Blockchain engineering, security, scaling, AI and the technology behind digital finance.
Polygon temporarily surpassed Ethereum in daily fees, driven largely by booming activity on Polymarket. The milestone highlights how high-traffic applications can shift value capture toward Layer-2 networks. Sustained dominance, however, will depend on continued user demand beyond a single app.
TRM’s 2025 review examined transaction activity, darknet market preferences and network behavior. Its findings do not identify all Monero users.
Africa leads in stablecoin adoption but also records the highest conversion spreads globally. Costs vary sharply by country, driven largely by competition and liquidity rather than blockchain technology. Stablecoins may cut remittance friction, but local market dynamics still shape the final price users pay.
Optimism has approved a plan to use half of its Superchain revenue to buy back OP tokens, tying the token more closely to activity across its expanding layer-2 ecosystem, though the market has shown little immediate price reaction.
Matcha Meta users were urged to revoke approvals after a SwapNet contract exploit drained up to $16.8 million on Base, with security firms tracing the attack to a smart-contract flaw that allowed approved funds to be transferred, highlighting ongoing DeFi risks that are increasingly being exposed with the help of AI tools.
Chainalysis has launched a new automation feature that lets non-technical teams run onchain investigations without writing code, aiming to help compliance and investigators keep up with increasingly sophisticated, AI-driven fraud, even as data shows hacking losses fell sharply toward the end of 2025.
Bitcoin’s hashrate has slipped below 1 zetahash per second for the first time in four months, falling nearly 15% from its October peak, as analysts say miners are increasingly diverting power toward AI and high-performance computing for better margins, even as mining difficulty falls and profitability improves.
Sygnum expects clearer US crypto regulation to pave the way for sovereign Bitcoin reserves and broader adoption of tokenization by banks in 2026, arguing that early state adopters could accelerate Bitcoin’s emergence as a global store of value despite ongoing political constraints. At the same time, the firm sees tokenized bonds moving steadily toward the financial mainstream as major institutions prepare to issue and manage debt directly on blockchain-based infrastructure.
Andreessen Horowitz has raised $15 billion to back technologies it sees as vital to America’s future, with crypto remaining a key focus despite no new allocation to its standalone crypto fund. The firm argues that blockchain and AI are now central to maintaining US competitiveness in the next global technology cycle.
Bloomberg reported funding talks at a $350 billion pre-money valuation in January 2026. The proposed amount and terms were not a completed round.
US IPOs underperformed the S&P 500 in 2025 as crypto and AI listings delivered uneven returns after debut. While some firms saw strong openings, weak follow-through reinforced a market shift toward selectivity and fundamentals over speculative growth stories.
AI’s demand for computing power is accelerating at a pace that’s reshaping global hardware markets. Nvidia’s leadership says the race is only intensifying, which could further push Bitcoin miners toward AI computing as GPUs become scarcer and more valuable.
Vida reported gains during unusual Binance trading on January 1. Binance told Cointelegraph its initial checks found no indication of a platform breach.
Web3 losses climbed to nearly $4 billion in 2025, driven mainly by weak access controls and key management failures rather than smart contract bugs. Hacken says North Korea-linked actors accounted for more than half of the damage, increasing pressure on regulators to turn security guidance into enforceable rules.
Trust Wallet will reimburse about $7M lost in a Christmas Day browser extension exploit that was quietly prepared weeks in advance. Investigators say the attack may point to insider access, raising fresh concerns around wallet software security and update controls.
Trend Research has quietly amassed around 580,000 ETH, placing it among the largest known Ethereum holders despite being privately owned. The move highlights a broader trend of institutional-scale accumulation, as large players position for staking influence and long-term dominance within the Ethereum network.
A crypto user lost nearly $50M in USDT after copying a poisoned wallet address from transaction history. The incident highlights how address spoofing scams exploit habit and speed, not technical flaws.
The ECB plans to enable blockchain-based settlements in central bank money by 2026 as part of its digital euro rollout. While the technical design is ready, final decisions on privacy and safeguards now rest with EU lawmakers.