Crypto World
The network is moving away from being a slow giant to become a high-speed ‘internet of value’ by 2029
The Ethereum Foundation’s newly released “Strawmap” reads, at first glance, like something only a protocol researcher could immediately comprehend. It’s dense, diagram-heavy and packed with references to forks, zkEVMs and data availability sampling.
But beneath the technical language is a far simpler story: Ethereum — the second-largest blockchain with more than $200 billion market cap — is trying to decide what kind of infrastructure it wants to be by the end of the decade.
The ‘Strawmap’ — explicitly framed as a draft, not an official plan — sketches out Ethereum upgrades through 2029. It is not binding, but it signals where some of the network’s most influential researchers believe the base layer should head next.
“The Strawmap is largely independent from Ethereum governance… it’s a tool that helps inform R&D well ahead of Ethereum governance, potentially even years ahead,” Justin Drake, a prominent Ethereum Foundation researcher, told CoinDesk in an interview.
That direction has real consequences beyond core developers.
At the center of the document are five ambitions: near-instant transaction finality, dramatically higher throughput, built-in privacy, quantum-resistant cryptography and tighter integration between Ethereum’s base layer and its layer 2 ecosystem.
Stripped of jargon, the goal is straightforward: make Ethereum faster, more scalable, more private and durable enough to last a long time.
Today, Ethereum transactions are included in blocks quickly, but the point at which they are considered irreversible, known as finality, takes too long (roughly 16 minutes). For most casual users, that nuance is invisible. For exchanges, bridges and financial applications, it’s critical.
In a thread responding to the roadmap, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin laid out how that could change. “Today, finality takes 16 minutes,” he wrote, adding that the goal is to “decouple slots and finality” and move toward a system where “endgame finality time might be eg. 6–16 sec.”
Moving from minutes to seconds changes how comfortably large amounts of value can move across the network.
The Layer 2 debate
Earlier this month, Buterin argued that some of the assumptions behind the original layer 2 roadmap “no longer make sense” in their earlier form. Layer-2 networks were previously incorporated into Ethereum’s roadmap to scale the network by processing transactions off the main blockchain and settling them back to Ethereum, helping reduce congestion and fees.
However, as layer 1 or base layer scaling has improved and some rollups have taken longer than expected to decentralize, the idea that Ethereum would outsource most of its scaling burden entirely to L2s has become less clear-cut.
Instead, Buterin suggested a more balanced future — one where the base layer continues to strengthen while layer 2 networks evolve into more specialized roles, whether for privacy, specific applications or enhanced security models.
“Ultimately, we’re going to have finality in seconds,” Drake told CoinDesk, arguing that faster settlement will “help with bridging between the L2s” and improve user experience.
The Strawmap reflects that shift. It doesn’t necessarily say layer 2s will go extinct, but neither does it treat layer 1 as frozen. Instead, it builds on a stronger base layer, alongside improvements that enable significantly higher layer 2 capacity, which could be seen as a dual-track scaling strategy.
Privacy and quantum threat
Privacy marks another notable shift in the draft of the new roadmap.
Ethereum’s transparency has long been viewed as a positive, as every transaction is visible. But openness limits certain use cases. The Strawmap contemplates native “shielded” transfers at the base layer, which would allow ETH to move without exposing full transaction details publicly. For individuals, that’s a matter of financial discretion. For businesses, it could determine whether certain activities move onchain at all.
And then there’s the long game: post-quantum cryptography. Quantum computing remains a developing field, but if Ethereum is meant to secure trillions in value over decades, its security assumptions cannot remain static. The Ethereum Foundation recently brought together a post-quantum team, and the roadmap only shows that it continues to double down on these efforts.
For developers and businesses, the roadmap provides directional clarity. Ethereum has often been criticized for moving slowly or for perpetually delaying the timelines of upgrades. By publishing a multi-year sketch, researchers are signaling that the network’s next phase is not just about patching limitations.
Ethereum’s history, though, is full of ambitious timelines that are overstretched. Governance in a decentralized system ensures debate and revision. The Strawmap itself acknowledges it will evolve.
