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Anthropic says its own AI is now accelerating AI development, an early signal of recursive self-improvement. Internal data shows Claude authored more than 80% of the code merged into the company’s production systems as of May 2026.

The disclosure came from the Anthropic Institute, which paired previously unreported internal data with public benchmarks. The findings point toward a future where AI systems could design and build their own successors.

Anthropic Data Points to Recursive Self-Improvement as Claude Writes 80% of Its Code

Before its in-house coding agent rolled out in February 2025, Claude wrote only low single-digit percentages of merged code, the report states. That share now exceeds 80%.

The output gain is steep. Anthropic’s typical engineer merged eight times as much code per day in the second quarter of 2026 as in 2024. The human now directs and reviews while Claude does the writing.

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The Judgment Gap is Closing

Anthropic runs the same test on every model. It hands the AI code that trains a small model and asks it to run faster. Claude Opus 4 averaged a 3x speedup in May 2025.

By April 2026, its Mythos Preview model reached 52x. A skilled human needs four to eight hours to hit 4x.

Research judgment is harder to automate. Shown a session before a researcher took a wrong turn, Mythos Preview picked a better next step 64% of the time, up from 51% for Opus 4.5 in November 2025.

“Claude-written code was somewhat worse than human-written code at Anthropic in late 2025, is roughly at parity today, and we expect it to be strictly better within the year,” read an excerpt in the report.

Why it Matters Beyond Anthropic

The company frames the trend as a possible path to recursive self-improvement, where AI builds its own successor.

It cautions that Claude has not yet shown the research taste to choose which problems matter most.

The stakes are commercial too. Anthropic recently submitted a confidential IPO registration and has built its brand around safety.

Faster development also feeds the broader crypto industry AI pivot, where autonomous AI agents in crypto execute trades and on-chain tasks.

The curve continuing to bend or flattening into an S-curve will decide how soon, if ever, AI starts building its own successor.

Elsewhere, reports also indicate that Anthropic’s sector rival, OpenAI, is seeing remarkable progress with its own AI, ChatGPT, said to be registering growth of its own.

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The post Anthropic Admits AI Is Learning to Build Better AI Faster Than Expected appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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More than two-thirds of accounts banned by Anthropic for policy violations over the last year used AI to help them prepare for cyberattacks, such as writing malware, according to the AI firm. 

Anthropic said on Wednesday that between March 2025 and March 2026, out of 832 accounts that it examined for violating its policies, 560 accounts were used in this way. 

The data reflects an alarming global trend — that AI is increasingly being used to carry out mass cyberattacks. In April, the value of crypto stolen in hacks surged to $629.7 million, the highest since February 2025, which some analysts linked to the widespread use of AI. 

Source: Anthropic

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Manuel Aráoz, the founder of the crypto security platform OpenZeppelin, said on May 27 that he considered “all of DeFi unsafe” due to AI models’ ability to identify smart contract vulnerabilities.

While the data shows that most of the AI use is in the preparation phase of an attack, Anthropic said it has also started to be deployed “deeper in the attack life cycle,” with 6.5% of the banned accounts using AI to assist with “lateral movement” — referring to techniques a cyberattacker uses after gaining initial access. 

“These sorts of ‘post-compromise’ techniques used to be restricted to actors with the technical knowledge to carry them out,” Anthropic said. “Our investigation shows that AI can now be made to perform these activities on behalf of less sophisticated actors.”

AI also increased the threat level of attackers. Anthropic classified a third of accounts, or 33%, as “medium risk or higher” in the first six months of its analysis, but that figure nearly doubled to 56% in the second six-month period of its study.

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The type of threat posed by AI-powered hackers was detailed by Google researchers last month. The researchers found what they believed was the first-ever case of AI being used to develop a zero-day exploit, which allowed hackers to bypass the two-factor authentication of an unnamed “popular open-source, web-based system administration tool.”

Related: AI guardrail removals raise questions over limits of open-source model regulation

It added that AI can now undertake highly technical tasks for attackers, and there is “little correlation between the skill of a threat actor and how many techniques they use,” a metric that traditionally measured an attacker’s risk level.

