Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 14:00 Dec 26, 2025
As AI blurs the line between real and synthetic media, strategies for restoring user trust online are still taking shape as we enter 2026. How often have you come across an image online and wondered, “Real or AI”? Have you ever felt trapped in a reality where AI-created and human-made content blur together? Do we still need to distinguish between them? Artificial intelligence has unlocked a world of creative possibilities, but it has also brought new challenges, reshaping how we perceive content online. From AI-generated images, music and videos flooding social media to deepfakes and bots scamming users, AI now touches a vast part of the internet. According to a study by Graphite, the amount of AI-made content surpassed human-created content in late 2024, primarily due to the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Another study suggests that more than 74.2% of pages in its sample contained AI-generated content as of April 2025. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:26 Dec 26, 2025
Tokenized commodities are increasing amid growing investor demand for more accessible onchain financial products, following new all-time highs for gold and silver. Blockchain-based tokenized commodities are nearing the $4 billion milestone, following new all-time highs reached by the world's leading precious metals. Gold, silver and platinum hit record highs on Friday, with spot gold rising as high as $4,530 per ounce, TradingView data shows. Silver, currently not a major contributor to the tokenized commodities market, briefly touched an all-time high of $74.56 per ounce. Tokenized commodities rose 11% in the month leading to Friday, reaching $3.93 billion, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz. Tether Gold (XAUt) was listed as the largest tokenized commodity, worth $1.74 billion, followed by Paxos Gold (PAXG) at $1.61 billion. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:00 Dec 26, 2025
The lowdown on how the switchover to ZK-proofs is expected to work this year as part of Ethereum’s plan to scale to 10,000 TPS. 2026 is a pivotal year for Ethereum. The first Ethereum validators will process tiny zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs instead of reexecuting transactions. This unlocks immediate scaling benefits for the layer 1 and sets it on the path toward 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). Researcher Justin Drake demonstrated that validating proofs on an old laptop is already possible at EthProofs Day at Devconnect in November. One in 10 validators are expected to make the switch to ZK before the end of the year. It’s a complete overhaul of the fundamental way the blockchain works: comparable in scale to the Merge in 2022, when Ethereum successfully switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:55 Dec 26, 2025
Once a barometer of retail hype, memecoins are closing the year with shrinking liquidity, weaker participation and fading speculative momentum. Memecoins are trading near year-end lows, marking a sharp reversal from the speculative peak reached in Christmas 2024. Memecoins fell 65% over the year to a market capitalization of $35 billion on Dec. 19, their lowest level of 2025, according to CoinMarketCap data. They retraced some losses on Friday, rising to about $36 billion. Last year, memecoins thrived on Christmas Day, recording about $100 billion in valuation, according to CoinMarketCap data. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 11:15 Dec 26, 2025
From hacks and macro shocks to stablecoin regulation and market-structure upgrades, 2025 reshaped how crypto operates and what mainstream adoption really means. On Feb. 24, the crypto industry faced a renewed security reckoning after about $1.4 billion was stolen from Bybit, making it one of the largest exchange-related thefts on record. US authorities publicly attributed the attack to actors linked to North Korea and warned that the stolen assets would likely be laundered through a network of addresses and intermediaries. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 10:15 Dec 26, 2025
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino warned that an AI sector correction could spill over into crypto markets in 2026, with some analysts projecting BTC to drop to as low as $65,000. Concerns are mounting that global equity markets may be drifting into another bubble, fueled by relentless optimism about AI. If that bubble cracks in 2026, Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market could be among the first to feel the fallout. Key takeaways: AI bubble risks could hit crypto first, as overstretched, debt-funded equity markets unwind. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 09:50 Dec 26, 2025
From McDonald’s to municipal taxes, Lugano is proving that Bitcoin adoption is not about predicting the future; it is about building the infrastructure to handle it today. Adoption is voluntary. Merchants participate because Bitcoin Lightning fees are typically under 1%, compared with the roughly 3% average charged by credit card networks. Residents can pay municipal bills, including taxes, parking fines and tuition, in BTC or USDT using standard QR-code invoices. The city balances the ecosystem by using BTC for payments, USDT for stability and LVGA as a local loyalty token. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:53 Dec 26, 2025