“For me, this is ultimately about Ethereum becoming the internet of value, and ether, the asset, becoming money for the internet,” Drake told CoinDesk.
Read more: Ethereum Foundation drops most ambitious roadmap in years, targets finality in seconds by 2029
Crypto loves the word “fair.”
Fair distribution. Fair pricing. Fair access.
But let’s be honest—most token launches are anything but.
Enter Catapult, a launchpad designed to eliminate early sell pressure, slash launch costs, and automate liquidity in a way that aligns creators, traders, and the protocol itself. It replaces chaotic day-zero market mechanics with something far more deliberate: algorithmic price action, volume-based graduation, and built-in revenue sharing.
This is not another “launch and pray” platform.
It’s a structured proving ground.
The Core Thesis: Volume Before Liquidity
Traditional launches start with liquidity.
That’s the mistake.
Liquidity pools on day zero invite:
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Snipers
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MEV extraction
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Presale dumps
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Rugpull vectors
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High overhead costs
Catapult flips the sequence:
Volume first. Liquidity later.
Instead of throwing a token into an on-chain pool and hoping for the best, Catapult begins in a simulated high-fidelity environment called Turbo, where tokens can build mindshare and trading volume without ever touching a liquidity pool.
Only when a token proves demand does it graduate into a real, on-chain market via Hyper.
This single design decision changes everything.
Catapult Turbo: The Sandbox That Solves Day Zero
Catapult Turbo is a gamified trading environment that replaces traditional on-chain mechanics with a deterministic mathematical price engine.
There is:
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No order book
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No initial LP
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No slippage
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No liquidity to drain
Instead, Turbo streams hyper-volatile, realistic price action generated by a mathematical engine. Traders buy and sell exactly like on a spot exchange—but execution is instant and slippage-free.
Every trade settles directly against the protocol vault.
Why This Matters
Because price movement is decoupled from liquidity:
Creators simply choose a volatility tier, pay a flat fee, and let the session run.
The Turbo Mechanic: Controlled Chaos
Each Turbo session runs inside a fixed time window.
When creating a token, a creator selects a volatility mode that defines:
| Type | Speed Multiplier | Lifetime | Daily Sigma |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slow | 6x | 4 hours | 0.5 |
| Fast | 24x | 1 hour | 1.0 |
| Flash | 96x | 15 min | 1.25 |
| Crack | 480x | 3 min | 1.5 |
| Mayhem | 1440x | 1 min | 1.25 |
All tiers use a daily drift of zero, ensuring a mathematically neutral starting point.
The result?
Pure volatility. No bias.
Turbo is not gambling disguised as trading. It’s a structured, deterministic price evolution with unpredictable outcomes—verified through cryptographic commitment.
Path Generation & Commitment: Provably Untampered Markets
When a creator launches a Turbo session:
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The engine generates a random seed.
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It pre-calculates the entire price path.
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A secret salt is created.
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The seed, salt, and tick parameters are hashed.
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The hash is published before trading begins.
This hash becomes an immutable anchor.
As the session unfolds, ticks stream to the UI.
The underlying seed and salt remain hidden.
When the session expires, the engine reveals everything.
Anyone can recompute the hash.
If it matches, the chart wasn’t altered.
The path is deterministic—but unknowable until complete.
Even the development team cannot alter it.
That’s not “trust us.”
That’s mathematical finality.
Public vs Private Tokens: Controlled Attention
Catapult separates tokens into two categories:
Public Tokens
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Indexed in the discovery feed
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Generate a 0.5% fee on all trade volume
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Fee paid directly to the creator
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Subject to a global cap on concurrent sessions
This cap prevents fragmentation and keeps the trader’s attention dense.
Private Tokens
It’s a clever balance between open competition and personal experimentation.
From Simulation to Reality
Turbo is not the endgame.
It’s the proving ground.
A Turbo token must hit a predefined volume milestone to graduate.
When that threshold is reached, the token transitions into the on-chain ecosystem.
And here’s the key difference:
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There are no presale allocations.