Anthropic said in some cases, such as one in November, a Chinese state-sponsored group carried out an attack where an AI model worked autonomously, where it conducted an exploit, stole credentials and made decisions with a human making an input at “key moments.”

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“These are precisely the behaviors we expect to see much more of as AI agents become more capable,” it said.

Anthropic is set to roll out its AI model Mythos in the coming weeks, the company’s large language model that has concerned analysts due to its powerful cybersecurity capabilities that found over 10,000 major vulnerabilities in widely-used software.

Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now

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Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, recorded the largest unrealized loss on its BTC holdings of over $10 billion in paper value. This reflects a 17% decline in the value of its position after years of steady accumulation.

The loss comes amid a broader market downturn as Bitcoin crashed to around $61,000 today. The apex coin is now down about 28% year-to-date, marking its weakest level since February.

Strategy Logs $10.47B Paper Loss

The company’s latest portfolio snapshot shows total invested capital at about $63.87 billion against a current valuation of $53.4 billion. This leaves a gap of about $10.47 billion in unrealized losses, alongside a smaller realized loss linked to recent portfolio activity. The figures highlight the continued pressure on its Bitcoin-heavy balance sheet after years of accumulation.

That pressure has also coincided with a notable change in its long-standing approach to Bitcoin holdings. The firm sold 32 BTC at an average price of $77,135 per coin, marking its first departure from a previously consistent no-sell stance.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the sale took place between May 26 and May 31 and generated about $2.5 million. The proceeds are expected to support preferred stock distributions, including cash dividend obligations.

Broader market impact is also visible in the company’s equity performance. Strategy stock (MSTR) has declined about 77% from its peak, reflecting sensitivity to Bitcoin’s price movements and balance sheet exposure.

Over the same six-year period of sustained Bitcoin accumulation, the S&P 500 gained roughly 116%. This contrast underscores a widening performance gap between traditional equity benchmarks and firms with concentrated Bitcoin exposure.

Holding Through the Downturn

Executive Chairman Michael Saylor built the company’s Bitcoin strategy in 2020 by converting corporate reserves into digital assets as an inflation hedge. The firm maintains that it will continue holding BTC despite losses, with its strategy focused on long-term exposure rather than short-term stability.

Market observers say the unrealized loss highlights how Bitcoin price swings directly affect corporate balance sheets tied to digital asset exposure. They remain divided on whether the strategy amplifies volatility compared with diversified portfolios during extended downturns.

The post Strategy Sees Its Largest Ever Unrealized Loss at Over $10 Billion appeared first on CryptoPotato.

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Michael Saylor conceded that the recent Bitcoin selloff reflects a rotation of capital toward AI rather than weakness in the pioneer crypto itself.

He pointed to roughly $4 billion in Bitcoin ETF outflows since May 14, with the king of crypto trading near $64,000 at the time, down about 4% on the day and nearly 49% below its October 2025 record.

Michael Saylor Reframes the Bitcoin Selloff

Saylor argued that capital markets are absorbing enormous sums to fund AI infrastructure. He put the figure at about $400 billion over six months across data centers and chips.

Analysts peg 2026 capital budgets at the largest US tech firms above $600 billion. That scale gives his rotation argument some footing.

He cast the ETF redemptions as temporary repositioning, not a structural problem. MicroStrategy holds 843,706 Bitcoin at an average cost near $75,702, per Strategy’s record Bitcoin holdings.

That average now sits well above the market price. With Bitcoin near $64,000, the 843,706 coins are worth about $54 billion against a cost basis near $63.9 billion.

That leaves MicroStrategy about $10 billion underwater on the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury. The loss is unrealized, yet it pressures a stock that trades as a leveraged proxy for the token.

The strain is already visible. A June 1 filing shows Strategy sold 32 BTC to fund preferred-stock dividends, its first sale since 2022. The move was small, yet it showed those obligations now drawing on the same balance sheet.

“Capital markets are funding the AI buildout at historic scale: ~$400B over 6 months. Bitcoin ETFs have seen ~$4B of outflows since May 14, pressuring $BTC. This is a capital rotation, not a Bitcoin impairment. Volatility creates opportunity,” Michael Saylor indicated.

