information — a “smart curtain” for blockchain records that keeps data private by default while allowing selective sharing when required. Hoskinson said IOG has “some great collaborations to help us run it,” naming Google and Telegram among partners and hinting at more to come. To demonstrate how Midnight handles privacy at scale, IOG launched the Midnight City Simulation — an interactive platform that showcases the chain’s “rational privacy” model. The simulation presents multiple disclosure levels (public, auditor and “god”) to illustrate how different parties can be granted varying degrees of access, balancing transparency and confidentiality for decentralized applications that must meet regulatory or audit needs. The simulation went live at midnight.city at 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time Thursday, though public access remains restricted until Feb. 26, according to IOG’s press release. Running on the Midnight network, the demo uses AI-driven agents to generate unpredictable, continuous transaction traffic, testing the chain’s capacity to generate and process ZK proofs under realistic load. IOG says this sustained proof-generation is a crucial proof point that the network can scale and operate in real-world conditions. Taken together, the launch timeline, industry partnerships, and the City Simulation position Midnight as a notable attempt to marry on-chain privacy with compliance — a capability many developers and regulators have been watching closely. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Headline: DOJ slaps Paxful with $4M criminal fine after probe finds platform enabled illicit payments The U.S. Department of Justice has ordered peer-to-peer crypto marketplace Paxful to pay a $4 million criminal fine after the company pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges tied to failures in anti-money‑laundering controls and knowingly moving illicit funds. Key facts - Paxful admitted guilt to charges including conspiracy to violate the Travel Act (for promoting illegal prostitution), operating an unlicensed money‑transmitting business, and dealing with funds sourced from criminal activity. - The DOJ said Paxful “profited from moving money for criminals” by promoting weak AML controls and failing to comply with money‑laundering laws, despite being aware that users were running fraud, extortion, prostitution and commercial sex‑trafficking schemes. - Prosecutors initially calculated a criminal penalty of $112.5 million, but reduced the amount to $4 million after determining Paxful lacked the financial capacity to pay the larger sum. - Between December 2015 and December 2022, the DOJ says Paxful acted as a primary payment conduit for Backpage and copycat classified‑ad sites. Roughly $17 million in Bitcoin was routed through Paxful to those platforms, generating millions in company revenue; the DOJ pegged Paxful’s take at about $2.7 million. - The complaint alleges Paxful and its founders marketed the exchange as KYC‑compliant while knowing many customers were engaged in illicit activity, even boasting internally about a so‑called “Backpage Effect” that accelerated growth. - Co‑founder Artur Schaback pleaded guilty in July 2024 to conspiracy to willfully fail to maintain an effective AML program and faces up to five years in prison under his plea agreement. Ray Youssef stepped down in April 2023 amid a public fallout and has since distanced himself from the company’s legal troubles. Company trajectory and fallout Paxful briefly suspended services in April 2023, resumed soon after, and ultimately shut down permanently in late 2025. In a company blog post, Paxful cited unsustainable compliance‑remediation costs and the legal fallout from “historic misconduct” by its original co‑founders as reasons for its closure. What this means for the industry The case is a sharp reminder that peer‑to‑peer crypto marketplaces are under increasing DOJ scrutiny, particularly around AML controls and the risk of facilitating payments for illegal online markets. Enforcement actions like this signal continued pressure on crypto platforms to demonstrate meaningful compliance or face criminal penalties. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Last week's sell-off produced the largest realized loss in bitcoin's history, marking a dramatic capitulation that wiped out billions in holder value. Bitcoin slid from roughly $70,000 to $60,000 on Feb. 5, and on-chain analytics provider Glassnode reports the Entity-Adjusted Realized Loss hit $3.2 billion. That measure counts the USD value of coins moved and sold at a loss while excluding internal transfers between addresses controlled by the same entity. The $3.2 billion figure tops previous extremes, eclipsing the roughly $2.7 billion realized during the 2022 LUNA collapse. Data platform Checkonchain characterized last week’s rout as “a textbook capitulation event,” noting it unfolded quickly, on heavy volume, and crystallized losses among “lowest-conviction” holders — investors who are likeliest to sell during panic. Daily net losses during the plunge exceeded $1.5 billion, making this the single-largest absolute USD loss ever recorded on the bitcoin network. Historically, capitulation events of this scale can coincide with or precede market lows as weaker hands are flushed out, which some analysts view as an early sign of bottom formation. Bitcoin has since recovered off the intraday low and was trading around $67,600 at the time of reporting. Traders and long-term holders will be watching whether the price stabilizes and on-chain indicators confirm a sustainable reversal. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Shiba Inu’s slump shows no signs of easing, but the project’s core team says price action won’t dictate its roadmap. The dog-themed meme coin has been in a prolonged downtrend since last year, slipping through 2025 and into early 2026 amid broad market weakness and elevated investor fear. Pseudonymous Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama addressed the situation in a recent YouTube update, urging the community to look past short-term price movements and focus on long-term ecosystem building. Kusama framed the project’s priorities as technological development, community engagement and rolling out innovative initiatives designed to make the SHIB ecosystem more decentralized and resilient to market volatility. He stressed that temporary dips shouldn’t drive strategy or derail ongoing work inside the network. Price and market backdrop - Performance: Shiba Inu endured a difficult 2025, losing ground in most months. By late 2025, SHIB had dropped roughly 60–70% from the start of the year, according to CryptoRank. Into 2026 the token remains under pressure and largely rangebound. - Current price: At the time of writing SHIB is trading around $0.0000058, down more than 2% over 24 hours and roughly 64% year-to-date. - Sentiment: Fear indicators are flashing red. SHIB’s Fear & Greed index sits in the “fear” zone, while social sentiment and search volume have fallen into “extreme fear,” signaling dwindling retail interest and fewer conversations about the coin online. Analyst outlook Market analyst Crypto GVR sees potential for a rebound. He projects SHIB could first climb into the $0.000005–$0.0000061 range; clearing that area could, in his view, open the door to longer-term gains toward $0.00002–$0.00003. That scenario, however, depends on the token recovering from its current slump and broader market dynamics turning positive. Bottom line Shiba Inu’s price charts look weak and investor sentiment remains cautious, but the development team is emphasising product and ecosystem growth over short-term token moves. Whether that work can rekindle interest and translate into sustained price recovery will depend on execution and macro market conditions. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

XRP continues to split opinion in crypto circles, especially when it comes to long-term price forecasts. One high-profile supporter, known for making bold targets, says the debate is built on a mistaken premise: critics are pricing XRP by looking at history rather than a potential future of real, institutional adoption. On X, analyst BarriC argued that the biggest error investors make is trying to value XRP using a past that never included its intended utility. He’s earned a reputation for consistently calling ambitious price targets for the token, and he claims today’s valuation frameworks are incomplete because they assume XRP will always be a speculative retail asset traded within the familiar crypto cycle: four-year rhythms, Bitcoin halvings, bull runs, altcoin seasons and then bear-market resets. That retail-cycle lens, BarriC says, is why many analysts dismiss very large price targets as fanciful. They lean on charts, historical patterns and market-cap models to conclude prices in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars are unrealistic—arguing that such levels would imply a market cap exceeding major global asset classes. But BarriC counters that those models don’t account for a different path: a shift from exchange speculation to embedded, utility-driven demand inside global finance. “If XRP stops behaving like something you buy on an exchange and becomes a necessary infrastructure token, it won’t be priced like speculation,” BarriC wrote. He has previously projected that, after a phase of real-world utility, XRP could stabilize above $1,000—an outcome that, in his view, follows a different valuation logic than retail-driven markets. Central to the adoption thesis is Ripple’s payments infrastructure and the long-discussed possibility of displacing legacy systems such as SWIFT. Some proponents forecast Ripple and XRP capturing a meaningful share of global payments flows—numbers cited in these scenarios point to the massive $150 trillion annual movement that SWIFT processes. If Ripple were to secure even a portion of that traffic, demand dynamics for XRP would be fundamentally different from today’s environment. Ripple’s recent momentum—partnerships, acquisitions and other strategic moves—has helped fuel optimism and contributed to the company’s rising profile. The firm now ranks among the world’s largest private companies, reportedly sitting at ninth place. Takeaway: The debate over XRP’s future narrows to two core questions—will it remain primarily a speculative token within traditional crypto cycles, or will it transition into a utility embedded in global finance? BarriC and like-minded supporters see the latter as a scenario that invalidates conventional market-cap arguments and could dramatically reshape price expectations. Critics remain unconvinced, pointing to historical trading behavior and valuation math—so the tug-of-war over XRP’s long-term narrative is likely to continue. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Robinhood is pushing beyond trading apps and Bitcoin price ties — starting today with a public testnet for its new Ethereum-based Robinhood Chain. What’s launching - Robinhood Chain, built on Arbitrum, has opened a public testnet, giving developers access to entry points, documentation and full compatibility with standard Ethereum tooling. The rollout — announced by Johann Kerbrat, SVP and GM of Robinhood Crypto, at Consensus Hong Kong — is the first public step since the chain’s reveal at Robinhood’s Cannes keynote last year. Robinhood says infrastructure partners including Alchemy and LayerZero are already building on the network. (Source: company posts on X and Robinhood.) Why it matters - By using Arbitrum as its foundation, Robinhood Chain aims to lean on an established L2 ecosystem while delivering a familiar developer experience for Ethereum toolsets. That could accelerate third‑party dApp development and broaden Robinhood’s crypto