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No early insiders waiting to dump.
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No liquidity seeded by a fragile team wallet.
Instead:
The entire supply is minted directly into the pool.
Liquidity is sourced from the volume generated during Turbo.
The community that built the volume becomes the on-chain market.
Graduation is handled through a time-windowed launch mechanic that prevents sniping and ensures equitable access.
This is what automated fair launches actually look like.
Catapult Hyper: Production-Grade Infrastructure
Once graduated, tokens move into Catapult Hyper, the on-chain infrastructure layer built on:
Hyperliquid provides the L1 trading environment.
LayerZero enables seamless multichain interoperability.
Together, they eliminate liquidity fragmentation.
Multichain Without the Mess
Tokens launched via Hyper are deployed as OFTs (Omnichain Fungible Tokens).
This means:
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Unified supply across chains
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No risky third-party bridges
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No wrapped fragmentation
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Seamless multichain liquidity
The Hyper terminal becomes a discovery engine—connecting creators, traders, and the broader ecosystem in a compounding value loop.
The Bonding Mechanism: Liquidity That Scales With Conviction
Hyper replaces static fundraising with a dynamic liquidity bootstrap model.
Capital requirements scale with market cap.
As mindshare grows, liquidity requirements grow.
Every launch follows strict 48-hour windows:
Initial Phase
48 hours to hit the primary goal.
Reactivation
If missed, a second round opens with increased contribution requirements.
Retirement
Failure in the second round permanently ends the campaign.
No zombie tokens.
No endless relaunches.
Only velocity survives.
Automated Liquidity & Real Yield
Once bonding completes:
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Liquidity pools initialise automatically.
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LP deployment is non-custodial.
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No manual management required.
Rewards are funded by actual platform activity—trading volume and engagement—rather than inflationary emissions.
Participants earn a real yield derived from protocol usage.
That’s a subtle but important difference.
Emission-based systems inflate.
Activity-based systems compound
Revenue Sharing: Incentives Aligned by Design
Catapult does not rely on extractive fee models.
Instead, it distributes value across four roles:
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Traders
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Creators
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Referrers
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Mindshare contributors
Rewards are epoch-based:
The Mindshare system tracks social visibility using an exponential decay model:
user_score += twitter_scout_score × k^(n−1)
Where k = 0.8
Recent activity matters more.
Sustained contribution wins.
And only the Top 100 qualify for mindshare rewards.
It’s competitive.
It’s measurable.
It’s performance-driven.
The Bigger Picture
Catapult is transitioning from a Solana-centric origin into a full multichain discovery terminal. A lightweight Hyper terminal is already live, enabling trading of graduated tokens ahead of the full LayerZero-native launchpad.
The architecture reflects a clear philosophy:
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Simulate before you tokenise.
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Prove demand before you deploy liquidity.
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Align incentives before you scale.
Most launchpads optimise for speed.
Catapult optimises for survivability.
And in crypto, survivability is alpha.
In Summary
The industry doesn’t need another place to launch tokens.
It needs infrastructure that filters noise, protects participants, and rewards real engagement.
Catapult’s Turbo-to-Hyper pipeline does exactly that.
Volume becomes proof.
Graduation becomes merit.
Liquidity becomes earned.
That’s not hype.
That’s architecture.
CATAPULT OFFICIALS
Website | X(Twitter) | Telegram
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TLDR
- Michael Saylor hinted at more Bitcoin purchases as the asset traded near $67000.
- Strategy currently holds 718722 BTC valued at about $48 billion.
- The company bought its Bitcoin at an average price of around $76000.
- Strategy faces an unrealized loss of about 12% on its holdings.
- Saylor said Bitcoin allows $1 billion to move globally with ease.
Bitcoin traded near $67,000 as Michael Saylor signaled continued accumulation through a new social media post. He shared an image showing himself carrying a large orange bag covered with Bitcoin logos. He added the caption, “Maybe I need a bigger one,” and implied further purchases.