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The Dot-Com Echo

The framing carries an irony, give Michael Saylor rode the same dot-com wave that once broke his company.

MicroStrategy peaked at $333 on March 10, 2000, the day the Nasdaq Composite also topped out. The stock then fell from $260 to $86 on March 20, a one-day drop above 60%.

That restatement erased about $66 million in revenue and turned reported profits into losses. Saylor and two executives later paid roughly $11 million to settle fraud charges, without admitting wrongdoing.

Analysts at PFR Capital now explore a possibility where Saylor could rattle markets again.

“In March 2000, MicroStrategy…changed its revenue recognition method…investors started doubting the revenue, profits, accounting quality, and so on of other companies. What happened after that, everyone knows. So you could say MicroStrategy single-handedly crashed the entire market. 26 years have passed. Will MicroStrategy be able to replay its market-crashing magic? Let’s wait and see,” PFR Capital’s Jayson Hu posed.

The parallel is imperfect, however, since the 2000 collapse stemmed from accounting. The current bet rests on transparent, on-chain purchases.

Still, leverage and concentration leave MSTR shareholders exposed to sharp swings.

Competing Reads on the Outflows

However, not everyone shares Saylor’s calm. CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer weighed in as the selling spread. He had touted doomed “new economy” stocks days before the 2000 top.

“Saylor suboptimal move roiling Crypto. Some wags pondering it was only up in the 90s because of Saylor… Seems extreme but it is all i hear,” he noted.

Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas described the stretch bluntly, while noting lifetime ETF inflows still top $55 billion. May marked the heaviest Bitcoin ETF outflows of 2026.

The split reflects a broader trend, with hedge funds rotating away from Bitcoin as AI narratives draw liquidity.

The post Michael Saylor Calls Bitcoin Selloff an AI Rotation as MicroStrategy Sits $10 Billion Underwater appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Visa and stablecoin infrastructure company Brale are piloting settlement using SBC, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale, on the Canton Network — the permissioned-but-privacy-preserving blockchain built by Digital Asset for regulated financial institutions. The two companies announced… Read the full story at The Defiant

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The first week of June has split DeFi in two. Whale flows, total value locked, and sharp price moves point to three DeFi tokens and their respective projects to watch, where one is running hot, and two are bleeding.

This time, the smart-money signal and the price action mostly agree.

Hyperliquid (HYPE)

Hyperliquid is the week’s clear winner. HYPE is up about 17% over seven days and roughly 51% over the past month, even after an 8% pullback in the last 24 hours.

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The whale flows explain the strength. Fresh wallets added $24.4 million, running 3.4 times their normal pace, and about $2.5 million in HYPE left exchanges. Coins leaving exchanges usually point to holders settling in rather than preparing to sell.

The fundamentals match. Hyperliquid total value locked (TVL), the dollar value of assets deposited in a protocol, climbed from about $5.52 billion in late May to about $5.88 billion now.

Whales did trim about $2.7 million, and Arthur Hayes was among the sellers. With TVL still rising, that reads as profit-taking inside a strong run rather than a top.

Aerodrome (AERO)

Aerodrome, the largest decentralized exchange on Base, is the mirror image. AERO, its DeFi token, fell 6.85% on the day and about 22% over the past month.

The whale flows are mixed rather than clean. Fresh wallets added about $17.3 million, but that ran below their usual pace, while top profit-takers trimmed roughly $222,000. The bigger tell is exchange deposits stacking up, which often points to sell pressure ahead.

The trend shows up in the fundamentals too. Aerodrome TVL has drained from about $501 million in January to about $312 million now.

Annualized incentives near $165 million also outrun revenue around $52 million, so the protocol pays out more than it earns.

Jupiter (JUP)

Jupiter is the most interesting case, because the project and one of its core tokens are pulling in different directions. JUP, the governance token, dropped about 15% in 24 hours. Yet the protocol itself is growing. TVL is up from about $2.34 billion in April to $2.51 billion, with zero incentive spending.

The selling concentrates in JLP, a separate DeFi token that represents a share of the Jupiter Perps liquidity pool. JLP holders deposit a basket of assets and act as the house against perpetual traders.

