Crypto World
AI’s Promised Abundance Comes at a Cost for Crypto
As AI promises to dramatically compress costs and reshape production, a provocative narrative has taken hold: in an era of AI abundance, virtually everything could become free. Proponents argue that autonomous factories, vast automation, and near-limitless solar energy could push marginal costs toward zero for many goods and services. Yet a closer look at physics, energy economics, and the architecture of infrastructure reveals a more nuanced path from abundance to broad access — one that depends on the ownership and scale of the systems that actually run things.
Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD, blockchain and AI senior advisor.
Key takeaways
- Near-zero marginal costs for many digital and even some physical goods are plausible in an AI-driven economy, but energy and AI infrastructure remain the real bottlenecks that prevent a universal “free” regime.
- AI factories — specialized, high-performance data centers and automation platforms — would drive productivity gains, yet they also concentrate wealth and governance power in the hands of a few owners of compute, models, and access.
- Investments in cheap energy, including discussions around fusion and large-scale solar, are central to determining whether abundance can scale. Fusion is still experimental and decades away from commercial viability; fission carries safety and waste concerns, while current grids struggle to support AI-scale workloads.
- Moon-based solar energy and Atomically Precise Manufacturing are presented as pathways to radically reduce costs, but they require unprecedented upfront investment and face substantial technical and logistical hurdles before they could redefine energy economics.
- Even if services become cheaper or “free,” centralized infrastructure risks creating a “soft prison” where control over data, speech, and economic conditions sits with a handful of gatekeepers.
The physics of abundance: why costs won’t disappear
The argument for abundance rests on three pillars: automation that replaces labor, advanced manufacturing and AI-driven logistics that minimize waste and inventory, and energy abundance that makes electricity cheap enough to power widespread production. In combination, these forces could push the marginal cost of many goods toward zero, especially for digital products and services that are replicable at scale.
Automation and AI distribution technologies enable near-continuous production cycles, while innovations such as robotics, 3D printing, and smart logistics reduce the need for extensive human labor and physical stockpiles. Yet even with these advances, energy remains the substrate on which everything else runs. If energy costs drop dramatically, many costs downstream fall with it; if energy remains constrained, the economics of “free” goods become bound to the price of power.
The notion that everything will be free hinges on the assumption that infrastructure can be built and maintained at scale with minimal friction. In practice, the capital outlay for AI factories — data centers whose temperature, latency, and throughput must be precisely managed — is substantial. The article notes that AI infrastructure is becoming an industrialized process, with specialized facilities designed to manufacture intelligence by transforming data into trained models and tokens, rather than merely storing information. The stakes are high: productivity and profits rise as AI amplifies efficiency, but the winners will be those who own and control the core infrastructure.
For those watching the broader technology ecosystem, the emphasis on AI factories and the associated economies of scale helps explain the ongoing shift in valuations and strategic bets toward cloud giants, semiconductor leaders, and hyperscale compute operators. The dynamic resembles earlier industrial eras, where the capacity to own and optimize the underlying engine of production — in this case, AI compute and models — determines who captures outsized gains.
AI factories and the wealth concentration dilemma
The piece frames AI infrastructure as the next industrial revolution, likening it to a pivotal shift in productivity that could dwarf past efficiency gains. Nvidia, AWS, and SpaceX are cited as major players building the backbone of AI systems, with experts noting that productivity and profits will rise as AI-enabled processes scale. The comparison highlights a familiar pattern: as with previous waves of industrial automation, the entities that run the most capable AI factories will likely command outsized profits and influence over how value is allocated.
Structural concentration presents both opportunity and risk for investors and policymakers. On the one hand, leading AI infrastructure providers could offer compelling, long-duration growth narratives grounded in repeated optimization of training, inference, and data workflows. On the other hand, heavy concentration could squeeze competition and shape the distribution of benefits from AI-driven abundance. The article points to a potential divergence between those who own the technology stack — chips, data centers, and AI platforms — and the broader population that might otherwise share in the fruits of increased productivity.
The discussion extends beyond the corporate balance sheet to geopolitical dynamics. The piece notes China’s strategic use of renewable energy to power large-scale AI deployments, underscoring a global race to align energy, data centers, and AI capacity. In such a landscape, policy choices about energy deployment, data sovereignty, and cross-border data flows will matter as much as the physics of energy itself.
