ETH price crashed below $1,600 as a vulnerability in Zcash emerged and Bitcoin sold off below $60,000 for the first time in months. Key takeaways: Ether (ETH) plummeted to a 13-month low of $1,540 on Friday, following the bearish trend across the broader cryptocurrency market. Traders now fear a deeper price correction, given weakness in ETH derivatives metrics and heightened risk after a bug was found in the Zcash blockchain. Read more
Travala’s new protocol lets AI agents search and book hotels with USDC on Base, but travelers still approve the final payment. Singapore-based crypto travel platform Travala has launched a protocol it says lets artificial intelligence agents search, reserve and pay for hotels with USDC (USDC) on layer-2 blockchain Base, extending agentic AI stablecoin payments into travel bookings. The Travala Travel MCP is live through Claude Desktop, with outside developers able to integrate it into their own travel agents, Travala said in a statement sent to Cointelegraph. The company said the system connects Travala’s hotel inventory to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for linking AI apps to external tools. Payments use Coinbase’s x402 protocol on Base, with Travala saying the setup allows gasless USDC transactions, near-instant settlement and transaction costs of about $0.01 per booking. Read more
Among the issues US lawmakers are expected to discuss in a digital asset taxation hearing are “de minimis” reporting exceptions for crypto transactions. The US House Ways and Means Committee circulated seven discussion drafts of bills to address digital asset taxation ahead of a Tuesday hearing on the matter, covering stablecoins, staking, mining and transactions. Among proposals in the draft legislation are reducing the tax paperwork required for crypto holders, providing clarity for mining and staking tokens and a potential “de minimis” reporting exception for transactions. The seven discussion draft bills preceded a Tuesday hearing on digital asset taxation in the House committee, chaired by Republican Jason Smith. Crypto industry advocates have been urging US lawmakers to address lessening the reporting burden for taxes on mining and staking as well as eliminating requirements for small crypto transactions through “de minimis” exceptions. Read more
Bitcoin bears piled into short positions as BTC price slid to $60,000. Will the $2.6 billion in short leverage lead to an upside squeeze? Key takeaways: The Bitcoin (BTC) crash to $61,100 on Friday wiped out $335 million in leveraged long positions. However, after a 21% decline in Bitcoin's price, bulls might have set a perfect trap as negative market sentiment intensified. Bearish positions built up heavily between $63,000 and $66,000, setting the stage for a potential $2.6 billion short squeeze. Estimated cumulative Bitcoin liquidation at major exchanges, USD. Source: CoinGlass Read more