The malicious Trust Wallet extension has also been exporting users’ personal information, pointing to potential insider activity, according to cybersecurity company SlowMist. Trust Wallet users lost about $7 million in a Christmas Day exploit that had been planned since early December. Trust Wallet’s browser extension version 2.68 was compromised by a security incident impacting desktop users, Trust Wallet said in a Thursday X post; it advised users to upgrade to version 2.89. Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, which owns the cryptocurrency wallet that claims to serve 220 million users, said in a Friday X post that the lost funds will be covered. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:36 Dec 26, 2025
Bitcoin simmered below resistance but teased a bullish breakout as the Asia trading session accompanied new all-time highs for gold and silver. Bitcoin (BTC) aimed for $90,000 on Boxing Day as precious metals set yet another all-time high. Key points: Bitcoin seeks a retest of $90,000 as TradFi markets return after the Christmas break. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 08:28 Dec 26, 2025
The failed vote highlights deeper tensions over token value capture, governance power and whether DAO structures can effectively manage protocol identity. Aave token holders voted against a controversial governance proposal seeking to place control of the protocol's brand assets under DAO ownership. On Friday, the snapshot poll closed with 55.29% voting “NAY” and 41.21% abstaining. Only 3.5% of voters supported the proposal. The proposal asked whether Aave (AAVE) token holders should regain control over Aave’s domains, social handles, naming rights and other intellectual property through an entity under a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Supporters framed the move as a step toward decentralization and clarifying questions about brand stewardship. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 05:48 Dec 26, 2025
James Howells, who accidentally had his hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoin thrown away, offered his advice to industry newcomers, veterans and skeptics in 2026. Newcomers are diving into crypto without learning what it is, veterans are watching their profits soar without spurring adoption and skeptics are judging crypto with little information, says OG Bitcoiner James Howells. Howells is famous for fighting in court to recover a hard drive from a landfill that contained 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $700 million. While he didn’t succeed, he told Cointelegraph that he didn’t let the loss define him and shared his tips and 2026 resolutions for newcomers, veterans and skeptics. Finally, Howells noted that much of the recycled criticism comes from financial institutions and nation-states that are quietly building blockchain infrastructure for custody, trading, and settlement behind the scenes. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 04:25 Dec 26, 2025
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index is hovering at levels lower than during the shock FTX collapse in late 2022, despite Bitcoin trading at roughly five times the price. Crypto market sentiment remained in “extreme fear” on Friday, marking the 14th straight day that market sentiment has remained in the zone. The sentiment-tracking Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell three points to a score of 20 out of 100 on Dec. 26, hitting a two-week stretch of “extreme fear” that started on Dec. 13, making it one of the longest periods in the zone since the index launched in February 2018. Market sentiment has been trending down since early October after renewed US-China tariff fears wiped nearly $500 billion from the crypto market on Oct. 10. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 03:53 Dec 26, 2025
If Ether manages to reclaim its all-time high in 2026, it may just be a “bull trap,” says crypto analyst Ben Cowen. Ethereum is unlikely to hit new highs in the coming year, given the current conditions for Bitcoin, says crypto analyst Benjamin Cowen. “If Bitcoin truly is truly in a bear market, which is what it feels like, it would be kind of hard for Ethereum to go up there,” Cowen said on the Bankless podcast on Tuesday. It comes after veteran trader Peter Brandt predicted on Dec. 19 that Bitcoin could fall as low as $60,000 by the third quarter of 2026. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 01:16 Dec 26, 2025
Grok makes X more truth-friendly as it often challenges users’ assumptions instead of confirming them, says Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, makes the social media platform more truth-friendly with responses that oppose users who turn to it to confirm political biases, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said. “The easy ability to call Grok on Twitter is probably the biggest thing after community notes that has been positive for the truth-friendliness of this platform,” Buterin said on Thursday. ”The fact that you don't see ahead of time how Grok will respond is key here,” he added. “I've seen many situations where someone calls on Grok expecting their crazy political belief to be confirmed and Grok comes along and rugs them.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 00:35 Dec 26, 2025