Energy frontiers: cheap energy, not cheap electricity
As the article emphasizes, the energy question is the real hinge on the road to abundance. If energy becomes near-free, the economics of AI factories and automated production improve dramatically. If energy remains expensive or constrained, the margin for “free” goods narrows, even with sophisticated automation.
The energy mix under consideration includes traditional options such as nuclear fission, renewables, and potentially future fusion. Fission remains a mature technology, but it comes with long-term waste challenges and proliferation concerns. Fusion, often heralded as the ultimate energy source, remains largely in the research phase and is widely viewed as decades away from commercialization. The current reality is that while fusion could theoretically unlock abundant, cleaner power, it is not yet a practical substitute for scalable, low-cost electricity today.
The piece highlights an ongoing debate: can scalable, cheap energy emerge quickly enough to unlock true abundance, or will the path require a long investment horizon and a gradual shift in how energy and AI infrastructure are financed and deployed?
Moon-based energy and the road to distributed manufacturing
The author surveys Elon Musk’s lunar energy ambitions as part of a broader argument about expanding energy frontiers. The vision here is ambitious: deploying solar power on the Moon to fuel AI infrastructure back on Earth could, in theory, reduce energy costs to near-zero. The envisioned approach involves building autonomous systems — including AI-enabled robots and manufacturing facilities — on the lunar surface, with a network of support from Earth-based systems such as Starlink and other space-oriented capabilities.
Several hurdles accompany this radical idea. The logistics of launching, constructing, and maintaining facilities in a vacuum, coupled with the need for precise manufacturing of advanced AI hardware (potentially via Atomically Precise Manufacturing, or APM), create a formidable capital and technical barrier. Even if lunar fabrication becomes feasible, the question remains who will fund and govern such infrastructure, who will benefit from its outputs, and how the resulting abundance will be distributed.
Nevertheless, the argument that off-Earth energy and materials could eventually reshape cost structures is provocative. If lunar energy and asteroid-derived resources come online at scale, the economics could shift in favor of much more expansive AI deployment and automated production networks. The potential payoff could be immense — potentially extending the reach of AI-enabled abundance far beyond terrestrial limits — but the path is uncertain and expensive.
The soft prison of “free”: control, data, and autonomy
A central warning runs through the discussion: even when access to goods and services becomes cheaper or effectively free, the underlying infrastructure may be highly centralized. Owning the architecture — from data centers to energy supply to manufacturing facilities — implies control over who gets access, under what conditions, and at what price, if any. In a world where “free” is possible primarily because someone else is paying the bill, citizens and users risk trading autonomy for security or convenience. The article argues that many so-called free digital services come at the cost of surveillance, profiling, and behavioral manipulation, turning attention into a form of currency and data into leverage over choices and governance.
In a future of AI abundance, centralization could determine distribution terms, including which individuals or groups enjoy access and under what rules. The blunt reality is that a trillion-dollar opportunity could end up privileging the owners of the centralized infrastructure while leaving broader society with less say over how abundance is allocated. The phrase “if something is free, you are the product” takes on new resonance when the products are self-sovereignty and data rights in a highly automated economy.
Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD, blockchain and AI senior advisor.
What to watch next
The coming years will test whether abundance remains a centralized windfall or evolves into a more distributed model where access is genuinely broad-based. For investors and builders, the signals to monitor are energy policy developments, the pace of AI infrastructure rollouts, and regulatory discussions around data rights, space-based manufacturing, and cross-border data flows. The dialogue around Moon-based energy, fusion progress, and the economics of AI factories will shape how quickly and how equitably AI abundance translates into real-world benefits.
As the debate unfolds, readers should follow updates from leading AI and energy initiatives, including coverage of the broader energy transition and the evolving landscape of AI hardware and data-center strategy. The tension between scalable abundance and central control will likely define the next phase of crypto, AI, and tech ecosystem investments.
Bitcoin is, unusually, outperforming gold even as rising oil prices and hawkish signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve fuel increased risk aversion in financial markets.
Gold, traditionally a store of value and haven investment in times of trouble, has dropped 2% since midnight UTC while the largest cryptocurrency lost only half that amount. The performance has lifted the ratio between the two by 1% in 24 hours, and one bitcoin now buys about 15 ounces of gold.
