Tag: management

Crypto Giant Bitwise Files for ZCash, Aave, Sui and Eight Additional Altcoin ETFs With SEC

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:17:17 +0000

Bitwise Asset Management just filed registration statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for 11 new cryptocurrency strategy exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The filings would trade on NYSE Arca if approved, expanding regulated access to major altcoins.

The proposed funds include individual strategy ETFs tracking Aave (AAVE), Zcash (ZEC), Sui (SUI), Uniswap (UNI), Starknet (STRK), Near (NEAR), Bitensor (TAO), Hyperliquid (HYPE), Ethena (ENA), Canton (CC) and Tron (TRX).

Each fund is designed to invest a significant portion of assets in the underlying token, while using related exchange-traded products and derivatives to provide regulated exposure.

Bitwise positions the filings as part of broader efforts to widen institutional and retail access to digital assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, which already have US spot ETF products.

The filings arrive amid forecasts from Bitwise leadership that 2026 will see a significant wave of new crypto ETF launches.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan tells CNBC he expects more than 100 crypto ETFs and exchange-traded products could launch in the United States next year as regulatory clarity improves and index-based products gain traction.

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The post Crypto Giant Bitwise Files for ZCash, Aave, Sui and Eight Additional Altcoin ETFs With SEC appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

Saks Executive Chairman Becomes CEO Amid Retailer’s Potential Bankruptcy

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 18:14:14 +0000

Saks Global Executive Chairman Richard Baker has assumed the additional role of CEO amid reports that the luxury retail company is considering bankruptcy.

Baker succeeds Marc Metrick, who had been CEO since 2015 and stepped down to pursue new opportunities, Saks Global said in a Friday (Jan. 2) press release.

Baker will oversee Saks Global’s luxury retail operations, which include Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks OFF 5TH, Last Call and Horchow, and will work with the management team to advance the company’s transformation, according to the release.

“Across Saks Global, with our deep industry expertise, well-established relationships within the luxury sector and talent employees, we will strengthen our position so that we can capitalize on the many opportunities we see for our company in the luxury market,” Baker said.

Baker thanked Metrick on behalf of the board for “helping to drive significant transformation and growth while solidifying the company’s enduring position in luxury.”

Metrick said in the release that he led Saks Global during a dynamic period in the retail industry and appreciated the support of everyone at the company.

“From building a world-class team to establishing Saks.com as a leading luxury eCommerce platform, I am proud of what we accomplished together,” Metrick said.

It was reported Dec. 22 that Saks Global is considering bankruptcy while facing a $100 million-plus debt payment. The firm is also mulling other ways to boost liquidity, such as raising emergency funding or selling off assets, according to the Bloomberg report.

Saks Global raised billions of dollars in 2024 to fund its turnaround effort, which included the purchase of NMG, the parent company of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, but the deal placed the struggling retailer deeper in debt.

A Saks Global spokesperson told Bloomberg, per the Dec. 22 report: “Together with our key financial stakeholders, we are exploring all potential paths to secure a strong and stable future for Saks Global and advance our transformation while delivering exceptional products, elevated experiences and personalized service to our customers.”

It was reported in August that Saks Global was facing overdue invoices from vendors and had not yet followed through on payments that had been set to resume during the previous months.

The post Saks Executive Chairman Becomes CEO Amid Retailer’s Potential Bankruptcy appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The Fed just leaked a bullish liquidity signal that suggests Bitcoin can front-run a 2026 recovery

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:45:20 +0000

On the last day of 2025, while most traders were half watching fireworks and half pretending they were not checking charts, the quietest corner of the financial system started making a lot of noise.

Banks pulled a record amount of cash from the Federal Reserve’s SRF, about $74.6 billion, on December 31. That number matters because the Standing Repo Facility is the Fed’s pressure valve, banks swap high-quality collateral for overnight cash, and they usually tap it hardest when private funding markets get tight.

Wall Street’s sudden demand for cash looks suspiciously like 2019, but the data tells a deeper story.

Jan 1, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

If you read crypto long enough, you learn that Bitcoin not only trades on narratives, it trades on oxygen. Liquidity is oxygen. When it gets scarce, everything feels heavier, bids thin out, rallies struggle, and every selloff looks sharper than it should.

That is why CryptoSlate, as well as many macro-focused accounts, including Kobeissi, flagged the year-end repo spike as a sign of stress.

The Kobeissi Letter, however, also hinted at something else, a turn in the liquidity tide that could show up in risk assets, including Bitcoin, sooner than people expect.

The repo spike was the symptom, the Fed response was the tell

Year end stress in funding markets happens almost every year, banks want their balance sheets to look clean into reporting dates, they step back from lending, cash becomes less available, and short term rates can wobble.

This time, the wobble was bigger. Alongside the record SRF usage, money also rushed into the Fed’s reverse repo facility, $106 billion on the same day, another classic “play it safe” behavior when balance sheets tighten.

The important part for 2026 is what came next, because the Fed had already started moving before the year-end spike hit its headline.

On December 12, the New York Fed began Treasury bill purchases, about $40 billion in “reserve management purchases,” with the stated goal of keeping reserves ample. That sounds boring, and it is supposed to be. These purchases are marketed as maintenance, the Fed saying it wants the pipes to run smoothly, and the interest rate plumbing to behave.

Markets tend to treat that maintenance as a signal, because it changes the direction of liquidity at the margin.

A month earlier, the Fed also confirmed it would cease the runoff of its securities holdings starting December 1, effectively ending the ongoing drain from quantitative tightening. Even if you never want to call this a pivot, the balance sheet stopped shrinking and then started growing in a targeted way.

That sequence matters, and it matters for Bitcoin, because Bitcoin’s relationship with macro has matured over the last two years.

The ETF era pulled BTC deeper into traditional market flows, and the market now watches the same plumbing signals that credit traders watch.

Why this kind of “plumbing stress” can flip into “plumbing support”

If you want the simple version, banks borrowing $74.6 billion from the SRF does not automatically mean liquidity is improving.

It means cash felt tight enough that they preferred to borrow from the Fed, and that can happen for seasonal reasons, for deeper reasons, or for both.

The part that points toward improving liquidity early in 2026 is the Fed’s willingness to lean against reserve scarcity, and it is doing that with balance sheet tools rather than speeches.

The New York Fed’s RMP statement also signals the pace should remain elevated “for a few months,” because non-reserve liabilities tend to jump around April. That line matters for anyone trying to time liquidity conditions; it suggests the Fed expects this support to run through early spring.

In plain English, the Fed is trying to keep enough cash in the system so banks and dealers do not reach a point where they start rationing liquidity, which could spill into broader markets.

When dealers can fund positions smoothly, market depth improves. When market depth improves, price moves do not need as much force to travel. Bitcoin tends to like that world.

Why traders care about the pipes

Most people experience “liquidity” like they experience weather. They do not see it directly, but they feel it in the air.

In crypto, the feeling shows up as thin weekends, sharp wick downs, and rallies that look strong until they meet a wall of sellers who have been waiting for any bounce to exit.

In traditional finance, the feeling shows up as repo rates jumping, banks retreating, and suddenly everyone starts talking about facilities that almost nobody outside the bond world had heard of.

Year-end funding stress is usually a short story. This one has a longer tail, because it connects to a bigger theme, reserves have been getting tight again.

Volatility has been compressing, the market has been bracing, and it is waiting for a cleaner signal to re-risk.

When the pipes stop rattling, leverage starts to creep back in, and crypto tends to notice before the macro crowd gives it a name.

If the four-year cycle is fading, liquidity becomes the cycle

A lot of people still anchor Bitcoin to the halving calendar. The halving matters; it changes issuance, shapes long-term supply dynamics, and remains part of the story.

Every four years used to matter. Now, it’s the next $500 million ETF inflow that decides whether Bitcoin soars or sinks.

Nov 5, 2025 · Andjela Radmilac

What is changing is the marginal driver, the thing that pushes price week to week and month to month.

Spot ETFs pulled Bitcoin into a world where flows can dominate. You see it in the way the market reacted during 2025: inflows helped push rallies, while outflows and risk-off positioning helped deepen drawdowns.

CryptoSlate has already documented how brutal that reset was in the ETF complex. Total U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF AUM peaked at $169.5B on October 6, and fell to $120.7B by December 4, in CryptoSlate’s ETF AUM breakdown.