Bitcoin Holdings and Accumulation Strategy
Saylor posted the image on X as Bitcoin attempted to stabilize around $67,000. He used the visual to reinforce the strategy’s ongoing acquisition plan. The caption suggested that the company may expand its holdings further.
Strategy currently holds 718,722 BTC worth about $48 billion at current prices. The company acquired its holdings at an average price of $76,000. Therefore, Strategy holds an unrealized loss of roughly 12% on its position.
Despite the paper loss, Strategy reports an mNAV ratio near 1. The company also lists an adjusted enterprise value multiple of 1.256. These figures reflect the firm’s market valuation relative to its Bitcoin reserves.
Saylor has maintained a consistent position on long-term holding periods. He has stated that investors should prepare to hold Bitcoin for seven to ten years. He continues to frame corrections as part of the asset’s normal cycle.
Strategy reports its Bitcoin transactions weekly when activity occurs. Market participants expect the next update in the coming days. The company has not disclosed any new purchases this week.
Strategy World 2026 and Market Performance
Strategy hosted Strategy World 2026 earlier this week. During the event, Saylor repeated his view that Bitcoin represents digital capital. He said, “Bitcoin’s value lies in its ability to move one billion dollars anywhere in the world.”
He contrasted Bitcoin transfers with traditional asset transfers. He said moving large sums in traditional systems involves greater complexity. He emphasized practical capital mobility rather than abstract narratives.
Saylor also addressed Bitcoin’s price volatility during the event. He stated that volatility limits large capital inflows. He argued that fluctuations, not structural flaws, remain the main challenge.
Meanwhile, Strategy’s stock MSTR trades at $132.8. The shares have fallen 12.6% year-to-date in 2026. The stock remains 75.8% below its all-time high of $542.
Goldman Sachs has identified MSTR as the most shorted stock in the market. The company continues to tie its equity performance closely to Bitcoin holdings. Strategy plans to release further updates on Bitcoin activity next week.
Circle is advancing its Arc blockchain project, with plans for a native token, according to CEO Jeremy Allaire.
Circle, one of the largest stablecoin issuers in the industry, is exploring the possibility of a native token for its Arc blockchain, according to the company’s chief executive Jeremy Allaire.
During the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call, Allaire said Circle is exploring a native token for the Arc blockchain and that the company is gaining a strong understanding of how it would work.
“We’re getting a very good understanding of how a token can play a key role in providing stakeholder incentives, governance, security, utility and other things on the Arc network,” Allaire said, though no timeline for a launch was revealed.
The company launched the public testnet for Arc in October 2025, with plans for a full mainnet release expected later this year.
Circle announced Arc in August last year, designing the network specifically for issuing and transacting stablecoins. As The Defiant reported, the network would focus on faster settlement and lower transaction costs compared with existing public blockchains.
Kevin Lehtiniitty, CEO of Borderless.xyz, told The Defiant last year that the competition for the “stablecoin chain” just brings the industry back to fragmented payment systems with new branding. As Lehtiniitty explained, “The answer that does push open finance forward in my mind is connectivity and interoperability; not another chain or another token.”
This article was generated with the assistance of AI workflows.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has identified and proposed a plan to address four areas of the network that he sees as most quantum-vulnerable.
Quantum computing and crypto have been in the headlines recently as concerns mount over Bitcoin and other blockchains’ resistance to quantum-capable supercomputers.
Buterin posted his quantum resistance roadmap for Ethereum on Thursday, stating that the four areas are: validator signatures, data storage, user account signatures, and zero-knowledge proofs.
He said that replacing the current BLS (Boneh-Lynn-Shacham) consensus signatures with “Lean” quantum-safe hash-based signatures would fix that component. The tricky part is picking the right hash function, since this choice will likely stick around for a long time.
“This may be ‘Ethereum’s last hash function’, so it’s important to choose wisely,” he said.
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake proposed “Lean Ethereum,” a plan to make the network quantum-secure, in August 2025.
Quantum safe data storage and accounts
Regarding data storage, or “blobs”, Ethereum currently uses a system called KZG (Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg) for storing and verifying data.