Part of the reason for the unexpected trading pattern stems from gold’s surge in February. Before the Middle East conflict started at the end of the month, it had already locked in a 90% gain over the course of a year and was trading at a record high. That left it overbought, making the rally difficult to sustain even as the geopolitical situation worsened.
Since the war began, the performance of bitcoin — seen by some supporters as digital gold — and the precious metal has diverged. Bitcoin has been one of the strongest performing assets outside energy after falling 50% since October and leaving it oversold. Gold is now some 17% below its January peak, edging toward bear-market territory.
The macroeconomic backdrop is adding to the pressure. The Federal Reserve delivered a more hawkish-than-expected tone in Wednesday’s comments, pushing back against market expectations for imminent interest-rate cuts in the world’s largest economy.
This has weighed on risk assets, with U.S. equities lower in premarket trading and the Invesco QQQ exchange-traded fund, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 index, falling 0.5% on Thursday. Crypto-related equities have also declined, with Strategy (MSTR), Galaxy Digital (GLXY) and Coinbase (COIN) all falling in pre-market trading.
At the same time, the war with Iran has pushed Brent crude oil up more than 6% in the past 24 hours to around $117 per barrel. The widening gap between Brent and West Texas Intermediate, now the largest since 2013, signals global supply disruptions and logistical constraints, adding to inflationary pressures and complicating the outlook for central banks.
Fears that quantum computing could one day break Bitcoin’s cryptography have sparked a heated debate across the crypto industry.
But according to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital (GLXY), the narrative that Bitcoin is unprepared, or that investors should avoid exposure because of it, is overstated.
The risk itself is not imaginary. A sufficiently advanced quantum computer could, in theory, derive private keys from exposed public keys, allowing an attacker to forge signatures and steal funds. But Thorn argues that framing this as an imminent or uniquely Bitcoin-specific crisis misses critical context, both about the technology and about the work already underway to address it.
“The risk is real but recognized,” Thorn told CoinDesk in an interview. “And the people best positioned to solve it are actively working on it.”
Quantum computing is a fundamentally different approach to computation that uses the principles of quantum mechanics rather than classical physics. Instead of traditional bits that are either 0 or 1, quantum computers use “qubits,” which can exist in multiple states at once, a property known as superposition, allowing them to process many possibilities simultaneously.
Combined with another feature called entanglement, this enables quantum machines to solve certain complex problems far more efficiently than classical computers, particularly tasks like factoring large numbers that underpin modern encryption
Analysis from Project Eleven, a security firm focused on quantum risks in digital assets, suggests that roughly 7 million bitcoin , worth about $470 billion at recent prices, could be vulnerable under a “long exposure” definition, meaning their public keys have already been revealed onchain. Other estimates vary widely depending on how exposure is defined.
Importantly, most bitcoin today is not immediately vulnerable. Funds are only at risk in scenarios where public keys are exposed onchain, either because users reused addresses, certain custodians employ operational shortcuts, or coins sit in older address formats. While some estimates suggest millions of BTC fall into these categories, they remain secure under current, publicly known quantum capabilities.
That distinction is central to Galaxy’s argument. The conversation has become polarized between those who dismiss quantum computing as decades away and those who warn of imminent danger. Thorn’s view lands in between. The probability of a future threat is meaningful enough to warrant action, but not so urgent that it outpaces Bitcoin’s ability to respond.
And that response is already underway.
A growing body of technical work is focused on making Bitcoin “quantum-resistant” over time. One of the most prominent efforts involves introducing new address types that rely on post-quantum cryptography. These would allow users to migrate funds away from potentially vulnerable formats, significantly reducing long-term exposure.
“There’s a lot more work being done than people realize,” Thorn said. “Developers are actively building pathways to upgrade the system.”
Other proposals tackle edge cases, such as dormant coins with permanently exposed public keys. One idea, sometimes referred to as an “hourglass” approach, would gradually restrict how such coins can be spent, mitigating systemic risk without outright confiscation or disruption.
More broadly, developers are exploring phased upgrade paths that would allow Bitcoin to adapt even under more extreme scenarios, such as a world where quantum systems can rapidly break existing cryptographic schemes. That could include changes to how transactions reveal public keys in the first place, limiting attack surfaces altogether.