When AUM is hit that hard, the market takes a while to rebuild trust. The first requirement for that rebuild is a cleaner liquidity backdrop.

This is where the “cycle might be over” framing becomes useful: it lets you talk about what actually drives the next move and opens the door to looking at macro plumbing without apologizing for it.

Grayscale leans into that idea directly. In its 2026 outlook, the firm argues that 2026 could mark the end of the apparent four-year cycle and that Bitcoin could exceed its previous high in the first half of the year.

Standard Chartered has been making a similar structural point from a different angle; their research head has argued that ETF flows have become a more critical price driver than the classic halving rhythm.

You do not have to agree with every target price in those notes to use the framing; the market structure has changed, and liquidity signals have become more critical.

What to watch in early 2026, the indicators that tell you liquidity is actually improving

If you want a clean checklist that stays useful beyond today’s headlines, here is what matters.

Does SRF usage normalize after the calendar turns?
A sharp fade would support the idea that December was mainly seasonal. Persistent large prints would suggest deeper reserve-tightness and keep the Fed under pressure to keep adding liquidity.
Do Treasury bill purchases keep running at size into Q1?
The New York Fed has already laid out the schedule logic in its RMP statement. If that “few months” turns into a longer program, the liquidity impulse strengthens.
Do broader financial conditions stay loose?
You can track the Chicago Fed’s National Financial Conditions Index via FRED. Loose conditions alongside reserve support is the kind of setup risk assets usually like.
Does crypto native liquidity grow again?
Stablecoins are the simplest proxy for transactional liquidity inside crypto. DefiLlama’s stablecoin dashboard is helpful here; if the total market cap starts rising in a sustained way, it often lines up with improving risk appetite.
Do ETF flows turn from background noise into a steady bid?
Farside’s ETF flows table is the daily tape. One green day does not change a regime, a steady streak does.
Does volatility keep compressing?
A calmer vol regime makes leverage cheaper and makes institutions more comfortable adding exposure.

What liquidity returning could mean for Bitcoin price, a realistic path, not a fantasy candle

The market loves clean narratives. Liquidity improves, Bitcoin pumps, everyone cheers.

Reality moves more slowly.

Liquidity improvements usually show up first as smaller selloffs, better order-book support, and rallies that keep their gains instead of giving everything back overnight. Then flows return, spot buying becomes more consistent, and larger moves become possible.

Fresh Coinglass data reveals a market in a chokehold, where "thick layers" of sell-side liquidity are neutralizing volatility and trapping traders in a controlled range.

Dec 30, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

A reasonable base case for early 2026 looks like this: funding stress eases after year-end, the Fed keeps reserve management purchases elevated, conditions stay loose, and crypto sees a slow rebuild of confidence.

In that world, Bitcoin does not need a new story every week. It needs a market structure that makes it easy for new money to enter, and hard for small pockets of selling to knock the price off a cliff.

A more bullish version layers on two things: a stronger run of ETF inflows and a visible rebound in stablecoin supply growth. That combination turns liquidity support into demand, and demand is what moves the price.

A riskier version keeps the plumbing rattling. If funding stress persists or if another macro shock tightens conditions, liquidity can vanish quickly, and Bitcoin’s beta returns in a hurry.

That is why the repo spike matters. It was a warning light that also forced the system to show its hand.

Banks reached for the Fed’s backstop in size, the Fed had already started adding reserves through bill purchases, and QT runoff had already stopped.

Those are minor details if you live entirely inside crypto.

They are big details if you believe Bitcoin is becoming a macro asset with a new kind of cycle, a liquidity cycle.

Early 2026 could be the first clean test of that idea.

If the pipes stay calm, if reserve support continues, and if flows return, Bitcoin does not need a halving narrative to do what it does best; it just needs oxygen.

The post The Fed just leaked a bullish liquidity signal that suggests Bitcoin can front-run a 2026 recovery appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Musk's xAI launches Grok Business and Enterprise with compelling vault amid ongoing deepfake controversy

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:30:00 +0000

xAI has launched Grok Business and Grok Enterprise, positioning its flagship AI assistant as a secure, team-ready platform for organizational use.

These new tiers offer scalable access to Grok’s most advanced models — Grok 3, Grok 4, and Grok 4 Heavy, already among the most performant and most cost-effective models available in the world — backed by strong administrative controls, privacy guarantees, and a newly introduced premium isolation layer called Enterprise Vault.

But it wouldn’t be a new xAI launch without another avoidable controversy detracting from powerful and potentially helpful new features for enterprises.

As Grok’s enterprise suite debuts, its public-facing deployment is under fire for enabling — and at times posting — non-consensual, AI-generated image manipulations involving women, influencers, and minors. The incident has sparked regulatory scrutiny, public backlash, and questions about whether xAI’s internal safeguards can match the demands of enterprise trust.

Enterprise-readiness: Admin control, Vault isolation, and structured deployment

Grok Business, priced at $30 per seat/month, is designed for small to mid-sized teams.

It includes shared access to Grok’s models, centralized user management, billing, and usage analytics. The platform integrates with Google Drive for document-level search, respecting native file permissions and returning citation-backed responses with quote previews. Shared links are restricted to intended recipients, supporting secure internal collaboration.

For larger organizations, Grok Enterprise — price not listed publicly — expands the administrative stack with features such as custom Single Sign-On (SSO), Directory Sync (SCIM), domain verification, and custom role-based access controls.

Teams can monitor usage in real time from a unified console, invite new users, and enforce data boundaries across departments or business units.

The new Enterprise Vault is available as an add on exclusively for Grok Enterprise customers, and introduces physical and logical isolation from xAI’s consumer infrastructure. Vault customers gain access to:

Dedicated data plane
Application-level encryption
Customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK)

According to xAI, all Grok tiers are compliant with SOC 2, GDPR, and CCPA, and user data is never used to train models.

Comparison: Enterprise-grade AI in a crowded field

With this release, xAI enters a field already populated by well-established enterprise offerings. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Team and Anthropic’s Claude Team are both priced at $25 per seat per month, while Google’s Gemini AI tools are included in Workspace tiers starting at $14/month — with enterprise pricing undisclosed.

What sets Grok apart is its Vault offering, which mirrors OpenAI’s enterprise encryption and regional data residency features but is presented as an add-on for additional isolation.

Anthropic and Google both offer admin controls and SSO, but Grok’s agentic reasoning via Projects and its Collections API enable more complex document workflows than typically supported in productivity-focused assistants.

While xAI’s tooling now aligns with enterprise expectations on paper, the platform’s public handling of safety issues continues to shape broader sentiment.

AI image misuse resurfaces as Grok faces renewed scrutiny

The launch of Grok Business comes just as its public deployment is facing mounting criticism for enabling non-consensual AI image generation.

At the center of the backlash is a surge of prompts issued to Grok via X (formerly Twitter), in which users successfully instructed the assistant to alter photos of real women — including public figures — into sexually explicit or revealing forms.

The issue first appeared in May 2025, as Grok’s image tools expanded and early users began sharing screenshots of manipulated photos. While initially confined to fringe use cases, reports of bikini edits, deepfake-style undressing, and “spicy” mode prompts involving celebrities steadily increased.

By late December 2025, the problem had intensified. Posts from India, Australia, and the U.S. highlighted Grok-generated images targeting Bollywood actors, influencers, and even children under age 18.

In some cases, the AI’s official account appeared to respond to inappropriate prompts with generated content, triggering outrage from both users and regulators.

On January 1, 2026, Grok appeared to have issued a public apology post acknowledging it had generated and posted an image of two underage girls in sexualized attire, stating the incident represented a failure in safeguards and potentially violated U.S. laws on child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

Just hours later, a second post also reportedly from Grok’s account walked back that claim, asserting that no such content had ever been created and the original apology was based on unverified deleted posts.

This contradiction — paired with screenshots circulating across X — fueled widespread distrust. One widely shared thread called the incident “suspicious,” while others pointed out inconsistencies between Grok’s trend summaries and public statements.

Public figures, including rapper Iggy Azalea, called for Grok’s removal. In India, a government minister publicly demanded intervention. Advocacy groups like the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) criticized Grok for enabling tech-facilitated sexual abuse and have urged passage of legislation such as the Take It Down Act to criminalize unauthorized AI-generated explicit content.