The plan is to swap this out for STARKs (Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge), which are quantum-resistant. “It’s manageable, but there’s a lot of engineering work to do,” said Buterin.
Related: Buterin outlines 4-year roadmap to speed up and quantum-proof Ethereum
The third challenge is user accounts. Ethereum currently uses ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) signatures, which are standard cryptographic keys. The fix is to upgrade the network so that accounts can use any signature scheme, including “lattice-based” quantum-resistant ones.
However, quantum-safe signatures are much heavier computationally and would consume more gas.
“The long-term fix is protocol-layer recursive signature and proof aggregation, which could reduce these gas overheads to near-zero,” he said.
Quantum-resistant proofs are very expensive
Quantum-resistant proofs are extremely expensive to run onchain so “the solution again is protocol-layer recursive signature and proof aggregation,” said Buterin.
Instead of verifying every signature and proof individually onchain, a single master proof or “validation frame” would verify thousands of them at once, keeping costs near zero.
“This way, a block could ‘contain’ a thousand validation frames, each of which contains either a 3kB signature or even a 256kB proof,” he explained.
Buterin also commented on the Ethereum Foundation’s “Strawmap” on Thursday, stating that he expects to see “progressive decreases of both slot time and finality time.”
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum: BIP-360 co-author
Summary
- NIGHT briefly hit ~$1b cap with ~$1b 24h volume, trading near $0.07 as it advances through Kūkolu toward a late-March mainnet for privacy smart contracts on Cardano.
- PIPPIN, an AI-agent meme coin on SOL from Yohei Nakajima, posted ~170–185% monthly gains to a ~$450–$836m cap, with recent moves in the $0.51–$0.70 range.
- Both face high risk: NIGHT from unlock-driven sell pressure and privacy regulation; PIPPIN from insider concentration, elevated leverage, and reliance on speculative social momentum.
Two cryptocurrency projects are positioned to potentially reach $1 billion market capitalizations during the first half of 2026, according to market analysis published by Finbold.
Midnight, a privacy-focused token on the Cardano network, launched in December and has experienced rapid growth, approaching the billion-dollar market-cap threshold. The token briefly achieved that milestone earlier this month before declining amid broader sector volatility, according to market data.
The project’s mainnet launch, designated Kūkolu, is scheduled for late March. The rollout will transition the network from its current Hilo phase to a live environment designed to support privacy-preserving smart contracts, according to project documentation. The launch represents the first major utility test for the network.
Midnight faces a defined token unlock schedule that could introduce selling pressure as locked tokens become available for trading. Price performance in the near term is expected to be influenced by the March mainnet launch and potential partnership announcements, according to market observers.
Pippin, an AI-agent meme coin associated with founder Yohei Nakajima, has recorded recent gains. The project’s trajectory depends on its ability to establish partnerships and develop tools for community use cases, according to project analysis.
The token’s market position reflects risks common to meme coins, including supply concentration among insider wallets and reliance on speculative trading. Market data shows the token trading above key moving averages, with derivatives data indicating rising open interest during recent rallies and elevated leverage levels.
Both tokens carry significant risk factors, including regulatory scrutiny of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies and volatility inherent to speculative digital assets. Market analysts characterize these investments as high-risk opportunities targeting speculative traders rather than conservative investors.
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.
Despite the wave of attention RWAs have received over the past couple of years, there’s a sense that everyone is waiting for something to shift. The problem is that many “tokenized” assets are still legal promises dressed up as tokens. Vague token rights, improvised custody and transfer controls, and servicing shortcomings make the whole thing still feel speculative. While the tokenised RWA market sits around $25B (which demonstrates serious growth), it’s still modest in comparison to global markets.
Summary
- Tokens aren’t titles: Many RWAs remain legal promises wrapped in blockchain rails. Without enforceable rights, controlled transfer, and servicing, tokenization stays speculative.
- The UAE is building the legal stack: Through DIFC, ADGM, and the Dubai Land Department, the UAE is treating tokenized real estate as regulated market infrastructure — not a crypto experiment.