While these efforts are complex, both technically and from a governance standpoint, Thorn emphasizes that Bitcoin’s open development model is a strength, not a weakness. The ecosystem has time, talent, and strong incentives to solve the problem well before it becomes critical.
Crucially, the number of actors capable of triggering a so-called “Q-day,” when quantum computers can break modern cryptography, is still extremely limited. Even optimistic projections suggest only a small group of highly specialized researchers could achieve such a breakthrough in the foreseeable future.
Against that backdrop, Thorn views the growing wave of quantum-related fear, uncertainty, and doubt as disproportionate.
“Quantum computing is a powerful, potentially disruptive technology, but that doesn’t mean every risk is immediate or unmanageable,” he said.
For investors, the takeaway is straightforward. Quantum risk should be monitored, but not used as a blanket justification to avoid bitcoin exposure. The network has a track record of evolving in response to credible threats, and the groundwork for quantum resilience is already being laid.
“It’s not certain that quantum is an existential issue for bitcoin, but the chance that it is justifies concern,” Thorn said. “But what’s clear today is that Bitcoin developers are not ignoring it. Instead, many are actively working on it,” he added.
Bitcoin nursed fresh losses on Thursday after bearing the brunt of soaring energy prices, with Brent crude oil rising to $114 and Oman crude pushing up to $150.
European natural gas futures followed suit, surging about 25% to above $78 per MWh on Thursday as Iran attacked key Gulf energy infrastructure after an Israeli strike on its South Pars gas field.
Bitcoin traded near $70,000 having lost 1.6% since midnight UTC while ether (ETH) dropped 1.7% to $2,160.
The Federal Reserve also had an impact after it left rates unchanged in the 3.50%–3.75% range on Wednesday, pausing a rate-cutting cycle to boost the U.S. dollar.
Risk assets tumbled across the board as a result, with Nasdaq 100 futures down by around 0.3% since midnight UTC.
Derivatives positioning
- Nearly $600 million in leveraged crypto futures bets have been liquidated by crypto platforms in 24 hours, with longs, or bullish plays, accounting for most of the tally. The overnight price drop clearly caught bulls off guard.
- Industry-wide, futures open interest (OI) has declined by 5.6% to $106.90.
- Ether futures OI dropped 9% as the token’s spot price fell 6%. This combination represents capital outflows.
- Futures tied to tether gold (XAUT) and privacy-focused ZEC saw double-digit declines, indicating investor risk aversion.
- Bearish short plays are in demand again, as evidenced by negative funding rates for BTC, ETH, BNB, SOL and other tokens. The 24-hour cumulative volume delta for most of these coins is negative, underlining the position.
- Fear has crept back into the market. Volmex’s BVIV, which measures the 30-day implied, or expected, price turbulence in bitcoin, has jumped over 5% to 58.36%, ending a week-long decline. The same is true for ether.
- On Deribit, bitcoin and ether put skews have strengthened, again indicating heightened downside concerns.
- Block flows featured an outsized demand for ether straddles, a volatility strategy. In BTC’s case, traders chased risk reversals and put spreads.
Token talk
- Several altcoins were dealt deep moves to the downside on Thursday, notably bittensor (TAO) and hyperliquid (HYPE), which lost 8.8% and 6.5%, respectively, since midnight.
- The move in the altcoin market can be attributed to a lack of liquidity in a market that remains fractured following a $19 billion leverage wipeout in October.
- A select few tokens showed strength despite the broader market pullback. NEO rose by 4.2% and restaking token ETHFI continued its strong start to the year, adding 1.5% to $0.55.
- The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) is in the red after losing around 1% since midnight, while the DeFi Select Index (DFX) and CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) are down by 1.4% and 2%, respectively.
Banking giant Morgan Stanley has submitted an amended Bitcoin ETF filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Summary
- Morgan Stanley has amended its Bitcoin ETF filing, confirming ticker MSBT on NYSE Arca and outlining a $1 million seed structure through 50,000 shares.
- The filing finalizes Coinbase Custody and BNY Mellon as custodians but leaves management fee and expense details undisclosed.
According to the updated S-1 filing on Wednesday, the firm has confirmed the ticker MSBT on NYSE Arca. Further, the filing notes that the trust will acquire initial Bitcoin by issuing 50,000 shares, expected to generate around $1 million in proceeds.