product footprint globally — a core stated priority after recent earnings turbulence. Earnings snapshot and context - Q4 2025: record net revenue of $1.28 billion, up 27% year‑over‑year, but short of Wall Street’s $1.34 billion estimate. Crypto revenue was a weak spot, down 38% YoY to $221 million. Quarterly net income fell 34% to $605 million. Earnings per share were $0.66, slightly above the $0.63 forecast. (Source: Robinhood) - FY 2025: record net revenue of $4.5 billion (up 52% vs. 2024); annual net income rose 35% to $1.9 billion. - Volume metrics: crypto volumes increased 3% quarter‑on‑quarter to $82.4 billion; equities volumes climbed 10% to $710 billion; options contracts rose 8% to 659 million. - New revenue drivers: prediction markets and futures revenue surged 375% YoY to $147 million, exceeding equity‑trading revenue for the first time. Market reaction and the narrative shift - HOOD shares dipped after the revenue miss, but commentary in crypto circles argues the sell‑off may have been overdone. As crypto now represents a smaller piece of Robinhood’s overall revenue, investors are increasingly focused on product diversification and international expansion rather than short‑term BTC correlation. - Areas drawing investor attention: prediction markets and futures, banking services, credit cards, tax tools, and net interest income powered by margin and securities lending. Some analysts and investors see Robinhood approaching a potential $5 billion revenue run rate, with an average price target near $145. Takeaway - The Robinhood Chain testnet signals a concrete step toward building a broader Web3 ecosystem within Robinhood’s platform. Coupled with record annual revenue and rapidly growing non‑equities lines like prediction markets, the company appears to be betting on diversification and global expansion to drive the next phase of growth — even as short‑term crypto revenue faces pressure. Disclaimer: AMBCrypto’s content is informational and not investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading is high risk; do your own research before making decisions. © 2026 AMBCrypto Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

XRP has staged a lively rebound after last Thursday’s sharp sell-off, but the path back up still hinges on one key price area — and the larger downtrend remains intact until that level is cleared. What happened - Last week’s aggressive drop pushed XRP’s RSI to multi-year lows, a move analyst CasiTrades says likely amounts to capitulation. That extreme sell-off set the scene for a strong Wave 4 relief bounce. - Despite the short-term momentum, the broader corrective structure hasn’t been decisively broken. There’s still a meaningful chance of one more bearish leg before the correction is complete. Where price stands now - The bounce has already hit the first Wave 4 target: the 0.382 Fibonacci retracement near $1.52. That area sits inside a confluence with a macro 0.65 retracement, making it a logical spot for temporary resistance. - There’s room for the relief rally to extend toward roughly $1.65, where two important retracements — the 0.5 Fib and a macro 0.618 — converge. CasiTrades identifies $1.65 as the “line in the sand” for XRP’s next big move. What comes next - Bull case: A sustained break and flip of $1.65 into support would shift the outlook bullish. The prudent approach in that scenario is to wait for a confirmed back-test of the reclaimed level and use that as a structured entry rather than chasing the rally. - Bear case: Failure to hold $1.65 would likely open the door for a final impulsive leg lower, with potential downside targets near $1.09 and possibly down toward $0.90. Why this setup matters - The recent relief rally has reset the RSI from extreme oversold territory. If price does drop into the lower targets, that move could create a bullish divergence on momentum indicators — often a precursor to strong long-term buying opportunities. - CasiTrades cautions against panic selling. With major technical levels already tested across exchanges, the anticipated final wave down could be shortened or even fail, which would accelerate the shift toward a more sustainable recovery. Bottom line XRP’s short-term momentum is building after a capitulation-like washout, but the market’s next decisive move depends on whether $1.65 holds as resistance or support. Traders should watch that zone closely: a clean break above could herald a real recovery, while rejection would keep the door open for one more corrective leg lower. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Crypto market turbulence has knocked the wind out of Coinbase’s sails — and Wall Street is downgrading its expectations ahead of the exchange’s upcoming earnings. Shares of COIN plunged roughly 8% from Wednesday’s open and were trading around $149 a share at the time of reporting, leaving the stock down about 34% year-to-date, according to Yahoo Finance. “Obviously been a bit of a bloodbath,” Argus Research analyst Kevin Heale told Decrypt, adding he’s watching whether retail and leveraged traders will return to the market. Unusually, Coinbase asked analysts to submit questions ahead of its earnings call on Thursday — a request Heale said was a first for companies he covers. Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While not unprecedented, asking for pre-submitted questions can help management prepare fuller answers, manage time, and limit off-the-cuff remarks that could move markets or create disclosure risks. The bearish tone from analysts follows a broader crypto pullback. Coinbase had beat Q3 estimates in October, reporting more than $1 billion in transaction revenue, but a recent drawdown in crypto prices and trading activity has damped optimism. On Tuesday, JPMorgan trimmed its price target for Coinbase, citing lower trading volumes, a Q4 decline in total crypto market capitalization, and falling USDC circulation. The bank kept an overweight rating but cut its Dec. 2026 price target to $290 from $399. JPMorgan also flagged intensifying competition as a material risk: global crypto spot trading is highly fragmented, and a growing number of exchanges threaten Coinbase’s market share — especially as more rivals pursue public listings. “If Coinbase were to lose market share, the stock would underperform,” the analysts wrote. Other firms followed suit. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered its COIN target from $277 to $221 while maintaining an overweight view, and Citi trimmed its target from $505 to $400 but kept a buy rating. The competitive landscape is shifting: OKX and Kraken have signaled U.S. listing plans, and Gemini completed a $4.4 billion Nasdaq debut in September. The macro picture hasn’t helped. Bitcoin has fallen about 27% over the past month to roughly $66,853, with major altcoins such as Ethereum and XRP suffering even steeper drops. Bitcoin sits about 47% below its peak above $126,000 set last October. Coinbase is set to report Q4 2025 results after the market closes on Thursday — an earnings print analysts and investors will be watching closely for signs of whether trading volumes and revenue can stabilize amid a more crowded exchange landscape. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Uniswap’s governance token jumped after the DEX announced an integration with BlackRock’s tokenized money-market fund, underscoring growing ties between TradFi and DeFi. What happened - Uniswap Labs said it will enable BlackRock’s $2.1 billion tokenized money market product, BUIDL, to trade via UniswapX, the protocol’s RFQ-style marketplace where professional market makers compete to deliver the best price. Securitize—BlackRock’s tokenization partner—will continue to facilitate trading. - The news sent Uniswap’s governance token (UNI) up about 13% in a day, trading around $3.84 on Wednesday, according to CoinGecko. Still, UNI remains down roughly 29% over the past month amid a broader market pullback. Key details and caveats - Uniswap Labs’ release also said BlackRock “made a strategic investment within the Uniswap ecosystem,” but did not disclose the size of that stake. A person familiar with the matter told Decrypt BlackRock plans to buy UNI—which would be the first DeFi token on its balance sheet. BlackRock’s disclosures note any existing investment “may be discontinued at any time.” - Trades for BUIDL on UniswapX will be executed on-chain through the RFQ process used by market makers such as Wintermute and Flowdesk. That setup allows BUIDL tokens to trade like other on-chain assets while preserving some added controls tied to Securitize’s management. Why it matters - BUIDL is one of the largest tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), per RWA.xyz. Its tokens are dollar-pegged and backed by cash and U.S. Treasuries, and unlike many stablecoins, they carry a yield. - Uniswap called the integration a step toward “bridging the gap between traditional finance and DeFi.” Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo framed it as enabling self-custody while bringing traditional trust and regulatory standards to DeFi’s speed and openness—potentially a template for other tokenized real-world assets. Bigger picture - BlackRock executives have publicly argued tokenization will be a major evolution in market infrastructure, enabling near-instant settlement and expanding investable assets. In its 2026 thematic outlook, BlackRock identified Ethereum as a leader in tokenization—relevant because Uniswap launched on Ethereum in 2018 and later rolled out a layer-2 network, Unichain. Bottom line The move links BlackRock’s sizable tokenized product to a major decentralized marketplace, offering a practical use case for RWAs on-chain and a visible institutional nod to DeFi. Whether this translates into sustained demand for UNI or broader institutional adoption will depend on how the integration and any disclosed investments play out. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

MYX Finance plunges 30% in 24 hours, tumbling below $4 as sell-off accelerates MYX Finance (MYX), the Sequoia- and Consensus-backed decentralized liquidity protocol, plunged more than 30% over the past 24 hours, slipping below the $4 mark and briefly trading around $3.88 on Feb. 11, 2026. The token was the worst-performing asset among the top 100 coins on Wednesday, extending a sell-off that has wiped out gains from highs near $6.90 reached last month. Prices are now hovering at levels last seen in early January. Broader market weakness amplifies losses The MYX rout occurred amid a broader market pullback that saw Bitcoin dip back under $66,000. Other mid-cap names including Arbitrum, Bittensor, World Liberty Financial and Jupiter also fell, but none matched MYX’s steep slide. Market sentiment has swung toward “extreme fear,” and BTC’s inability to hold above $70k — with intraday falls toward $65k — has intensified liquidations and panic selling across altcoins. On-chain and trading signals point to capitulation CoinMarketCap data show MYX’s daily trading volume spiked nearly 120% as prices cratered, a classic sign of heavy selling pressure and capitulation. DeFiLlama metrics underscore the weakening fundamentals: MYX’s total value locked (TVL) has dropped to about $27 million, and protocol fees — a key source of revenue — have declined as institutional interest appears to cool. Open interest in MYX perpetual futures has also collapsed to roughly $26 million, down from more than $182 million in October 2025 and $59 million in early January. Technical outlook: downside risks remain Technically, MYX looks bearish. The token has broken decisively below a multi-week ascending channel that supported its year-to-date runup, and it sits under an important ascending trendline that dates to November 2025. The daily RSI is sliding toward oversold territory — signaling weakening momentum, though not yet at extreme oversold levels. Immediate psychological support sits near $3.60; a breach below $3.00 could open the road to a deeper demand zone around $1.85. Any relief rally would face stiff resistance, first around $4.80 from nearby supply clusters and ultimately near the recent peak at $6.90. Bottom line MYX’s sharp drop combines a risk-off crypto environment, elevated selling volumes, shrinking TVL and lower open interest in derivatives — a mix that favors continued downside unless broader market sentiment stabilizes or buying interest returns. Traders should watch BTC for signs of recovery and monitor on-chain liquidity and futures open interest for potential stabilization in MYX. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Headline: Hong Kong doubles down on crypto but warns of “aggressive” UAE competition At Consensus Hong Kong, senior officials and industry figures painted a picture of two competing approaches to crypto regulation — with Hong Kong emphasizing predictability and the UAE pushing an aggressive, centralized playbook. Speaking at the conference, Joseph Chan, Hong Kong’s Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, reiterated the city’s long-standing commitment to digital assets and blockchain. Chan argued Hong Kong’s regulatory stance is a selling point: “Our regulation is transparent, certain and predictable… Be it during a crypto winter or not, Hong Kong has stood by the development of the digital asset industry.” He contrasted that steadiness with jurisdictions that, in his words, may “flip‑flop” as markets ebb and flow. But competition is real. Johnny Ng, founder of web3 investment firm Goldford Group and a member of the CPPCC since 2018, warned that the UAE is pushing hard to capture market share. “The UAE is really aggressive,” Ng said, noting that Dubai and Abu Dhabi have built comprehensive virtual-asset frameworks and concentrated oversight under single, dedicated authorities. He also pointed to Korea’s model, where a specific government body handles crypto issues. Ng urged Hong Kong’s legislature to consider streamlining oversight — proposing that a single position be created to coordinate digital-asset policy — and said he would help connect Hong Kong with international counterparts, including lawmakers in Korea. Where Hong Kong stands on licensing and timelines - The city’s mandatory licensing regime for virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) has been in force for about two and a half years, and 11 licensees have been approved under that framework. - The stablecoin regulatory regime launched in August; Chan said the first batch of stablecoin licenses is targeted for the first quarter of this year. - A license regime for digital-asset dealers and custodians is next on the agenda. Chan said Hong Kong’s financial secretary is expected to table that framework later this year, but warned that multiple consultations and bill readings must take place first. Chan framed the deliberate pace as deliberate policy: “It sounds like a long process, but it’s very important… everyone from the industry knows what’s coming, there is enough time to raise your concerns, so there will be no surprises and everybody knows what’s going to happen next.” Bottom line: Hong Kong is doubling down on a predictable, consultative regulatory model as it seeks to defend market position — even as the UAE’s centralized, aggressive approach ramps up the competition for crypto business and talent. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

BlockFills pauses withdrawals and tightens trading amid crypto rout Institutional crypto brokerage BlockFills has temporarily suspended client deposits and withdrawals and imposed trading restrictions, the Financial Times and Mining Mag report. The Chicago-based platform — partly backed by market-maker Susquehanna Investment Group — handled roughly $60 billion in trading volume last year, the FT says. “In light of recent market and financial conditions, and to further the protection of clients and the firm, BlockFills took the action last week of temporarily suspending client deposits and withdrawals,” a spokesperson told the FT. The firm added that clients “have been able to continue trading with BlockFills for the purpose of opening and closing positions in spot and derivatives trading and select other circumstances.” The move comes as crypto markets plunged last week: Bitcoin fell from around $66,944 to lows near $60,000 before rebounding to roughly $67,000, leaving it about 50% below its record high from last October. That sharp sell-off has raised fresh concerns about liquidity and operational strain at crypto intermediaries. Observers note the episode echoes the 2022 crypto winter, when several platforms suspended withdrawals amid a prolonged bear market and some eventually failed. BlockFills’ actions will be watched closely by institutional clients and counterparties for signs of broader stress in the trading ecosystem. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNET, told Consensus Hong Kong that humans may have only about two years left as the world’s best strategists and thinkers — after that, he predicts, artificial intelligence could begin to outthink us. Goertzel, whose SingularityNET operates a decentralized AI marketplace, framed the timeline as both a prediction and a roadmap: his team is actively working to fuse decentralized AI with blockchain infrastructure, and he believes that convergence will accelerate the arrival of advanced, general-purpose AI. “The human brain is better at taking the imaginative leap to understand the unknown,” he said. “We should enjoy it for a couple more years.” He pointed to real-world AI progress to make the case. Goertzel highlighted his Quantium project’s ability to predict short-term bitcoin (BTC $66,944.44) volatility with high accuracy, while noting that long-term