A growing Reddit thread from January 1, 2026, catalogues user-submitted examples of inappropriate image generations and now includes thousands of entries. Some posts claim over 80 million Grok images have been generated since late December, with a portion clearly created or shared without subject consent.

For xAI’s enterprise ambitions, the timing couldn’t be worse.

Implications: Operational fit vs reputational risk

xAI’s core message is that Grok Enterprise and Business tiers are isolated, with customer data protected and interactions governed by strict access policies. And technically, that appears accurate. Vault deployments are designed to run independently of xAI’s shared infrastructure. Conversations are not logged for training, and encryption is enforced both at rest and in transit.

But for many enterprise buyers, the issue isn’t infrastructure — it’s optics.

Grok’s X chatbot appears to be a totally separate product, but while it generates headlines about CSAM risks and sexualized edits of public figures, enterprise adoption becomes a branding liability as much as a tooling question.

The lesson is familiar: technical isolation is necessary, but reputational containment is harder. For Grok to gain traction in serious enterprise environments — especially in finance, healthcare, or education — xAI will need to restore trust not just through feature sets, but through clearer moderation policies, transparency in enforcement, and visible commitments to harm prevention.

I reached out to the xAI media team via email to ask about the launch of Grok Business and Enterprise in light of the deepfakes controversy, and to provide further information and assurances against misuse to potential customers. I'll update when I receive a response.

Forward Look: Technical momentum, cautious reception

xAI is continuing to invest in Grok’s enterprise roadmap, promising more third-party app integrations, customizable internal agents, and enhanced project collaboration features. Teams adopting Grok can expect ongoing improvements across admin tooling, agent behavior, and document integration.

But alongside that roadmap, xAI now faces the more complex task of regaining public and professional trust, especially in an environment where data governance, digital consent, and AI safety are inseparable from procurement decisions.

Whether Grok becomes a core enterprise productivity layer or a cautionary tale about safety lagging behind scale may depend less on its features — and more on how its creators respond to the moment.

Kambi Group plc signs multi-year online sportsbook partnership with Pickwin in Mexico

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 12:15:08 +0000

The sports betting solutions company Kambi Group has announced a multi-year partnership with Pickwin as it’ll expand its presence in Mexico.

Kambi will provide solutions to the sports betting operator, with Pickwin replacing its third-party sportsbook provider with products from the Kambi Group.

The company, which was founded in 2010, also works with other sports betting operators with partners like Bally’s, Leo Vegas, BetPlay, ATG, LiveScoreGroup, Rush Street Interactive, and more. They work with over 50 operators in more than 60 jurisdictions globally.

Kambi is pleased to announce a long-term online sportsbook partnership with Pickwin, which officially went live with Kambi's market-leading Turnkey Sportsbook today (1 January).

One of Mexico’s fastest-growing online sports betting operators, Pickwin selected Kambi to replace… pic.twitter.com/2xhlTqeCGT

— Kambi (@KambiSports) January 1, 2026

This will include the Bet Builder, trading capabilities, and regulatory compliance expertise too. There will also be shared margin-driving insights provided from Kambi’s global partner network, with the aim being for this to allow for superior pricing and risk management through the bets processed by the company annually.

Werner Becher, Kambi Group CEO, said in a press release: “We are excited to partner with Pickwin and support their vision in delivering world-class sports betting experiences throughout Mexico. Our proven track record in Latin America, combined with our deep understanding of regulatory frameworks, makes this the ideal partnership to support sustainable growth.”

Kambi Group and Pickwin partnership will launch ‘imminently’

The duo will begin to launch ‘imminently,’ with the partnership said to be strengthening the sports betting solutions company’s footprint in the North American country.

Diego Sanchez, Pickwin, Co-founder and CEO: “Partnering with Kambi marks a pivotal moment for Pickwin as we continue our rapid growth in Mexico’s thriving sports betting market. Kambi’s reputation in the region gives us the confidence to deliver a premium experience to our players and we are excited about the opportunities this collaboration will present.”

The announcement comes just over a month after Kambi announced an extension with PENN Entertainment, with the terms of the agreement pushed further to 31 July 2027. Previously, the agreement was set to expire on 31 December 2025. The company supports 30 PENN properties across 13 US states.

Featured Image: Via Kambi Group

The post Kambi Group plc signs multi-year online sportsbook partnership with Pickwin in Mexico appeared first on ReadWrite.

Big batteries drive Honor sales to 71 million in 2025

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 10:06:42 +0000

Honor announced in its New Year message that it sold over 71 million smartphones in 2025, marking the first time it reached this volume with a 50 percent sales increase, driven by its strategy of incorporating bigger batteries in all devices.

The Executive Management Team detailed these results, noting the achievement as a milestone after the company’s separation from Huawei. This sales figure added four stars to Honor’s list of accomplishments. In the third quarter of 2025, Honor smartphones secured top positions in various markets, including the Middle East, contributing to the overall success.

Honor expanded its presence in the global market, recording a nine percent increase in worldwide phone sales for the year. The company highlighted specific regional performances in its message. Overseas sales grew by 47 percent and accounted for more than 50 percent of total sales for the first time. Honor stated, “China withstood pressure and stabilized its core business; overseas sales grew by 47%, accounting for over 50% of total sales for the first time.”

In China, Honor shipped more than 10 million units during 2025, capturing a 10 percent market share. This performance maintained stability in its domestic operations despite external pressures. The company’s Magic series phones gained popularity in more than 17 countries, which opened new revenue streams and supported international growth.

Honor achieved specific successes in key overseas markets. In Saudi Arabia, smartphone sales reached two million units over the course of 2025. Building on this momentum, the company announced plans to establish a new sales record in the Middle East and Africa region.

Looking to 2026, Honor outlined priorities for product development. The company intends to enhance its AI products with a focus on user-centricity, appeal to youth demographics, high-end devices, globalization efforts, and innovation at its peak. These initiatives aim to build on the simultaneous progress in domestic and international markets observed in 2025.

Featured image credit

Goldman Sachs and European banks target back office roles for AI

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 10:00:43 +0000

A Morgan Stanley analysis, reported by the Financial Times, projects more than 200,000 European banking jobs could disappear by 2030 as lenders adopt artificial intelligence and close physical branches. This figure represents roughly 10% of the workforce at 35 major banks.

The job reductions target back-office operations, risk management, and compliance functions. Algorithms in these areas process spreadsheets faster and more effectively than humans. Banks project efficiency gains of 30% from AI implementation, according to the Morgan Stanley report.

The trend extends beyond Europe. In October, Goldman Sachs informed U.S. employees of impending job cuts and a hiring freeze through the end of 2025. These measures form part of the bank’s “OneGS 3.0” AI initiative, which addresses processes from client onboarding to regulatory reporting.

Several institutions have initiated staff reductions. Dutch lender ABN Amro announced plans to eliminate a fifth of its workforce by 2028. Société Générale’s CEO stated that “nothing is sacred,” indicating readiness for substantial changes.

Some leaders express reservations about rapid automation. A JPMorgan Chase executive told the Financial Times that if junior bankers never learn the fundamentals, it could come back to haunt the industry.

Featured image credit

Bitcoin 2025 Price Predictions: How Wrong Were Crypto’s Biggest Names?

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:24:40 +0000

The post Bitcoin 2025 Price Predictions: How Wrong Were Crypto’s Biggest Names? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

For most of 2025, Bitcoin price predictions were pointing in one direction: higher. Calls for $150,000 and $200,000 became common as Bitcoin pushed deeper into price discovery. But when the year wrapped up, reality looked very different.

Bitcoin peaked at around $126,200 on October 7, 2025, then ended the year near $87,000, leaving the majority of forecasts badly off target.

The Bold Bitcoin Price Targets That Missed

Throughout the year, high-profile figures made aggressive calls. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor repeatedly suggested Bitcoin was heading beyond $150,000. Robert Kiyosaki projected Bitcoin could reach $200,000, while venture capitalist Tim Draper maintained his long-standing $250,000 target.

Tom Lee of Fundstrat forecasted $150,000, JPMorgan analysts floated levels near $165,000, and Eric Trump publicly stated Bitcoin could eventually reach $1 million. In a podcast, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan called for $200,000. VanEck’s research team predicted a Q1 peak of $180,000.

None of these projections survived the second half of the year.

Even analysts who later revised expectations lower were unable to account for what came next.