Other than that, the filing did not disclose key information about the management fee or expense ratio.
Morgan Stanley has finalized Coinbase Custody and BNY Mellon as it moves forward with custody arrangements, while BNY Mellon will also serve as the cash custodian for the trust.
The trust will operate as a passive investment vehicle and does not provide direct exposure to Bitcoin ownership.
With the preliminary regulatory hurdles done, the product is expected to go live once the registration statement becomes effective and final SEC approval is granted.
Morgan Stanley filed for its spot Bitcoin ETF earlier this year alongside separate filings for other crypto assets, namely Ethereum and Solana.
The decision to launch this product and step into the spot crypto market comes as spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. have witnessed record-breaking institutional inflows and have even surpassed the growth trajectory of Gold ETFs during their initial launch period.
Besides offering ETF products, the bank is also eyeing other Bitcoin-related product offerings, such as yield and lending services.
During a recent appearance at the Bitcoin for Corporations conference, digital assets strategy head Amy Oldenburg said it was a “natural part of the roadmap to continue to explore.”
The bank has also confirmed plans to offer retail trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through its E*Trade app.
There are several double-digit movers from the altcoin space, including HASH and RIVER, both of which have skyrocketed by over 12% daily.
Bitcoin’s price rejection at $76,000 a couple of days ago only accelerated yesterday and earlier today, with the asset dipping below $70,000 for the first time since last Thursday.
The altcoins have faced enhanced volatility as well, with ETH dropping below $2,200 and XRP slipping beneath $1.50. ZEC, WLD, and MNT have plummeted by double digits.
BTC Price Dips Below $70K
The primary cryptocurrency touched $74,000 last Friday when it was stopped and pushed south toward $70,000 during the weekend after the latest bombings in the Middle East. However, it maintained that level, and the bulls stepped up as the new business week began.
The culmination took place on Tuesday morning when bitcoin shot up to its highest price level in roughly six weeks at $76,000. Nevertheless, its progress was quickly halted, and the asset retraced to $74,000.
Although it remained there at first on Wednesday, more volatility ensued in the hours leading up to the highly anticipated second FOMC meeting of the year. BTC dropped by several grand to just under $71,000 when the Fed announced what many expected that it wouldn’t change the interest rates.
Bitcoin bounced to $72,000 at first, but nosedived once again on Thursday morning, dropping below $70,000 for the first time in a week. Despite rebounding to just over that level now, it’s still 5% down on the day. Its market cap has dropped to $1.410 trillion, and its dominance over the alts is down to 56.3% on CG.
Altcoins Bleed
Most larger-cap alts have followed BTC on the way south. Ethereum is down by over 6% daily and sits well below $2,200. XRP lost the $1.50 support after a 3.5% decline. BNB has dipped beneath $650, SOL is down to $90, while ADA, LINK, and XMR have posted even more significant losses.
The biggest daily declines are evident from ZEC (-14%), WLD (-13%), MNT (-11%), and TAO (-10%). In contrast, HASH and RIVER have surged by double digits to $0.144 and $26.6, respectively.
The total crypto market cap, though, has erased $100 billion since yesterday’s peak and is down to $2.5 trillion on CG.
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As seen on the XAG/USD chart, the price of silver fell to the $70 level and briefly pierced it, marking the lowest level since early February.
Although geopolitical tensions typically support demand for safe-haven assets, silver is under pressure from expectations of a fresh inflationary surge driven by rising energy prices (as noted earlier, Brent crude has risen above $110).
Yesterday’s “hawkish” comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also played a role. The Fed maintained interest rates, signalling that any future cuts would only occur if inflation stabilises.
Technical Analysis of XAG/USD
On 4 March, analysing the XAG/USD chart, we:
→ drew a blue ascending channel;
→ suggested that price action around the channel’s median could provide key signals.
Over time, the median proved to be a strong resistance. By 10 March, point C had formed, after which:
→ on 13 March, the blue channel was breached;
→ on 17 March, price showed an intraday bearish reversal from the breakout level.
Trading volume analysis indicates that the market remains under considerable pressure.
Although the long lower shadow on the candle near the psychological $70 mark indicates some buyer activity, the overall picture remains bearish. A red descending channel can be drawn on the silver price chart, with its median potentially acting as resistance in the near term, thereby confirming the validity of the constructed channel.