strategic thinking still remains a largely human domain — for now. The implication is clear: machines are already excelling at high-frequency, data-driven tasks while bigger-picture reasoning is the next frontier. That frontier matters a lot to crypto. Goertzel described the current bear market as a “stress test” for the systems that will one day host artificial general intelligence (AGI). In his view, testing infrastructure under tough market conditions is precisely what will reveal whether decentralized platforms are ready for large-scale, mission-critical AI. A notable shift, he said, is underway at industry events: attendees are moving past speculative hype about token prices and exchange-rate swings and toward practical conversations about technology integration. The focus has shifted from the “depressing” volatility of markets to building real-world bridges between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance — and figuring out how blockchain’s guarantees of data sovereignty and security can support the next generation of AI. Goertzel also pointed to an explosion of decentralized AI projects at Consensus Hong Kong as evidence the industry is consolidating around interoperable solutions. He argues that blockchain’s attributes — immutability, distributed governance, and secure data provenance — make it a natural bedrock for AI systems that require trustworthy training data and transparent operation. Bottom line: whether or not AGI truly arrives on a two-year timeline, the crypto and AI communities are increasingly aligned. The current market cycle is being used to harden infrastructure, DeFi integration is moving up the agenda, and decentralized AI is gaining momentum — all developments that could reshape both finance and intelligence in the years to come. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Paxful ordered to pay $4M after guilty plea in prostitution, money‑laundering case Paxful Holdings, the once-popular peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, has been ordered to pay a $4 million penalty after pleading guilty last year to charges that it facilitated illegal prostitution, violated anti-money-laundering laws, and knowingly handled criminal proceeds. The fine was dramatically reduced from initial proposals because prosecutors concluded the company no longer had the ability to pay a larger penalty. According to U.S. authorities, Paxful — widely used in parts of Africa before it shut down in 2023 — processed as much as $3 billion in crypto trades between 2017 and 2019. That volume reportedly included transactions linked to Backpage, the notorious classified-ad platform associated with illicit sex work. On Paxful’s platform, users negotiated swaps of digital assets for cash, prepaid cards, gift cards and other instruments, and prosecutors say the founders marketed the service as a way to evade the Bank Secrecy Act’s anti-money‑laundering protections. “This sentence sends a clear message: companies that turn a blind eye to criminal activity on their platforms will face serious consequences under U.S. law,” said U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for the Eastern District of California. Prosecutors had at one point contemplated a penalty exceeding $112 million, but ultimately determined Paxful’s diminished financial state limited the amount of the fine. The case underscores increasing U.S. enforcement pressure on peer-to-peer crypto platforms and highlights the legal risks that arise when marketplaces fail to implement robust anti-money‑laundering controls. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Headline: Bithumb says internal system flaws caused accidental 620,000 BTC “giveaway” — most coins recovered; market jitters follow South Korea’s Bithumb has blamed serious internal system flaws after a promotional error on Friday accidentally sent customers 620,000 BTC — not the intended 620,000 won — sparking a dramatic, short-lived crisis on the exchange. What happened - During a promo, Bithumb mistakenly credited 620,000 BTC to users instead of 620,000 won (roughly $426). The erroneous BTC amount was worth more than $40 billion at the time. - The exchange halted trading and withdrawals for 695 affected accounts within 35 minutes and managed to recover the vast majority of the mistakenly sent coins. However, 1,786 BTC were sold by users before Bithumb could intervene. - CEO Lee Jae-won told Reuters the exchange actually held about 40,000 BTC at the time — meaning the giveaway amounted to roughly 15 times Bithumb’s reserves. The error was compounded by a 24-hour processing lag that delayed balance updates and allowed the transaction to clear. Regulatory and market fallout - The glitch caused a localized price shock on Bithumb, with Bitcoin tumbling about 17% on the platform. - South Korean regulators have stated that users who sold the coins are legally required to return them. - Bithumb has promised compensation and remedial measures: 20,000 won (about $13.60) to all customers who were on the platform at the time, fee waivers, and other unspecified steps. Wider market context - The incident comes as on-chain metrics show dwindling profit-taking among Bitcoin holders. Analytics firm Glassnode reported the 90-day moving average of the Bitcoin Realized Profit/Loss Ratio has dropped to 1.32 — indicating profits still slightly outpace losses, but by a narrowing margin. Glassnode warned a sustained fall below 1 historically aligns with broad-based capitulation, and the indicator could retest that level if current trends continue. - Bitcoin’s price retraced some gains following the event, trading around $66,500. Why it matters Beyond the immediate monetary and operational fallout, the event raises fresh questions about exchange risk controls and system resilience. For traders and regulators, the episode is a reminder that technical vulnerabilities on major platforms can still produce outsized, rapid market distortions despite modern safeguards. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Bitcoin’s price action can look chaotic on short timeframes, but one analyst says a clear rhythm emerges on the macro scale — and it could help time where the best accumulation and exit windows lie. On X, analyst Tony laid out a cycle framework he says has repeatedly mapped Bitcoin’s major tops and bottoms since 2015. The thesis: each multi-year bull phase runs roughly 1,066 days, followed by a roughly 365-day correction. That cadence, he argues, has shown up in every major cycle over the past decade. Historical pattern, by the numbers - Jan. 8, 2015 → Dec. 17, 2017: a ~1,066-day bull expansion that peaked near the cycle high, followed by a ~365-day decline into Dec. 2018. - Dec. 16, 2018 → Nov. 10, 2021: another ~1,066-day bull run, then a ~365-day bear phase into Nov. 2022. Tony says the most recent cycle fits the template as well: he dates the latest bull from Nov. 22, 2022 to Oct. 6, 2025 — about 1,066 days — culminating near an all-time high of $126,080. What’s next (per the model) - Expect the correction phase to run roughly Oct. 7, 2025 → Oct. 5, 2026 (about 365 days), with price action characterized by lower highs and lower lows until early October 2026. Tony allows for a timing wiggle of roughly 10–20 days. - His chart marks past peaks ($69k in 2021, $126k in 2025) and projects a move down into a strong support band between $40,000–$50,000, where a major bottom could form. He pins a potential final bottom window from mid-September to late November 2026. - After that trough, his projection envisions a return toward a higher target (around $200,000) before the next correction zone. Behavioral dynamics and risk Tony also highlights the emotional swing these cycles create: early buyers celebrate perceived bargains during the sell-off, while later entrants may be frozen by fear when price reaches deep support. At the time of his post BTC was trading near $66,950 — about 47% below the Oct. 2025 peak but still well above the $40k–$50k bottom zone. Under his framework, Bitcoin could yet fall another 40–50% before establishing a cycle low. A note of caution The framework is built on historical regularity and past cycle lengths, not guaranteed law. Tony’s timeline allows some date variance and cycles can be reshaped by macro events, regulation, market structure changes or major flows. This is a probability-based scenario, not investment advice — but it does offer a clear way to think about where Bitcoin might be headed on the multi-year clock. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Braden John Karony, the onetime CEO and founder of SafeMoon, has been sentenced to 100 months (8 years, 4 months) in federal prison after a jury convicted him of securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. What happened - A three‑week trial in May 2025 ended in guilty verdicts on multiple counts. U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee (Eastern District of New York) imposed the 100‑month term after prosecutors pushed for a substantial sentence. - Court records and Justice Department statements say prosecutors proved Karony misled investors about SafeMoon’s liquidity — repeatedly claiming liquidity pools were “locked” — while diverting more than $9 million from those pools to fund a lavish lifestyle. The diverted funds were allegedly used to buy high‑end homes and vehicles. - The FBI characterized the conduct as deliberate theft from investors, many of whom were small‑scale buyers and people on modest incomes, including military veterans. “Not only did Braden John Karony abuse his position as CEO, but he also betrayed his investors’ trust by stealing over $9 million in crypto from his company to fund his lavish lifestyle,” said FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle, Jr. U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. added that Karony “lied to investors from all walks of life.” Legal and financial fallout - The court ordered forfeiture of roughly $7.5 million. Restitution and the full scale of investor losses remain under review in follow‑up hearings; recovering crypto assets can be complex and time‑consuming. - One former SafeMoon executive, Thomas Smith, has pleaded guilty and faces his own penalties. Other co‑founders and associates remain under scrutiny as authorities pursue forfeiture and restitution. - The Justice Department’s handling of the case underscores ongoing U.S. enforcement attention on crypto fraud; observers expect more investigations and prosecutions of allegedly deceptive token projects. Why it matters - The case highlights persistent risks in the crypto space: promotional claims (for example, that liquidity is “locked”) can lull retail investors into a false sense of security. When insiders retain the ability to move funds, retail holders can suffer major losses. - For investors and builders alike, the ruling is a reminder of the legal and reputational consequences of misrepresenting project safeguards and of the importance of transparent governance and custody practices. Image credit: John Karony – Medium; chart: TradingView. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Bitcoin has surfaced at the center of a troubling, high‑profile ransom story as authorities investigate the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84‑year‑old mother of NBC “Today” co‑host Savannah Guthrie. What happened - Nancy Guthrie vanished from her upscale Tucson, Arizona, home on January 31. Reports say investigators found disturbing signs at the residence, including blood on the front porch and the removal of a doorbell camera. - In the days after her disappearance, ransom messages reportedly began circulating to news organizations demanding payment in Bitcoin. A new twist: an offer for information — for crypto - This week brought a surprising development: TMZ reported it received a new note that appears to offer the identity of an individual connected to the case in exchange for cryptocurrency. The outlet said the message included what it described as an active Bitcoin wallet address and read in part: “If they want the name of the individual involved then I want 1 Bitcoin to the following wallet. Time is more than relevant.” - The note was described to media as coming from someone offering information, rather than from the original alleged kidnappers. Why Bitcoin is showing up - Ari Redbord, global head of policy at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, told Fox News Digital that cryptocurrency makes it possible to move large sums quickly — a feature that can attract criminals. He also noted, however, that a 1‑BTC demand is modest relative to the enormous transfers that typically trigger major alerts in large‑scale crypto crime investigations. “It would get more alerting if it was $60 million or $600 million,” he said. Law enforcement response and family plea - The FBI is actively investigating and has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information that leads to Nancy Guthrie’s recovery or to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible. - Savannah Guthrie posted on social media expressing hope and urgency: “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.” Market context - At the time of reporting, Bitcoin was trading at $67,598 — nearly 47% below the $126,000 peak cited from last October’s rally. The situation remains fluid. Authorities are continuing their investigation, and media organizations that received alleged ransom communications have publicly shared details as the case develops. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Shiba Inu’s development team says price isn’t the priority as the meme coin weathers another extended slump. After a brutal 2025 and a muted start to 2026, Shiba Inu (SHIB) remains mired in sideways trading and investor pessimism. Pseudonymous lead developer Shytoshi Kusama addressed the token’s poor price action in a YouTube update this week, arguing that short-term swings shouldn’t dictate the project’s roadmap. Instead, Kusama said the team is focused on building a resilient, decentralized ecosystem through continued technology work, community initiatives and new projects designed to outlast market cycles. The reality on the charts is stark. SHIB endured losses in most months of 2025, with trading volume drying up and volatility cooling—conditions that sapped retail interest. By late 2025 the token had slid roughly 60–70% from the start of the year, per CryptoRank, and at the time of writing it’s trading near $0.0000058 after a more than 2% drop in 24 hours and about a 64% decline year-to-date. Sentiment metrics reflect that pain. SHIB’s Fear & Greed index has slipped into the “fear” zone, while social sentiment and search traffic have plunged into “extreme fear,” indicating far fewer conversations and waning attention from traders and retail investors. Despite the negative backdrop, some analysts still see upside. Market commentator Crypto GVR projects an initial rebound to roughly $0.000005–$0.0000061; a decisive break above that band could, in their view, pave the way toward longer-term targets between $0.00002 and $0.00003. Achieving even the first target, however, would require a recovery from SHIB’s current doldrums and renewed trading interest. Kusama’s message is a reminder that many crypto projects measure progress by more than token price alone. For Shiba Inu, the next phase appears to hinge on technical upgrades, ecosystem-building and community engagement—efforts meant to strengthen the network so it can weather sentiment-driven pullbacks and be ready when market confidence returns. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

Canaan posted its strongest quarterly revenue in three years — but investors barely noticed. The Chinese crypto-mining hardware maker reported fourth-quarter revenue of $196.3 million, a 121.1% year‑over‑year jump that the company said was driven by robust machine demand and higher mining output. Mining revenue specifically rose 98.5% year‑on‑year to $30.4 million, according to Canaan’s disclosures. Canaan also boosted its crypto treasury during the quarter, ending with a record 1,750 BTC (roughly $120 million) and 3,950 ETH (about $7.9 million) on the balance sheet. On the hardware side, the company set a shipment milestone, delivering a record 14.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) in the quarter, while computing-power sales climbed 60% versus a year earlier. Installed mining capacity expanded to 9.91 EH/s, with 7.65 EH/s actively running. These operational gains came amid shifts in the Bitcoin network: the network hashrate peaked near 1,150 EH/s in mid‑October and sat around 980 EH/s by quarter‑end — a backdrop that helps explain demand for hashing power. Despite the upbeat metrics, Canaan’s stock has plunged, putting the company in regulatory peril. CAN traded at about $0.57 at the time of writing (down 6.87% on the day), roughly 18% lower year‑to‑date and down about 70.2% over the past 12 months. On 16 January the company revealed a Nasdaq notice saying it no longer met the exchange’s minimum bid-price requirement. To stave off delisting, Canaan must get its share price back above $1 for at least 10 consecutive trading days within the next 180 days — the deadline is 13 July. In short: the firm’s business performance and balance-sheet crypto hoard show clear operational momentum, but a collapsed share price and Nasdaq warning have shifted the market narrative to survival risk rather than growth. Disclaimer: AMBCrypto’s content is informational only and not investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading carries high risk; do your own research before making decisions. © 2026 AMBCrypto Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news