October’s Flash Crash Reset the Market

On October 10, Bitcoin plunged nearly $12,000 in minutes, a drop of roughly 10%. The move triggered over $19 billion in liquidations within 24 hours, while nearly $500 billion was wiped from the total crypto market cap.

From its October peak, Bitcoin fell around 30%, making most year-end price targets mathematically unreachable.

Why Bitcoin Forecasts Keep Falling Apart

Market commentary during the downturn pointed to a recurring issue: Bitcoin trades more on sentiment and leverage than on traditional valuation models. As noted in an analysis from Everything Money Plus, predictions often reflect speculation rather than a repeatable process.

The commentary emphasized that Bitcoin behaves more like gold or a currency, where short-term price targets “don’t mean much,” and discipline matters more than forecasts.

The Lesson 2025 Left Behind

Bitcoin didn’t fail to perform in 2025 – expectations failed to adjust. The year reinforced a familiar truth in crypto markets: bold predictions travel fast, but reality moves on its own terms.

Heading into 2026, traders and investors may be better served by price action and risk management, not chasing predictions.

The Battle for the AI Orchestration Layer Heats Up

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:02:44 +0000

By 2025, the financial services sector stopped “testing” artificial intelligence and started living in it. The industry has moved past the novelty of generative chatbots to a more profound structural reality: the redesign of the global movement of money around autonomous decision-making.

As we look toward 2026, the industry isn’t just deploying AI; it is competing for the “orchestration layer” of the digital economy. What began as a quest for efficiency has evolved into a high-stakes contest over agency — specifically, who (or what) controls the decision, the data and the final settlement in an AI-mediated ecosystem.

Agent-Native Infrastructure Becomes Table Stakes

The most significant shift for 2026 is the transition from “AI-enabled” to agent-native infrastructure. Banks and payment networks are no longer just adding artificial intelligence to legacy stacks; they are building with the assumption that autonomous software will initiate transactions, move liquidity and resolve exceptions without a human in the loop.

As PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote on the protocol layer reshaping AI-driven commerce, “This time, the shift is not about making payments invisible or shaving a few seconds off the checkout flow. It is about something much bigger: who or what makes the decision about what to buy and how to pay.” In 2026, agents are not simply accelerating transactions. They are assuming control over choice itself, redefining how value is created and captured across financial networks.

Precision Over Scale: The Move to Specialized Models

Alongside infrastructure change, the AI stack itself is evolving. The era of the general-purpose LLM is giving way to small language models (SLMs) and specialized systems. As reported by PYMNTS, financial institutions are moving toward smaller, more specialized systems designed for discrete tasks such as fraud detection, reconciliation, underwriting and compliance monitoring.

Smaller models are cheaper to run, easier to govern and more predictable in regulated environments where explainability and control matter. In production systems, breadth is giving way to precision. By 2026, specialization will become a prerequisite for scaling AI safely and economically within core financial workflows.

Discovery and the ‘Zero-Click’ Journey

As specialized agents proliferate, the traditional customer journey is being dismantled. The industry is moving from search-based menus to intent-driven discovery layers. In this world, the “wallet” as we know it begins to fade.

In her analysis of AI agents and the declining relevance of traditional wallets, Webster observed, “In a world where agents shop and pay, they will not fill out forms. Consumers will not go to a checkout page. One-Click will become Zero-Click.”

As agents act end to end on behalf of users, the competition for loyalty shifts away from the user interface. Control over discovery increasingly depends on data access, authorization frameworks and protocol-level participation rather than interface design alone that caters to consumers.

ROI Becomes the Gatekeeper for AI Expansion

By 2026, return on investment has become the central gatekeeper for artificial intelligence expansion. According to PYMNTS, CFOs are reallocating budgets away from broad AI experimentation and toward agentic systems that deliver measurable economic outcomes.

Productivity gains, faster cycle times, lower fraud losses and improved working capital performance now define success. AI initiatives that cannot demonstrate clear, repeatable impact struggle to secure continued funding. The result is a more disciplined deployment environment where autonomy advances only when it aligns with financial accountability.

Fraud and Risk Management Become Real-Time

As reported by PYMNTS, AI-powered scams are forcing banks to shift fraud prevention from post-event reviews to real-time defense. Attackers increasingly combine social engineering with stolen credentials, allowing them to pass traditional authentication checks and deceive even well-informed customers. This has pushed banks to deploy AI systems that continuously monitor behavior, device signals and transaction context to detect fraud.

Rather than applying blanket restrictions, institutions are using targeted “smart friction,” such as real-time warnings or step-up verification when risk indicators spike. The growing use of AI-generated voices and impersonation techniques has further blurred the line between legitimate and fraudulent activity, raising the stakes for faster detection, stronger identity verification and adaptive controls that operate during the transaction itself rather than after losses occur.

The post The Battle for the AI Orchestration Layer Heats Up appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Seven steps to AI supply chain visibility — before a breach forces the issue

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Four in 10 enterprise applications will feature task-specific AI agents this year. Yet, research from Stanford University’s 2025 Index Report shows that a mere 6% of organizations have an advanced AI security strategy in place.

Palo Alto Networks predicts 2026 will bring the first major lawsuits holding executives personally liable for rogue AI actions. Many organizations are grappling with how to contain the accelerating and unpredictable nature of AI threats. Governance doesn’t respond to quick fixes like bigger budgets or more headcount.

There's a visibility gap when it comes to how, where, when, and through which workflows and tools LLMs are being used or modified. One CISO told VentureBeat that model SBOMs are the Wild West of governance today. Without visibility into which models are running where, AI security collapses into guesswork — and incident response becomes impossible.

Over the last several years, the U.S. government has pursued a policy of mandating SBOMs for all software acquired for use. AI models need them more, and the lack of consistent improvement in this area is one of AI’s most significant risks.

The visibility gap is the vulnerability

Harness surveyed 500 security practitioners across the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany. The findings should alarm every CISO: 62% of their peers have no way to tell where LLMs are in use across their organization. There's a need for more rigor and transparency at the SBOM level to improve model traceability, data use, integration points, and use patterns by department.

Enterprises continue to experience increasing levels of prompt injection (76%), vulnerable LLM code (66%), and jailbreaking (65%). These are among the most lethal risks and attack methods adversaries use to exfiltrate anything they can from an organization’s AI modeling and LLM efforts. Despite spending millions on cybersecurity software, many organizations aren’t seeing these adversaries’ intrusion efforts, as they’re cloaked in living-off-the-land techniques and comparable attack tradecraft not traceable by legacy perimeter systems.

“Shadow AI has become the new enterprise blind spot,” said Adam Arellano, Field CTO at Harness. “Traditional security tools were built for static code and predictable systems, not for adaptive, learning models that evolve daily.”

IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report quantifies the cost, finding that 13% of organizations reported breaches of AI models or applications last year. Of those breached, 97% lacked AI access controls. One in five reported breaches was due to shadow AI or unauthorized AI use. Shadow AI incidents cost $670,000 more than their comparable baseline intrusion counterparts. When nobody knows which models run where, incident response can’t scope the impact.

Why SBOMs stop at the model file

Executive Order 14028 (2021) and OMB Memorandum M-22-18 (2022) require software SBOMs for federal vendors. NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework, released in 2023, explicitly calls for AI-BOMs as part of its “Map” function, acknowledging that traditional software SBOMs don’t capture model-specific risks. But software dependencies resolve at build time and stay fixed.

Conversely, model dependencies resolve at runtime, often fetching weights from HTTP endpoints during initialization, and mutate continuously through retraining, drift correction, and feedback loops. LoRA adapters modify weights without version control, making it impossible to track which model version is actually running in production.

Here’s why this matters for security teams: When AI models are saved in pickle format, loading them is like opening an email attachment that executes code on your computer, except these files, acting like attachments, are trusted by default in production systems.

A PyTorch model saved this way is serialized Python bytecode that must be deserialized and executed to load. When torch.load() runs, pickle opcodes execute sequentially. Any callable embedded in the stream fires. These commonly include os.system(), network connections, and reverse shells.

SafeTensors, an alternative format that stores only numerical tensor data without executable code, addresses pickle’s inherent risks. Still, migration means rewriting load functions, revalidating model accuracy, and potentially losing access to legacy models where original training code no longer exists. That’s one of the primary factors holding adoption back. In many organizations, it’s not just policy, it’s an engineering effort.