Bitcoiners wanting to focus on short-term factors should be “fairly methodical and mathematical,” says Strategy CEO Phong Le. Bitcoin’s market fundamentals have stayed strong in 2025, despite the asset’s price and sentiment declining toward the end of the year, says Strategy CEO Phong Le. “The fundamentals of the market this year for Bitcoin couldn’t be better,” Le told the “Coin Stories” podcast on Tuesday, emphasizing that he doesn’t care too much about its short-term performance. Bitcoin (BTC) reached an all-time high of $125,100 on Oct. 5, but has since declined nearly 30%, trading at $87,687 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap. AMeanwhile, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which measures overall market sentiment, has shown “Extreme Fear” since Dec. 12. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 21:09 Dec 25, 2025
The non-fungible token project owned by Luca Netz appeared on the Sphere’s exterior screens, with the animated display going live on Christmas Eve. Pudgy Penguins ran an animated display on the Las Vegas Sphere during Christmas week, projecting its penguin characters across the venue’s exterior screens. In a post on X, Pudgy Penguins said its animations went live on Christmas Eve on the exterior of the Las Vegas Sphere, a popular domed venue wrapped in high-resolution LED panels designed to display large-scale visuals visible across the Las Vegas Strip. Pudgy Penguins is an NFT project founded in 2021 and acquired in April 2022 by entrepreneur Luca Netz for $2.5 million in Ether (ETH). As NFT revenue declined, Netz drew on his consumer products background to expand the project beyond digital collectibles and into physical toy production to generate cash flow. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:00 Dec 25, 2025
Headlines move crypto fast, but liquidity decides what lasts. Data from ETFs, stablecoins and onchain flows shows what really drives prices. Crypto markets are often explained through narratives. Political developments, regulatory headlines, institutional adoption and cycle-based expectations dominate the price action during volatile periods. These narratives influence positioning and sentiment, but over the past year, price sustainability has been dictated more by measurable capital flows, liquidity conditions and onchain behavior than by headlines themselves. Key takeaways: Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 20:00 Dec 25, 2025
Prediction markets are moving into crypto’s mainstream as Crypto.com’s in-house market maker raises fairness questions and Coinbase doubles down on growth. Prediction markets have emerged as one of the cryptocurrency sector’s most consequential, if not contested, frontiers. Once the domain of niche platforms, they are now attracting serious attention from major exchanges, venture capital and even traditional financial institutions. As prediction markets move closer to the core of crypto’s business model, Crypto.com has sparked questions around fairness and market structure after seeking to hire a quantitative trader for an in-house market-making unit that would buy and sell contracts alongside other traders. Meanwhile, Coinbase has signaled a longer-term bet on regulated prediction markets with its acquisition of The Clearing Company, an onchain prediction market startup backed by a team with experience at Kalshi and Polymarket. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:42 Dec 25, 2025
DTCC’s move to bring US Treasurys onchain highlights growing institutional momentum behind tokenized real-world assets. Canton Coin has climbed about 27% over the past week, Cointelegraph data shows, outpacing the broader cryptocurrency market as traders reacted to fresh signals of institutional adoption. The gains follow a Dec. 17 announcement from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) outlining plans to tokenize a portion of US Treasury securities held at its Depository Trust Company subsidiary on the Canton Network. DTCC operates post-trade infrastructure for US securities markets, with its subsidiaries processing about $3.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:00 Dec 25, 2025
Post-halving stress is reshaping Bitcoin mining. As margins compress, miners turn to AI, HPC and consolidation to survive heading into 2026. The Bitcoin mining industry has faced a harsher operating environment since the 2024 halving, a core feature of Bitcoin’s monetary design that cuts block rewards roughly every four years to enforce long-term scarcity. While the halving strengthens Bitcoin’s economic hardness, it also places immediate pressure on miners by slashing revenue overnight. In 2025, this resulted in the “harshest margin environment of all time,” according to TheMinerMag, which cited collapsing revenue and surging debt as major obstacles. Even publicly listed Bitcoin (BTC) miners with sizable cash reserves and access to capital have struggled to remain profitable solely through mining. To make do, many have accelerated their push into alternative, data-intensive business lines to stabilize revenue and diversify away from pure hashprice exposure. Read more
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