- Rights beat throughput: The trillion-dollar RWA opportunity will go to jurisdictions that make token-holder rights unambiguous and enforceable, not to chains with the fastest settlement.
In Dubai, work on this is picking up. The Dubai Land Department has launched Phase II of its Real Estate Tokenization Project, with secondary-market resales scheduled to begin on 20 February 2026. In DIFC, the DFSA’s inaugural tokenization regulatory sandbox drew 96 expressions of interest. In short, the UAE is assembling the regulatory and institutional scaffolding needed to make tokenised real estate scalable – that’s certainly something worth talking about.
The crypto RWA fallacy
The best RWA pitch in crypto happens to be the simplest: take a deed, a fund share, or a receivable, put it on-chain, and let liquidity do the rest. In practice, that often means shipping a minting interface attached to a legal promise that lives somewhere else. The token trades 24/7, but the underlying rights don’t.
When markets tighten, everyone rediscovers the same truth: a token is not a title, nor a court order. Instead, it’s a digital representation recorded on a programmable platform – and it’s notoriously difficult to make it legally and operationally identical to what it claims to represent.
This idea shows up in three places. First, think about enforceability. If token holders can’t clearly understand what they own, what jurisdiction governs it, and how a claim is enforced, the idea of ownership is just branding. As a matter of fact, IOSCO warns that investors may not understand the legal aspects of ownership and transfer rights for tokenised assets, and flags legal uncertainty as a central risk holding back adoption.
Second, consider controlled transfer. Real assets don’t move like meme coins. Eligibility checks, transfer restrictions, and the ability to halt or reverse activity under lawful orders are not optional in institutional markets. OECD research notes that implementing restrictions like forced transfers or trading suspensions can be especially challenging on public, permissionless networks.
Third, there’s servicing. Real estate is an operating system: taxes, insurance, maintenance, tenant issues, distributions, valuations, reporting, audits. Tokenization can streamline records and transactions, but it doesn’t eliminate the admin layer that makes cash flows real and disclosures defensible. Until projects address these issues, RWAs are a bit stuck.
The UAE’s blueprint
If the UAE wins the real estate tokenization boom, it will be because it treated tokenization as a regulated financial product, a market-structure upgrade, and has built rules and institutions around that assumption.
- In DIFC, the DFSA launched a dedicated tokenization Regulatory Sandbox and drew 96 expressions of interest. This is an early indicator that serious firms are looking for a supervised pathway.
- In Abu Dhabi, ADGM has been explicit about positioning itself as a comprehensive regulatory home for digital assets, and it went further by introducing a DLT Foundations regime designed for token issuance and on-chain organisational structures.
- In 2025, the DIFC reported 8,844 active companies, demonstrating rapid year-on-year expansion.
- In Dubai, the Dubai Land Department is running a controlled pilot that explicitly tests governance, investor protection, and operational readiness while enabling secondary-market resale from 20 February 2026.
- The UAE also hosts pools of dry powder that can fund compliant issuance once the infrastructure is credible. Mubadala reported AED 1.2 trillion in assets under management, and Reuters notes Abu Dhabi’s major funds together manage around $1.7 trillion.
The UAE is building something of a regulatory SDK for RWAs — standardized rules, venues, and counterparties that make tokenized real estate deployable.
The winning stack
The projects that scale in the UAE are likely to be regulated market infrastructure that happens to use blockchain. Starting with licensing. In DIFC, the DFSA’s tokenization Regulatory Sandbox provides a supervised route where selected firms can test in a controlled environment and, if successful, transition toward full authorisation.
Next, the packaging has to be familiar. DIFC SPVs (Prescribed Companies) are designed to ring-fence and isolate assets and liabilities (something institutions already understand and can underwrite). Tokenization then simply becomes a distribution and settlement upgrade.
Then comes the hard constraint most crypto-native RWAs avoid – controlled transfer and custody. Institutional markets require governance, safe custody, and clear oversight. ADGM’s FSRA guidance is clear about addressing safe custody, market abuse, and related controls via a thorough regulatory framework.