Model files aren’t inert artifacts — they’re executable supply chain entry points.

Standards exist and have been in place for years, but adoption continues to lag. CycloneDX 1.6 added ML-BOM support in April 2024. SPDX 3.0, released in April 2024, included AI profiles. ML-BOMs complement but don’t replace documentation frameworks like Model Cards and Datasheets for Datasets, which focus on performance attributes and training data ethics rather than making supply chain provenance a priority. VentureBeat continues to see adoption lagging how quickly this area is becoming an existential threat to models and LLMs.

A June 2025 Lineaje survey found 48% of security professionals admit their organizations are falling behind on SBOM requirements. ML-BOM adoption is significantly lower.

Bottom line: The tooling exists. What’s missing is operational urgency.

AI-BOMs enable response, not prevention

AI-BOMs are forensics, not firewalls. When ReversingLabs discovered nullifAI-compromised models, documented provenance would have immediately identified which organizations downloaded them. That’s invaluable to know for incident response, while being practically useless for prevention. Budgeting for protecting AI-BOMs needs to take that factor into account.

The ML-BOM tooling ecosystem is maturing fast, but it's not where software SBOMs are yet. Tools like Syft and Trivy generate complete software inventories in minutes. ML-BOM tooling is earlier in that curve. Vendors are shipping solutions, but integration and automation still require additional steps and more effort. Organizations starting now may need manual processes to fill gaps.

AI-BOMs won't stop model poisoning as that happens during training, often before an organization ever downloads the model. They won't block prompt injection either, as that attack exploits what the model does, not where it came from. Prevention requires runtime defenses that include input validation, prompt firewalls, output filtering, and tool call validation for agentic systems. AI-BOMs are visibility and compliance tools. Valuable, but not a substitute for runtime security. CISOs and security leaders are increasingly relying on both.

The attack surface keeps expanding

JFrog's 2025 Software Supply Chain Report documented more than 1 million new models hitting Hugging Face in 2024 alone, with a 6.5-fold increase in malicious models. By April 2025, Protect AI's scans of 4.47 million model versions found 352,000 unsafe or suspicious issues across 51,700 models. The attack surface expanded faster than anyone's ability to monitor it.

In early 2025, ReversingLabs discovered malicious models using "nullifAI" evasion techniques that bypassed Picklescan detection. Hugging Face responded within 24 hours, removing the models and updating Picklescan to detect similar evasion techniques, demonstrating that platform security is improving, even as attacker sophistication increases.

“Many organizations are enthusiastically embracing public ML models to drive rapid innovation,” said Yoav Landman, CTO and Co-Founder of JFrog. “However, over a third still rely on manual efforts to manage access to secure, approved models, which can lead to potential oversights.”

Seven steps to AI supply chain visibility

The gap between hours and weeks in AI supply chain incident response comes down to preparation. Organizations with visibility built in before the breach have the insights needed to react with greater accuracy and speed. Those without scramble. None of the following requires a new budget — only the decision to treat AI model governance as seriously as software supply chain security.

Commit to building a model inventory and defining processes to keep it current. Survey ML platform teams. Scan cloud spend for SageMaker, Vertex AI, and Bedrock usage. Review Hugging Face downloads in network logs. A spreadsheet works: model name, owner, data classification, deployment location, source, and last verification date. You can’t secure what you can’t see.
Go all in on using advanced techniques to manage and redirect shadow AI use to apps, tools, and platforms that are secure. Survey every department. Check API keys in environment variables. Realize accounting, finance, and consulting teams may have sophisticated AI apps with multiple APIs linking directly into and using the company's proprietary data. The 62% visibility gap exists because nobody asked.
Require human approval for production models and design human-in-the-middle workflows always. Every model touching customer data needs a named owner, documented purpose, and an audit trail showing who approved deployment. Just as red teams do at Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI companies, design human-in-the-middle approval processes for every model release.
Consider mandating SafeTensors for new deployments. Policy changes cost nothing. SafeTensors stores only numerical tensor data, no code execution on load. Grandfather existing pickle models with documented risk acceptance and sunset timelines.
Consider piloting ML-BOMs for the top 20% of risk models first. Pick the ones touching customer data or making business decisions. Document architecture, training data sources, base model lineage, framework dependencies. Use CycloneDX 1.6 or SPDX 3.0. Get started immediately if not already pursuing this, realizing that incomplete provenance beats none when incidents happen.
Treat every model pull as a supply chain decision, so it becomes part of your organization’s muscle memory. Verify cryptographic hashes before load. Cache models internally. Block runtime network access for model execution environments. Apply the same rigor enterprises learned from leftpad, event-stream, and colors.js.
Add AI governance to vendor contracts during the next renewal cycle. Require SBOMs, training data provenance, model versioning, and incident notification SLAs. Ask whether your data trains future models. Costs nothing to request.

2026 will be a year of reckoning for AI SBOMs

Securing AI models is becoming a boardroom priority. The EU AI Act prohibitions are already in effect, with fines reaching €35 million or 7% of global revenue. EU Cyber Resilience Act SBOM requirements begin this year. Full AI Act compliance is required by August 2, 2027.

Cyber insurance carriers are watching. Given the $670,000 premium for shadow AI breaches and emerging executive liability exposure, expect AI governance documentation to become a policy requirement this year, much as ransomware readiness became table stakes after 2021.

The SEI Carnegie Mellon SBOM Harmonization Plugfest analyzed 243 SBOMs from 21 tool vendors for identical software and found significant variance in component counts. For AI models with embedded dependencies and executable payloads, the stakes are higher.

The first poisoned model incident that costs seven figures in response and fines will make the case that should have been obvious already.

Software SBOMs became mandatory after attackers proved the supply chain was the softest target. AI supply chains are more dynamic, less visible, and harder to contain. The only organizations that will scale AI safely are the ones building visibility now — before they need it.

Digitap ($TAP) vs BTC: Why $87,539 Bitcoin is for Institutions and $TAP is for Retail

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 06:01:57 +0000

The post Digitap ($TAP) vs BTC: Why $87,539 Bitcoin is for Institutions and $TAP is for Retail appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bitcoin’s rise to $87,539 marks a defining moment in crypto’s evolution. What once began as a grassroots alternative to traditional finance has increasingly become a strategic asset for institutions, funds, and balance sheets.

As Bitcoin cements its role at the top of the market, a parallel shift is taking place beneath the surface. Retail users are no longer just looking for long-term stores of value. They are searching for tools that help them use crypto in everyday financial life.

This divergence between institutional priorities and retail needs sets the stage for comparing Bitcoin’s current role with platforms like Digitap ($TAP), which are building toward a more accessible, user-driven financial experience.

Bitcoin at $87,539: Why Institutions Now Dominate the Narrative

At its current price level and total Market Cap, Bitcoin functions less like a transactional currency and more like digital capital infrastructure. Institutional custody solutions, spot ETFs, and treasury allocation strategies have reshaped how Bitcoin is held and used.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Large entities can manage volatility, compliance requirements, and long-term storage with ease, making Bitcoin an efficient reserve asset rather than a spending tool. For institutions, Bitcoin’s appeal lies in scarcity, security, and macro relevance.

This institutional dominance has naturally altered Bitcoin’s accessibility. High unit prices, network fees, and custodial complexity make direct everyday usage less practical for average users.

Retail participants increasingly engage through fractional exposure or passive holding rather than active financial interaction. In this environment, Bitcoin often appears as the best crypto to buy for capital preservation rather than functional use, reinforcing its shift away from daily financial relevance.

Digitap’s Retail-Centered Vision for Crypto Finance

Digitap approaches crypto from a fundamentally different direction. Instead of positioning itself as a reserve asset, it is built around how individuals actually use money. Currently in Presale Round 3, with $TAP priced at $0.0399, Digitap targets early-stage participation before broader market valuation takes shape. This positioning reflects a focus on access rather than accumulation.

The platform’s core vision centers on making crypto usable without requiring users to behave like traders or institutions. Digitap is designed for people who want to manage, spend, and move value simply, without needing to understand complex custody structures or market mechanics.

This retail-first approach is why it continues to surface in conversations around the best crypto presale opportunities, offering New Year Bonuses, focused on real-world utility.

