Vitalik Buterin said the current creator token model favors those already popular and rewards mass content creation over high-quality content. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has proposed a new creator token model that combines decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) with prediction market mechanics to incentivize higher-quality content creation. Creator tokens, or content coins, are blockchain-based assets that can grant fans a slice of ownership, access rights, or even royalties for the content creator’s work, which could be in the form of posts, photos, music, or videos. However, in a post on X on Sunday, Buterin said existing creator token platforms notably prioritize mass content creation over quality, and that this is now being exacerbated by AI-generated content. Read more
A Moscow court has reportedly ordered BitRiver CEO Igor Runets to remain under house arrest as investigators pursue tax evasion charges. The founder and CEO of Russian Bitcoin mining firm BitRiver, Igor Runets, has reportedly been detained and charged with multiple counts of tax evasion. According to reports from local media outlets such as RBK and Kommersant on Sunday, Runets was detained on Friday and is facing three charges for allegedly concealing assets to evade taxes. The outlets cite court documents from the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow indicating that Runets was charged on Saturday and ordered to be placed under house arrest the same day. Read more
Bitcoin’s decline is mirroring SaaS stocks, proving that it is unlikely a crypto-specific narrative is driving the recent selloff, one analyst argues. A major market downturn that saw crypto markets lose $250 billion in total capitalization over the weekend is due to a shortage of US liquidity, rather than any crypto-specific problem, argues Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor. “The big narrative is that BTC and crypto are broken. The cycle is over,” Pal said on Sunday, explaining that this can’t be the case because Software as a Service (SaaS) stocks have fallen in tandem. SaaS stocks and Bitcoin (BTC) have moved in lockstep recently, both dropping significantly, which is notable because both are “long-duration assets,” as their value is based heavily on expected future cash flows and adoption, making them sensitive to liquidity conditions and interest rates, he said. Read more
The latest crash came after US President Donald Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to replace Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, sending Bitcoin down to $75,892 late on Sunday. Strategy founder Michael Saylor has hinted his firm added to its Bitcoin holdings after the cryptocurrency slid more than 13% over the weekend, briefly pushing the company’s large BTC position into the red. “More Orange,” the Strategy executive chairman posted to X on Sunday alongside a chart showing his firm’s $55 billion worth of Bitcoin purchases since August 2020. Saylor often posts the chart as a signal that his company has bought or plans to buy Bitcoin. It would mark Strategy’s fifth Bitcoin (BTC) purchase this year, with its largest coming on Jan. 20, when it bought 22,305 Bitcoin. Strategy is by far the largest Bitcoin treasury company, with over 712,647 Bitcoin under management Read more
Crypto bridge CrossCurve has told users to pause interacting with its protocol while it conducts an investigation into a smart contract breach. Update (Feb. 2, 12:20 am UTC): This article has been updated to add a post by CrossCurve CEO Boris Povar. Crypto protocol CrossCurve said its cross-chain bridge has been attacked, with $3 million reportedly stolen across multiple networks. CrossCurve posted to X late on Sunday that its bridge was “under attack, involving the exploitation of a vulnerability in one of the smart contracts used.” Read more
New CryptoQuant data shows how January’s US winter storm disrupted Bitcoin mining as operators curtailed power use amid grid stress. New data is providing a clearer picture of how January’s US winter storm affected Bitcoin mining operations, showing that daily production among publicly traded miners dropped sharply during the disruption. The storm swept across large parts of the continental United States, prompting miners to curtail operations amid grid stress, snow, ice and extreme cold, and highlighting how closely mining activity is now tied to energy market conditions. Daily production among publicly traded miners tracked by CryptoQuant typically averaged between 70 and 90 Bitcoin (BTC) in the weeks leading up to the storm, before falling to roughly 30 to 40 BTC per day at the height of the disruption, according to data shared by CryptoQuant head of research Julio Moreno. Read more