Finally, the winning stack anchors to the registry. The Dubai Land Department is currently testing tokenization on title deeds within a regulated model, in collaboration with VARA, and moving into a phase that activates secondary resale under a controlled framework focused on governance and investor rights.
Put together, the archetype that wins looks license-first, SPV-based, compliance-native, and obsessed with issuance plus servicing.
The implication for crypto
Here’s the part crypto needs to internalize — the trillion-dollar RWA upside will be won by the players that can make token-holder rights unambiguous, transfers compliant, and cash flows serviceable at scale.
IOSCO makes a good point — investors can end up unsure whether they hold the underlying asset or merely a digital representation, with risks concentrated around legal structure and intermediaries rather than chain throughput.
That’s why the UAE matters to the broader market. The Dubai Land Department is running a controlled tokenization pilot that moves into secondary resale from 20 February 2026, framed around governance, operational readiness, and investor protection. DIFC’s regulator is doing the same at the market-structure level.
For crypto, the chain becomes the settlement, transparency, and automation layer (inside this regulated perimeter). It’s useful precisely because it is programmable, auditable, and interoperable. But pay attention to the jurisdictions and infrastructure providers building enforceable rights – that’s arguably more important right now.
The number of ransomware attacks rose 50% in 2025 as hackers shifted their focus from large-scale attacks to small and medium-sized targets, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
In an annual report published on Wednesday, Chainalysis said there were nearly 8,000 total leak events in 2025, a 50% increase from 2024. However, total on-chain ransom payments amounted to $820 million, marking an 8% decrease from 2024.
Chainalysis said increased regulatory scrutiny, enforcement actions targeting laundering network infrastructure, and a general refusal by big firms or organizations to pay ransoms all contributed to lower overall payments in 2025, forcing attackers to go after smaller targets.
“We’re seeing a structural shift in targeting: fewer large, headline-grabbing intrusions and more volume focused on small and medium enterprises. The assumption is simple — smaller victims pay faster,” eCrime.ch founder Corsin Camichel said in the report, adding:
“However, Chainalysis’ data shows payments trending downward despite an all-time high in public claims. That divergence is important. It suggests attackers are working harder for diminishing returns.”
Meanwhile, the increase in attempted attacks was attributed to a continued decline in the average “price for victim access” on the dark web, from $1,427 at the start of 2023 to $439 at the start of 2026.
A flood of cheap software and ransomware strains on the market, combined with AI integrations to streamline attacks, has resulted in increased output by hackers, Chainalysis said.
“We are seeing industrialized access pipelines, AI-assisted tooling, and a proliferation of infostealer logs that lower the barrier to entry, which has resulted in an oversupply of cheap but operationally constrained inventory that floods the market and depresses pricing.”
Hackers and scammers causing crypto chaos
Despite a modest reduction in blockchain ransomware payments last year, 2026 has kicked off with some big losses from crypto exploits and scams.
Related: Why address poisoning works without stealing private keys
According to a recent report from cybersecurity company CertiK, a whopping $370.3 million in crypto was stolen in January through exploits and scams. The lion’s share of funds was stolen via phishing scams, which accounted for $311.3 million.
Magazine: South Korea gets rich from crypto… North Korea gets weapons
Crypto markets are in retreat during U.S. morning hours on Thursday, rapidly reversing yesterday’s strong gains.
Just under $67,000, bitcoin has pulled back more than 4% after touching $70,000 late on Wednesday. Ether (ETH) and solana (SOL) are showing similar declines.
The selloff comes alongside a 2% decline in the Nasdaq following Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings last night. While Nvidia didn’t disappoint, investors are selling the news after the stock’s sizable run higher into the earnings event. NVDA is lower by 4.8%, with related names like Broadcom (AVGO), Micron (MU) and Intel (INTC) also sharply lower.
Curiously, the software names are nicely higher today, with the Software Sector ETF (IGV) ahead more than 2%. Bitcoin’s correlation with this embattled group has been well documented, but to BTC bulls’ chagrin, they apparently only move together when IGV heads lower.