How Digitap Brings Crypto Into Everyday Retail Use

Digitap is designed to make crypto usable in everyday financial life without compromising security. A key feature is its NO-KYC Visa-linked card, which allows users to spend crypto without traditional banking barriers or lengthy onboarding, supporting fast and privacy-focused access.

The platform also simplifies money management by combining crypto and fiat balances in a single interface. This removes the need to switch between wallets, exchanges, and banking apps, making online payments, in-store transactions, and personal finance more intuitive.

Accessibility is backed by audited infrastructure. Digitap’s smart contracts have been independently reviewed by Coinsult and SolidProof, adding an important layer of security assurance for users engaging with the platform.

By supporting cross-border transfers and payments, Digitap serves individuals, freelancers, and families operating outside traditional banking limits. Combined with privacy-first access and third-party audits, the platform positions crypto as a practical financial tool rather than a speculative product.

Why Retail-First Utility Gives Digitap a Different Growth Advantage

Bitcoin’s growth trajectory is tied closely to institutional adoption and macro conditions. While this offers stability, it also limits how quickly usage patterns can evolve. Digitap’s growth potential follows a different path. Retail platforms benefit from frequency of use rather than scale of capital. Each transaction, payment, and transfer reinforces adoption organically.

Because Digitap operates at an early stage, its valuation reflects participation rather than consensus. As retail usage expands, value is created through engagement rather than scarcity alone.

This creates a dynamic where growth is driven by accessibility and practicality, not by institutional capital flows. For retail-focused investors, this difference matters more than market dominance.

Why 2026 Retail Momentum Is Building Around Digitap’s Utility

Bitcoin’s role as institutional infrastructure is firmly established, and it continues to serve that purpose effectively. However, that role no longer addresses the everyday financial needs of most users. As crypto matures, retail adoption increasingly depends on usability rather than ideology or speculation.

Digitap aligns with this shift by focusing on how people actually interact with money. Its early presale stage, combined with tools like a NO-KYC card and unified financial access, positions it as a platform built for participation rather than storage. This makes Digitap increasingly visible as the best altcoin to invest in for those seeking exposure before retail-driven adoption reaches broader awareness.

With Presale Round 3 still open at a lower entry price, Digitap offers an opportunity to engage before later stages redefine access. As the market continues to separate institutional assets from retail-focused platforms, timing becomes just as important as technology.

For retail participants looking ahead, Digitap represents a chance to join that transition early rather than after it has already been priced in.

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Bitwise just filed for 11 new crypto ETFs, and the market’s silence exposes a brutal new reality

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 21:25:45 +0000

Bitwise's year-end barrage of ETF paperwork should have been a perfect spark for “alt season.” On Dec. 30, the issuer filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch 11 single-token “strategy” ETFs tied to Aave, Uniswap, Zcash, NEAR, Starknet, Sui, Bittensor, Tron, and other protocols.

Each fund would allocate about 60% of its assets to the underlying coin and the rest to related ETPs and derivatives, with an expected effective date in March 2026.

However, crypto prices and flows barely registered the news. That gap is where a market is now showing ETF filing fatigue.

The 11 new Bitwise products land on top of a crowded 2025 pipeline. Grayscale has already filed for a Bittensor ETF, adding to a roster of spot funds for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and Chainlink.

Generic listing standards, approved by the SEC in September, now let exchanges list commodity-based trust shares without the bespoke 19b-4 approval that used to be the main bottleneck.

Between 2021 and 2024, “we filed an ETF” was a tradeable headline. Today, it is closer to background noise.

SEC's ruling aims to accelerate the launch of digital asset ETPs by reducing approval wait times.

Sep 18, 2025 · Assad Jafri Math and regulation changed

Part of the shift is simply math.

Crypto products had a breakout year even before Bitwise's altcoin wave. Recently launched XRP products surpassed $1 billion in net inflows, while Bitcoin ETFs added over $22 billion this year.

Ethereum funds have reached over $12 billion in cumulative flows, and Solana products have approached $800 million.

A single XRP fund from Canary built more than $300 million in assets and set a first-day volume record among US ETFs, while other issuers trailed. S-1 volume is high, but demand is not.

Flows concentrate in a handful of cheap, easily distributed vehicles. Everyone else is fighting for scraps.

Regulation also makes filings less binary than before. Under the generic standards, an exchange can list commodity-based trust shares that meet preset criteria without waiting for a bespoke SEC order.

Law firms that track the regime say most straightforward spot crypto products can now list via an expedited path, particularly where the CFTC regulates an existing futures market.

Bitwise itself is targeting a standard 75-day window from its Dec. 30 filings to a March 16, 2026, effective date for the 11 altcoin ETFs.

US-listed crypto ETPs hold $153 billion in total assets across 130 funds, with Bitcoin dominating at $125 billion across 60 ETPs. Image: James Seyffart/Bloomberg Terminal

For traders, that means an S-1 is no longer a shock that changes the probability of an ETF from “maybe someday” to “likely soon.”

For a plain-vanilla altcoin with listed futures and no obvious regulatory baggage, the base case is now that an ETF will appear at some point.

What moves the needle is the specific listing venue, the fee, and whether the issuer can win shelf space with wirehouses and platforms.

Listing beats filings

The Solana ETF episode illustrates the point. Bitwise used the new rules and an SEC shutdown to sneak its BSOL fund onto NYSE Arca on Oct. 28, becoming the first US spot Solana ETF.

The fund raised about $420 million in its first week, forcing rivals like Grayscale, VanEck, and Fidelity to scramble with copycat products and other altcoin filings, including for XRP.

Prices and flows reacted to the listing, not to the earlier paperwork. The filing date was noise, as the go-live date and first-week AUM tell investors where real demand sat.

Data from Bitcoin and Ethereum products reinforce that shift from “headline” to “history.” Farside Investors notes that crypto ETFs absorbed tens of billions in 2025, even as many holders lost money because they piled in near the highs.

Bitcoin spot ETF cumulative flows surged over $60 billion before declining to approximately $57 billion, but are still positive by $22 billion in 2025.

The same outlet shows that single-day flow reversals, such as late-December inflows that snapped a seven-day, $1 billion outflow streak in Bitcoin and Ether ETFs, barely moved spot prices.

Markets cared more about macro, tariffs, and leverage than about a green or red bar on an ETF flow chart.

Distribution beats documentation

The Bitwise 11-ETF salvo lands in that reality. The filings outline an interesting structure, with 60% spot coins and 40% related ETPs and derivatives, and they signal that US regulators are comfortable enough with crypto plumbing to allow single-name products in Aave or Bittensor at all.

But they do not alter the structural constraints that already define the category: asset allocators still run tight risk budgets for illiquid names, most platforms only recently opened to crypto ETFs, and the lion's share of flows continues to follow the cheapest, most liquid beta.

Vanguard's late-2025 decision to finally allow clients to trade third-party crypto ETFs is a better indicator of future flow than any one filing.

With $9.3 trillion under management, Vanguard’s entry into crypto ETFs could usher tens of billions in new demand despite modest initial allocations.

Dec 2, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The firm now permits access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana funds but has no plans to launch its own products, echoing its stance on gold.

That tells the market where distribution is quietly changing. The Bitwise altcoin shelf, if and when it launches, will live or die by whether giants like Vanguard, Schwab, and Merrill are willing to carry more than a token subset of the menu.

The boring phase

For crypto markets, the practical takeaway is that ETF headlines have entered their boring phase.

In 2021, a single futures ETF approval could drive double-digit moves in Bitcoin. In 2023-24, each incremental spot filing for Ethereum or Solana was a narrative event.

By the end of 2025, with generic listing standards in place, four major spot assets already live, and flows heavily concentrated in a handful of funds, the marginal S-1 barely updates anyone's model.
“ETF filing fatigue” is therefore less about apathy than about maturation.

Markets now price the probability of approval well before a press release drops, and they reserve judgment for the things that really matter: fee levels, liquidity, ticker simplicity, and distributor readiness.

Until those change, “11 new crypto ETFs” will keep generating clicks, but not, on day one, new capital.

The post Bitwise just filed for 11 new crypto ETFs, and the market’s silence exposes a brutal new reality appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin “died” four times in 2025, but a hidden infrastructure boom proves the skeptics completely wrong

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 15:45:51 +0000

2025 delivered at least four distinct “crypto is dead” episodes: a January AI-induced flash crash, the October tariff liquidation that erased $19 billion in leveraged positions, months of altcoin carnage, and a fourth quarter slump that wiped out the year's price gains.