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This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.
Evernorth said its $1 billion proceeds will support building what it expects to be Nasdaq’s largest publicly traded XRP treasury firm.
Nevada-based Evernorth has formally submitted a Form S-4 registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission tied to its planned merger with Armada Acquisition Corp. II.
The latest move advances a deal that would take the XRP-focused treasury firm public on Nasdaq.
Evernorth’s SPAC Deal
The filing introduces Evernorth as a regulated corporate vehicle structured to give public market investors exposure to XRP through an actively managed treasury strategy. The disclosure provides the first look at the firm’s operational blueprint, including how it intends to allocate, manage, and report its XRP holdings within a public company framework.
The company said it has secured more than $1 billion in gross proceeds from a group of institutional backers, among them Ripple Labs, SBI Holdings, Pantera Capital, Kraken, and Arrington Capital, the sponsor behind Armada II. The proceeds will be used to support the creation of what it expects to be the largest public XRP treasury company on Nasdaq. The registration statement, which includes a preliminary proxy statement and prospectus, remains under SEC review and has not yet been declared effective.
Completion of the transaction is subject to approval by Armada II shareholders and other standard closing requirements. Upon closing, the combined entity is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker “XPRN,” pending exchange approval.
Commenting on the development, Michael Arrington, founder of Arrington Capital, said,
“Evernorth continues to emerge as a key gateway for capital markets, underscoring XRP’s rising influence in bridging traditional finance and real-time innovation. This continued progress by Evernorth reflects a wider wave of achievement and momentum of the XRP ecosystem as it expands utility across global finance.”
Evernorth’s announcement comes just days after the SEC issued new guidance, where XRP was included in a group of assets treated as digital commodities. According to the agency, securities regulations typically extend only to tokenized securities, excluding most other digital assets from such legal classification and regulatory scope.
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Price Struggle
On the price side of things, $1.50 remains a major hurdle for XRP. The crypto asset surged past this level at the beginning of the week but failed to sustain the momentum. After shedding almost 4% over the past 24 hours, it was trading near $1.46.
Experts say the CLARITY Act could be a major catalyst for XRP. According to EGRAG CRYPTO, the bill may determine whether the token breaks above the $1.65-$1.70 resistance range. The analyst found that the token is forming an ascending triangle, a pattern which is often linked to breakouts, and sees a 65% chance of an upward move. However, a delay in the legislation could lead to a rejection or false breakout.
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The European Central Bank (ECB) is seeking industry experts to contribute to workstreams focused on how the digital euro central bank digital currency would function across ATMs, payment terminals and acceptance infrastructure.
In an announcement published Wednesday, the ECB opened applications for two workstreams under its Rulebook Development Group (RDG), covering implementation specifications for ATM and terminal providers, as well as certification and approval frameworks for payment solutions.
The initiative revolves around defining how a potential digital euro would integrate with existing payment systems and hardware, including support for offline transactions and interoperability with standards used across Europe.
The move signals a deeper shift from policy design toward implementation planning, with the ECB seeking input on how a digital euro would work across ATMs, payment terminals and related infrastructure, including offline use and existing technical standards.
Related: ECB reveals Appia roadmap for central bank money in Europe’s tokenized markets
Workstreams target ATM integration, certification frameworks
According to the ECB, one workstream will focus on developing implementation specifications for ATM and terminal providers. This includes communication technologies, offline functionality and the reuse of existing payment standards.
The second workstream will develop proposals for testing, certification and approval processes for payment solutions and infrastructure used by payment service providers within the digital euro ecosystem.
Related: Stablecoins could weaken bank lending and monetary policy in Europe: ECB
The workstreams will report to the RDG, which includes representatives from merchants, payment service providers and consumers.
The ECB said selected experts are expected to provide technical input to support the development of a standardized rulebook.
ECB targets 2027 digital euro pilot
The ECB previously outlined plans to start selecting European Union-licensed payment service providers (PSPs) ahead of a 12-month digital euro pilot expected to start in the second half of 2027.
On Feb. 18, ECB Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone said the pilot would involve a limited number of merchants, Eurosystem staff and PSPs.
While the developments point toward continued progress on a digital euro, the ECB said a final decision on whether to issue it will only be taken after the relevant legislation is adopted.