They earn most of the perp fees but absorb the pool’s market risk. Whales exited JLP at 14.7 times their normal pace, sending a part of $24.9 million to exchanges.

Here is the link between the two. JLP and JUP are both Jupiter tokens, but they do different jobs. JLP funds the perps exchange, and JUP lives off the fees the exchange generates. So, money fleeing JLP and the JUP price are connected at the source.

When whales pull $24.9 million out of JLP, they are backing away from Jupiter’s biggest fee engine.

Fewer backers means a weaker engine, and a weaker engine means thinner fees for JUP. So the JLP exit and the 15% JUP drop point the same way. They are one story about Jupiter, not two.

The fee and TVL numbers still look healthy for now. But if the JLP exit keeps running this hot, the fees behind JUP will be next to weaken.

The post 3 DeFi Tokens to Watch as One Jumps 50% and Two Bleed in June appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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MicroStrategy’s preferred stock STRC fell below $95 for the first time in three months on June 3, 2026, closing at $94.65 as Bitcoin tumbled to $62,000 amid over $1.66 billion in liquidations.

We break down what STRC is, why it dropped, and what the move signals for Bitcoin investors right now.

Why STRC Slipped Below Its Target Range

STRC is Strategy’s Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, designed with a $100 par value to deliver a high variable yield around 11.5% annually. It targets income-focused investors seeking indirect Bitcoin exposure with less volatility than MSTR.

The instrument uses dynamic dividend adjustments to keep its price trading near par. When demand weakens and the price falls, the company can raise the yield to pull the price back up over time, restoring the original capital structure logic.

That mechanism is now being stress-tested. STRC dropped more than 2% to close at $94.65, breaking a key psychological zone investors had grown used to during the past several months of relative stability.

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Trader Scott Melker known as “The Wolf of all Streets” provided important context on social media. “STRC’s $100 par value is not a price floor,” he wrote.

“A 5% discount to par is not evidence that something is broken. It’s evidence that investors are demanding a higher yield, pricing risk, or reacting to market conditions – exactly what preferred stocks do”, added.

The drop coincided with broader market turmoil. Bitcoin slid all the way to $62,000 in the last 24 hours, triggering more than $1.66 billion in crypto liquidations, mostly from long positions across major derivative platforms.

Strategy also added pressure by selling Bitcoin for the first time since 2022 to help fund preferred dividends. The amount was modest, but it dented the “never sell” narrative long championed by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor across global markets.

Why STRC Below Par Pressures Bitcoin Sentiment

The STRC discount matters because it directly affects Strategy’s ability to keep buying Bitcoin. With shares below $95, issuing new preferred stock becomes far less attractive, narrowing one of its main capital-raising channels.

Analyst Juan Rodríguez put it bluntly on social media. “STRC is adding bearish pressure to the Bitcoin price,” he wrote. “It signals danger and not future purchases of BTC. Investors are recovering capital at 95 with losses.”

The anti-Bitcoin and gold bug economist Peter Schiff highlighted the mechanical risks embedded in the structure. As STRC’s price falls lower, Strategy will be forced to raise the dividend rate even higher to pull the share price back toward par.

According to Schiff, this would accelerate the company’s cash burn and bring forward Bitcoin sales to fund the elevated payouts.

The math is straightforward. When STRC trades at or above par, new issuance funds further BTC purchases efficiently. Below par, the company needs higher yields to lure buyers, which increases cash outflows precisely when Bitcoin prices are already under pressure.

Strategy’s capital structure was designed for rising Bitcoin environments. Current conditions, including BTC at $63,500, a recent small sale to cover dividends, and STRC trading below target, present a notably less favorable backdrop than during the recent rally.

The company still holds over 843,706 BTC and maintains substantial cash reserves. MSTR common shares have also faced selling pressure, reflecting the interconnected nature of MicroStrategy’s layered capital stack and Bitcoin-centric corporate identity.

For income investors, the current discount offers a higher effective yield approaching 12%. However, that yield comes with mark-to-market losses and heightened uncertainty about dividend sustainability if Bitcoin weakness continues across the coming months.