Mainstream outlets dusted off “crypto winter” language each time. Bitcoin logged more obituaries by mid-year than in all of 2024, bringing the all-time tally past 470 since 2010.

Yet, beneath the violent drawdowns and Twitter eulogies, the infrastructure kept building.

Stablecoin legislation passed. Spot ETFs pulled in tens of billions. Major jurisdictions published actual rulebooks rather than issuing enforcement threats.

The result is a year where crypto “died” repeatedly on price charts but quietly became more entrenched in global financial plumbing than ever before.

The latest data from Bitcoin Is Dead show Bitcoin has ‘died’ 431 times, with gold bug Peter Schiff topping the Bitcoin obituary list.

Aug 24, 2025 · Christina Comben DeepSeek and the January flash crash

The first “crypto is dead” chorus arrived in late January, courtesy of Chinese AI model DeepSeek. On Jan. 27, a cross-asset sell-off hit tech stocks and bled into digital assets.

A single session erased roughly $269 billion from the total crypto market cap and wiped out about $850 million in leveraged positions. Bitcoin dropped by more than 10%, from around $105,000 to below $98,000 in a matter of hours.

AI-linked tokens fell up to 70% in a day. Analysts suggested that DeepSeek had punctured not just the AI bubble but the entire “risk-on” trade, with Bitcoin singled out as the bellwether whose rally suddenly looked fragile.

The timing, barely a month into the year, gave the sell-off extra weight.

The crash took Bitcoin only back to late-December levels, not into a bear market regime. Prices later set new all-time highs above $124,000 by July, then another peak in October.

Market microstructure analyses framed it as the first major stress test of a more institutionally plugged-in crypto market rather than an existential failure, since the crash was driven by macro and AI repricing.

The January episode looked scary in real time, but in hindsight, it played out like a violent shakeout inside a still-bullish tape.

Bitcoin dropped from approximately $109,000 to below $98,000 during the January 27-28 DeepSeek flash crash before recovering above $105,000. The “10/10” tariff crash and record liquidations

The biggest “crypto is dead” moment came on Oct. 10. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement of a 100% tariff on Chinese imports during the thin weekend liquidity triggered what CoinGlass calls the largest liquidation event in crypto history.

Estimates cluster around $20 billion of leveraged positions erased in under 24 hours, with more than 1.6 million accounts liquidated.

Bitcoin fell from $121,000 to near $107,000 within hours, Ethereum plunged below $4,000, and many altcoins printed near-zero wicks as market makers pulled orders.

The episode proved that crypto leverage and market structure were still dangerously fragile, despite the new ETF era. Policymakers explicitly used the event to argue that pending US market structure bills underestimated the systemic risk posed by crypto.

JPMorgan identifies crypto-native leverage unwinding as the primary driver of the Bitcoin and Ethereum market downturn.

Oct 18, 2025 · Gino Matos

The scale of the liquidations was larger than anything seen in prior cycles, including Terra/Luna or FTX, which made it easy to frame as a reckoning.

Yet, prices didn't collapse to prior-cycle levels. Even after the rout and subsequent fourth-quarter slide, Bitcoin mostly traded in a $80,000-$100,000 band into year-end, well above the 2022-23 lows.
Structure changed, not vanished. Derivatives open interest dropped by roughly 25% in a single day, but spot ETFs, custodians, and on-chain markets continued to function.

Inflows into regulated products remained positive year to date, even after October. CoinShares tallies around $46.2 billion entering crypto ETFs in 2025, and BlackRock alone reports $74.8 billion in inflows to its digital asset ETFs as of Dec. 31.

The October liquidation was the largest in history, but the institutional rails passed a stress test. Custodians didn't blow up. Exchanges stayed online. ETFs continued to process creation and redemption baskets.

The plumbing worked, even as the speculative superstructure got demolished.

Crypto ETFs recorded $46.3 billion in year-to-date inflows through 2025, with Bitcoin ETFs leading at $26.8 billion despite late-year outflows. Altcoin, AI-token, and memecoin carnage

Another thread in the “crypto is dead” narrative is the destruction in higher-beta sectors.

AI tokens and memecoins took repeated beatings throughout 2025. During the January DeepSeek episode, many AI-linked coins fell 20% or more in 24 hours, with some recording intraday losses of up to 70%.

Later coverage turned to “2025 meme and AI altcoin crash” angles, describing how sectors that led the early-year euphoria had given back most of their gains and, in some cases, round-tripped to pre-cycle prices.

Trump-themed and election-related meme tokens saw heavy drawdowns as the year wore on.

The memecoin wreckage was real and brutal, with hundreds of tokens that had spiked 10-fold or more in early 2025 finishing the year down over 90% from their peaks.

This is the perennial story of speculative layers getting decimated while underlying rails consolidate.
Chainalysis noted that DeFi TVL recovered significantly from 2023 lows even as hack losses and protocol blow-ups stayed below prior peak levels.

DeFi total value locked rose from approximately $120 billion in early 2025 to peak near $170 billion before declining to $120 billion by year-end.

The altcoin carnage was a feature, not a bug, consisting of a violent sorting mechanism that punished purely speculative bets while leaving infrastructure plays relatively intact.

The Q4 slump and “Crypto Winter 2.0” headlines

From mid-November into December, mainstream outlets wrote Bitcoin's obituary again. By mid-November, Bitcoin had fallen about 30% from its October record and given back its year-to-date gains.

Mainstream finance publications framed it as erasing 2025 gains and asked whether Trump-driven optimism had run its course.

Additionally, the term “crypto winter” was back in usage, which is the richest vein of “crypto is dead” language.

99Bitcoins data show Bitcoin had already logged more “obituaries” in 2025 by mid-year than in all of 2024, with at least 11 separate death declarations tracked by summer.

The fourth-quarter slump gave critics ammunition. If the year started with euphoria over Trump's strategic Bitcoin reserve and ended with prices lower than where they began, what was the point?

Yet, the counterpoints are strong.

Bitcoin ETFs are still $22 billion in inflows this year, and the historically hostile Vanguard reversed course in December, allowing clients to trade third-party crypto ETFs, citing market maturation.

U.S.-listed crypto ETPs held $153 billion in total assets across 130 products by year-end, with Bitcoin ETFs commanding $125 billion. Image: James Seyffart/Bloomberg Intelligence Related Reading Vanguard caves on crypto to retain clients as rivals win flows — opens $9.3T platform to crypto ETFs

With $9.3 trillion under management, Vanguard’s entry into crypto ETFs could usher tens of billions in new demand despite modest initial allocations.

Dec 2, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Besides, Wall Street moved as generic SEC listing standards opened the door to multi-asset crypto ETFs, including products holding XRP, Solana, and even Dogecoin.

For price context, Bitcoin's sub-$90,000 prints in November-December 2025 still leave it multiples above its 2022-23 lows and above its previous cycle top of roughly $69,000. That makes the “dead” label look more like exhaustion after a huge run than genuine collapse.

Regulation, rails, and usage kept moving

To understand why crypto wasn't actually dead, it is necessary to zoom out from price.

Elliptic's Global Crypto Regulation Review 2025 says governments shifted “away from enforcement-led approaches” toward comprehensive frameworks that prioritize innovation, highlighting moves like the US GENIUS Act stablecoin law and broader global alignment.

Yellow's “Crypto Regulation Heatmap” tracks how MiCA in Europe, Hong Kong's licensing regime, the UK's reopening to exchange-traded crypto products, and a friendlier US stance collectively made 2025 the first year in which major markets had actual rulebooks rather than pure uncertainty.

The SEC's generic listing standards, issued in September, streamlined the launch of new crypto ETFs across Nasdaq, Cboe, and NYSE Arca, allowing multi-asset products like Grayscale's GLDC to clear more quickly.

Crypto ETFs registered billions in net inflows into crypto ETFs globally in 2025, even though late-year performance was poor.

Away from trading, payment, and settlement rails, work continued to move forward. Visa and other large processors expanded stablecoin pilots on USDC rails for cross-border settlement, while stablecoins captured a growing slice of cross-border flows, particularly in emerging markets.

The tension at the heart of 2025: the year produced more Bitcoin “deaths” on paper, record liquidations, and a sickly fourth quarter tape.