Magazine: The debate over Bitcoin’s four-year cycle is over: Benjamin Cowen
Developers of OpenClaw, a popular open-source AI project, are being targeted by phishing attacks on GitHub with fake token rewards designed to lure users into connecting crypto wallets.
Cybersecurity firm OX Security reported the scam on Wednesday and said it had found no victims so far. OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger separately warned on X that any emails claiming association with the project are scams, urging users to only visit the official site. “We would never do that. The project is open source and non-commercial,” Steinberger said.
According to OX Security, attackers created fake GitHub accounts that posted messages in repositories they controlled, tagging developers to increase visibility. The posts claimed that recipients had won $5,000 worth of “CLAW,” a non-existent cryptocurrency falsely associated with the project, in an attempt to trick recipients into visiting a cloned website.
The campaign directed users to a cloned website resembling OpenClaw’s official page and prompted them to connect crypto wallets, a common phishing tactic used to steal credentials or secure malicious approvals.
Social media reports suggest that developers were aware of the fraud, with many labeling the campaign as a scam immediately.
OpenClaw creator warned users project would never launch a token
The attack comes months after the OpenClaw creator warned users that the project would never launch a cryptocurrency, and that any token claiming association with him was fraudulent.
“I will never do a coin. Any project that lists me as coin owner is a scam,” Steinberger said in an X post in January.
The phishing campaign marks another attempt by attackers to capitalize on OpenClaw’s viral popularity.
Launched in November 2025, OpenClaw offers a free, open-source autonomous AI agent that runs locally on computers to manage files, software and browser tasks via chat platforms like WhatsApp or Telegram.
Related: Crypto hacks fall to $49M in February as attackers shift to phishing scams
The platform received high GitHub engagement and active social communities, amassing more than 465,000 subscribers on X in the months following its launch.
In a move to fight scams, the OpenClaw project also confirmed a ban on Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto discussions in its official Discord channel in February.
Magazine: 6 massive challenges Bitcoin faces on the road to quantum security
- Institutional demand and ETFs are steadily supporting Solana’s outlook.
- SOL’s price is consolidating, with $115 as a key breakout level to watch.
- High liquidity and leverage may trigger sharp moves soon.
Solana (SOL) has entered a decisive phase where market structure and fundamentals are pulling in different directions.
The SOL price is currently hovering around the $89 level after a period of weakness, and it continues to show signs of building pressure beneath the surface.
This kind of setup often appears before a larger move, especially when liquidity and demand begin to align.
On the broader crypto market, short-term volatility has been driven by profit-taking, shifting sentiment, and changes in leverage across derivatives markets.
At the same time, long-term signals are quietly improving in the background.
Institutional demand and regulatory clarity reshape the outlook
One of the strongest developments supporting Solana is the growing clarity around the regulatory treatment of proof-of-stake assets.
This shift has opened the door for structured financial products tied to Solana. It has also made it easier for institutional investors to participate without directly holding the asset.
The introduction and expansion of exchange-traded products have become a key driver of demand.
These products create a consistent inflow of capital that is less reactive to short-term price movements.
This type of demand tends to accumulate gradually and can support price over time, even during periods of weakness.
At the same time, Solana’s ecosystem continues to expand in meaningful ways.
Stablecoin liquidity on the network has reached record levels, which signals growing participation in decentralized finance (DeFi) and trading activity.
High stablecoin supply often indicates that capital is waiting on the sidelines, ready to deploy when conditions improve.
Derivatives markets are also playing a major role.
Solana’s open interest shows that traders are becoming more active and increasing their exposure.
This creates a more dynamic environment, but it also increases the likelihood of sharp price swings in either direction.
Technical analysis points toward a key breakout zone
From a technical perspective, Solana has been consolidating after a recent rejection near resistance.
The price action suggests that buyers and sellers are currently in balance, with neither side fully in control.
This type of consolidation often precedes a breakout when momentum eventually builds.
The $96.47 level stands out as a critical zone to watch since it represents a region where previous resistance has emerged, and a break above it could signal renewed bullish momentum.
If Solana manages to close above this level with strong volume, it could open the door for a more sustained upward move.
On the downside, the immediate support sits around $77.
A failure to hold this zone could lead to further downside pressure and delay any breakout attempt.
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