Struggling STRC Faces Make-or-Break Shareholder Vote

This latest bout of weakness in STRC is unfolding with just days remaining before a critical shareholder vote on the proposed amendment to its dividend schedule.

With the June 7 deadline fast approaching, holders of both STRC and MSTR shares are being urged to approve a shift from monthly to semi-monthly dividend payments—keeping the 11.5% annualized rate unchanged but delivering payouts roughly every two weeks. The timing is far from ideal.

As STRC trades at a multi-month low and Bitcoin remains under pressure, the amendment aims to reduce reinvestment lag, tighten price action around par, and improve cash-flow consistency for income-focused investors.

However, the drop in the preferred shares has amplified concerns about the broader capital structure, with critics arguing it could accelerate cash burn and force earlier Bitcoin sales if the stock fails to recover.

MicroStrategy maintains the change will strengthen its “capital turbine” model, yet the current market stress has turned the upcoming vote into a key test of investor confidence at a particularly vulnerable moment.

The post MicroStrategy’s STRC Slips Below $95, Adding New Pressure on Bitcoin Amid the Market Sell-Off appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Jim Cramer fired a pointed jab on social media, hinting that Michael Saylor “murdered Bitcoin” as Strategy navigates a sea of FUD across its stock, preferred shares, and treasury position all at once.

We break down what Cramer said, the small Bitcoin sale behind the noise, and why MSTR and STRC are now flashing real stress signals.

Why Cramer Just Targeted Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy

Strategy is the Bitcoin treasury company formerly known as MicroStrategy. It holds more than 843,000 BTC, making it the largest corporate Bitcoin holder. The CNBC host’s “who murdered Bitcoin?” remark is widely seen as targeting Saylor’s accumulation approach.

The timing amplified the FUD. This week, Strategy disclosed that it sold 32 BTC for the first time since 2022, generating roughly $2.5 million to help fund dividends on its preferred shares.

While the sale represents a tiny fraction of total holdings, it broke from the firm’s long-held never-sell posture. The symbolic shift triggered a wave of scrutiny across crypto media and traditional Wall Street commentary almost overnight.

BeInCrypto reported that Saylor conceded the recent Bitcoin sell-off stems from capital rotating into AI rather than fundamental weakness of BTC, and highlighted roughly $4 billion in Bitcoin ETF outflows since May 14.

Cramer’s jab struck a nerve in crypto circles. Saylor commands a devoted following for his maximalist Bitcoin advocacy, and the veteran market commentator has a long history of contrarian calls challenging the broader crypto investment thesis.

Supporters counter that the recent sale was negligible and liquidity-driven. Critics, however, point out that Strategy’s Bitcoin bet has actually underperformed the S&P500 across the same multi-year horizon, fueling fresh debate.

How MSTR and STRC Are Flashing Real Stress

Investor sentiment has soured quickly across the entire Strategy capital stack. Shares of MSTR have pulled back sharply from prior highs, reflecting the company’s tight linkage to Bitcoin’s daily price performance across global markets.

The variable-rate perpetual preferred stock STRC has also slipped below $95. Yield-seeking investors are reassessing exposure as volatility in the underlying crypto holdings tests the stability mechanism designed to anchor STRC near par.

The structural model is being stress-tested in real time. Strategy uses share issuances and structured preferreds like STRC to amass Bitcoin, a model that delivered explosive upside in bull markets but now magnifies downside in risk-off environments.

The preferred stock framework targets high yields with mechanisms intended to stabilize the price around the $100. That balance becomes harder to maintain as Bitcoin trades well below Strategy’s average cost basis.

Saylor and the company have signaled continued commitment to the treasury strategy. They view drawdowns as temporary, but the mix of unrealized losses, the symbolic first sale, Cramer’s skepticism, and STRC weakness has created a potent FUD cocktail.

All eyes now remain on whether Strategy’s high-conviction approach can endure prolonged volatility. In the evolving world of corporate Bitcoin balance sheets, even small moves now invite outsized scrutiny from every angle of the market.

The post Jim Cramer Hints Michael Saylor “Murdered Bitcoin” as MicroStrategy Navigates a Sea of FUD appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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