However, it also established the first genuinely global regulatory frameworks, turned crypto ETFs and stablecoins into mainstream plumbing, and kept usage metrics well above those of any prior cycle.

Crypto died four times in 2025, and each time it came back more embedded in the financial system than before.

The post Bitcoin “died” four times in 2025, but a hidden infrastructure boom proves the skeptics completely wrong appeared first on CryptoSlate.

XRP on exchanges hits 8 year low, but historical data exposes a brutal flaw in the popular “moon” narrative

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 13:05:05 +0000

Glassnode data shows that XRP's exchange balances hit their lowest level since 2018 in late December, sparking the usual wave of accumulation phase speculation and “tight supply = moon” commentary.

While the eight-year low encompasses the entire exchange ecosystem, CryptoQuant data for Binance offers a recent window into whether these troughs actually precede rallies.

Binance's XRP reserves dropped to roughly 2.6 billion by mid-December 2025, matching the July 2024 low, after peaking above 3.5 billion in early September.

The question isn't whether supply thinned, but whether prior episodes of similarly low Binance reserves preceded medium-term outperformance, or whether the pattern is just noise dressed up as signal.

First drawdown into the July 2024 low

After an early-year build-up from roughly 2.6 billion to just over 3.0 billion XRP, Binance reserves rolled over around late March and ground lower into early July, bottoming near 2.7 billion.

According to the CryptoQuant chart, XRP traded roughly between $0.48 and $0.71 during the second quarter of 2024, averaging $0.56.

Through May, it drifted lower into the low-to-mid $0.50s. By late June, it hugged just above $0.50, with the local trough slightly below that, around $0.48.

The explosive move from sub-$1 prices in October to roughly $2 by November and over $3 in January 2025 happened months later, once reserves had already climbed back above 3 billion.

Monthly closes jumped from about $0.51 in October 2024 to $1.94 in November, $2.08 in December, and $3.04 in January 2025.

XRP could outshine 86% of S&P 500 firms, including Pfizer and Citigroup.

Dec 4, 2024 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

The July 2024 low in reserves coincided with depressed price, but the big rally arrived only after a long lag and after exchange balances had re-expanded, not at the moment of tightest supply.

XRP exchange reserves on Binance fell from 3.25 billion in early September to 3.01 billion by late December 2025. Post-spike cooling with falling reserves

After the price spike in the fourth quarter of 2024, reserves on Binance sat above 3.2 billion XRP in October and November 2024, then trended down into early 2025, reaching roughly 2.8 billion by March.

That second clear tightening episode came from elevated levels rather than from a multi-year low. Price behavior was straightforward: it cooled off.

XRP closed around $2.08 in December 2024, peaked near $3.04 in January 2025, then slipped back to roughly $2.09 between February and March, trading in the low-$2s through spring.

As Binance reserves quietly bled lower from post-rally highs, XRP mostly lost altitude rather than breaking into a new leg higher. Tightening here looked like profit-taking and rotation into self-custody while the price corrected.

Binance XRP reserves dropped from over 3.25 billion in mid-November 2024 to approximately 2.84 billion by late December 2024. From September spike to multi-year lows

The most relevant tightening is the current one.

On Sept. 1, XRP reserves across major exchanges spiked higher by about 1.2 billion tokens in a single day. Binance's share jumped from roughly 2.93 billion to 3.54 billion XRP.

From October onward, the CryptoQuant chart shows that XRP supply reversed direction. Binance reserves slid from about 3 billion in early October to roughly 2.7 billion by late November, then to around 2.6 billion by mid-December, the lowest level since July 2024.

Over that same window, XRP monthly closes drifted down from about $2.85 in September to $2.51 in October, $2.16 in November, and $2.03 in December.

That's roughly a 30% price drawdown while supply on Binance was tightening. So far, this looks much more like “tight supply plus weak tape” than a classic supply-squeeze rally.

The market has shifted coins off Binance into ETFs and self-custody, but the spot price has continued to bleed lower into the $1.80-$2.00 range.

Binance XRP reserves fell from over 3.05 billion in early October 2025 to approximately 2.65 billion by late December 2025. What the pattern shows and why it might be different this time

Across the 2024-2025 window on the CryptoQuant chart, there are really only two true trough bands in Binance reserves at or near today's levels: July 2024, around 2.7 billion XRP, and the current zone, around 2.6-2.7 billion.

In between, reserves fell a couple of times from higher levels, but those were drawdowns from above 3 billion rather than fresh lows.

In the second quarter of 2024, tightening into the July low first coincided with underperformance, followed by a big rally months later, after balances had risen again.

That's an ambiguous bullish precedent at best. In early 2025 and again recently, the pattern is simpler: reserves trend down, and prices trend down with them. Tight supply has not yet turned into an obvious squeeze-style upside in the 30 to 90-day window.

So far, it's more a story of reduced sell-side liquidity during a correction than a clean buy signal.
The July 2024 trough occurred before spot XRP ETFs existed.

The current drawdown occurs in an environment where ETFs have attracted over $1 billion in net inflows, with assets under management near $1.25 billion and zero outflow days recorded through late 2025.

XRP spot ETF net inflows totaled approximately $267 million by late December 2025, with sustained buying pressure throughout the period.

Those coins live in custodial wallets rather than on trading venues, so some exchange scarcity reflects structural demand and plumbing, such as ETF mechanics shifting coins off centralized order books, rather than pure accumulation by conviction buyers.

Whale behavior adds ambiguity. Supply distribution data shows big swings in large XRP holder cohorts through 2025, including periods where whales dumped hundreds of millions of tokens even as ETFs bought and exchange balances fell.

We quantify how much old supply just moved and why now.

Dec 3, 2025 · Gino Matos

In the 2024-2025 Binance chart, every sustained tightening episode is followed by either sideways-to-lower prices or a very delayed rally. The only real bullish trough case in July 2024 required investors to sit through months of chop and a rebuild in exchange balances before the big move.

That makes today's low-reserve reading interesting, but far from a guaranteed springboard.

Low exchange supply has been a necessary but insufficient condition for XRP's upside, and the data don't support the hopium narrative that tight supply mechanically leads to rallies.

What they do show is that when the next catalyst hits, and it can be regulatory clarity, institutional adoption, or a shift in macro sentiment, there will be less supply available on exchanges to absorb demand. Whether that catalyst materializes in 30, 90, or 180 days remains uncertain.

The post XRP on exchanges hits 8 year low, but historical data exposes a brutal flaw in the popular “moon” narrative appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Russia’s Biggest Bank Issues First Crypto-Backed Loan To Bitcoin Mining Company

admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 10:15:32 +0000

Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, has issued the country’s first corporate loan backed by cryptocurrency, extending financing to one of the nation’s biggest Bitcoin mining firms, Intelion Data.

In a pilot deal, Intelion pledged digital assets it mined as collateral, marking a significant moment in the integration of digital coins into traditional banking practices in Russia.

Sberbank did not disclose the size of the loan, the amount of crypto used as collateral, or the loan’s duration, underscoring that the transaction is experimental rather than a full commercial rollout.

The key to the deal’s risk management was the use of Sberbank’s proprietary digital asset custody solution, Rutoken, which holds the pledged cryptocurrency securely for the duration of the loan, ensuring that the collateral cannot be accessed or used outside the terms of the agreement.

The move comes amid Russia’s broader efforts of utilizing digital assets following its blacklisting from the SWIFT system.

In a recent speech to the Association of Russian Banks, Elvira Nabiullina, the governor of the Central Bank of Russia, said that a pilot for the digital ruble was “going well,” and that there was a growing interest in smart contracts among Russian banks, businesses and governments.

She says that a group of clients consisting of 1,700 individuals from 15 banks and about 30 companies are participating in the pilot and that an expansion of the program will come at a later date.

“Now we see interest in smart contracts from banks, businesses, and the government. The digital ruble offers many more opportunities for smart contracts, and we want to make this area one of the key ones, one of the priorities in the development of this project. All this, of course, requires additional discussion and preparation.

Therefore, our intention is to move on to the mass implementation of the digital ruble a little later than originally planned, namely after we work out all the details in the pilot and consult with banks on the economic model that is most attractive to their clients – for businesses, for people. We will be able to name a new date for the mass launch later.

I would like to emphasize: the project is ongoing, we will expand it both in terms of the number of participants and the range of operations.”

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