A check of stocks finds Coinbase (COIN) down 1%, Strategy (MSTR) down 2.3%, and Galaxy Digital (GLXY) down 3%. Outperforming is stablecoin issuer Circle Financial (CRCL), up another 3.3% today, and bringing its two-day post-earnings advance to about 40%.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
As the Crypto Fear and Greed Index plummets, Bybit is doubling down on stablecoin yield and fixed-income-style products to help users generate steady returns amid volatility.
While the Crypto Fear and Greed Index plunges to historic lows and Bitcoin pulls back sharply from its highs, the crypto exchange Bybit is expanding new opportunities, strengthening fixed-income-style products.
“We believe stability is what our users want most right now,” said Helen Liu, Co-CEO at Bybit. “The market will recover, we have no doubt about that. But in the meantime, our job is to help ease the pressure, offer real opportunities to earn stable income, and make sure our community knows that Bybit is right here with them.”
The company is accelerating access to stablecoin yield opportunities and capital-efficient tools designed to help users preserve value and earn predictable returns during uncertain times.
“We want to find every opportunity for our users to earn stable income,” said Helen. “Whether it is on-chain yield through Mantle Vault or capital efficiency through BYUSDT, the goal is the same, make every dollar work harder so that our community can weather this period with less stress and more confidence.”
Bybit believes the current market is also revealing a deeper structural change in investor behavior. They stated that this cycle is different, and that users are not chasing 100x returns, they are looking to protect capital and generate sustainable yield. Bybit reiterates that the shift is structural, not emotional.
Bybit will roll out up to $10 million in fixed-income opportunities backed by stablecoins, giving users more ways to earn predictable returns during volatile markets.
Disclosure: This content is provided by a third party. Neither crypto.news nor the author of this article endorses any product mentioned on this page. Users should conduct their own research before taking any action related to the company.
Circle stock price popped by over 35% on Wednesday, its best day since going public, after publishing stronger revenue and USDC stablecoin growth than expected.
Summary
- Circle stock price soared after publishing strong financial results on Wednesday.
- Canaccord Genuity analysts maintained a bullish outlook for the stock.
- They slashed their CRCL stock target to $160, a 93% upside from the current level.
Circle Internet Group jumped to $83, its highest level since January 15, and 66% above its lowest level this year. This surge boosted its market capitalization to nearly $20 billion.
Canaccord Genuity slashes Circle stock forecast
Analysts at Canaccord Genuity, a firm with more than $110 billion in assets under management, maintained the bullish view on the company, even as they reduced the price target. They slashed their Circle stock forecast by 35% from $247 to $160.
In a note, the analysts praised Circle for another solid quarter in which its stablecoin holdings and revenue jumped. Its stablecoins in circulation rose by over 100% to $75 billion, a figure that Circle expects to have a CAGR of over 40%.
Canaccord Genuity also identified other potential catalysts. The most notable one is Circle Payment Network, which aims to disrupt how money moves globally.
Instead of using the expensive and time-consuming Swift network, banks and other fintech companies can use its stablecoin-powered platform. CPN costs are negligible, while transactions are completed in seconds. Its annualized volume has jumped to over $5.7 billion, with 55 institutions in the network.
Most notably, Circle is building Arc, its layer-1 network, which has attracted hundreds of developers. Canaccord believes that CPN will ultimately run on Arc, leading to higher revenues in the future.
Circle named the “Switzerland of stablecoins”
Additionally, Canaccord believes that Circle is the “Switzerland of Stablecoins” since stablecoins are its only business, and that USDC is the biggest GENIUS-Act compliant coin. As such, it can gain more adoption from companies seeking to leverage stablecoins to cut transaction costs. The report added:
“The launch of competitive stablecoins from eCommerce or financial services giants could be more problematic in terms of their widespread adoption. For example, would Amazon really want to accept WalMart’s stablecoin?”
Meanwhile, John Todaro, a top Needham analyst, slashed Circle’s target from $190 to $130, while William Blair reiterated its outperform rating on the stock. The consensus estimate among Wall Street analysts is $131, up by about 57% above the current level.
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