Cryptopolitan

Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and blockchain infrastructure providers, revealed a major new push at the intersection of artificial intelligence and decentralized finance with the launch of Agentic Wallets, purpose‑built crypto wallets designed to empower autonomous AI agents to act as independent financial actors onchain.

This advanced tool enables AI agents, such as self-operating bots capable of interacting with the internet, to manage their own funds, send payments, trade tokens, earn interest, and transact directly on the blockchain. Moreover, a blog post published on Wednesday, February 11, noted that this tool features built-in security to safeguard against misuse.

The new infrastructure release marks a shift in how AI and blockchain technologies can interact: instead of merely suggesting decisions, AI systems can now hold funds, execute transactions, trade tokens, earn yield, and participate in onchain economic activity without human approval—so long as preset security guardrails and permissions are in place.

As crypto exchanges advance, Coinbase Developer Platform developers Erik Reppel and Josh Nickerson noted that AI agents are being integrated into nearly every workflow, performing various roles, such as providing document summaries, answering inquiries, and assisting with tasks. However, they alleged that these agents are currently encountering significant problems, particularly when handling financial matters.

Coinbase embraces the use of Agentic Wallets amid the AI boom era 

Regarding Coinbase’s recent move, reports from reliable sources reveal that Agentic Wallets is upgrading to the x402 protocol, which the cryptocurrency exchange co-developed with key internet partners to enable machine-native payments via blockchain, removing the need for human oversight amid heightened interest in AI’s rapidly evolving ecosystem.

These sources also disclosed that the advanced tool builds on the AgentKit tool, Coinbase’s software development toolkit that enables artificial intelligence agents to securely and autonomously interact with blockchain networks, allowing for wallet inclusion during agent setup.

Contrastingly, reports highlighted that Agentic Wallets provide an instant solution, enabling any agent with a wallet to facilitate transactions on behalf of users.

Reppel and Nickerson attempted to elaborate further, stating that: “If your agent finds a better yield opportunity at 3 AM? It will automatically adjust without needing approval because you’ve already set the permissions and controls.”

In the meantime, the blog recently published mentioned that Agentic Wallets will begin by partnering with EVM chains and Solana, and they can autonomously execute gasless transactions on Coinbase’s Base Layer 2.

Notably, these wallets feature a command-line interface that empowers users to monitor agents, manage wallet funds, and deploy new skills with simple commands. On the other hand, reports confirmed that the team also launched a repository known as agent-wallet-skills to grant agents basic command privileges.

Moreover, the wallets feature Smart Security Guardrails, including programmable spending restrictions, session caps, and other advanced transaction controls.

Developers argue AI is shifting from recommending ideas to executing tasks

Earlier, Reppel and Nickerson argued that the process of launching agents has become exceptionally streamlined. They made this argument without pointing out popular AI agent systems such as Clawbot/OpenClaw, a wrapper for Anthropic’s Claude LLM, widely recognized by users seeking an LLM for email replies.

“We’re transitioning from AI agents that provide advice to agents that take action,” the developers explained, further noting that, “We’re moving from assistants that suggest ideas to helpers that carry out tasks. We’re evolving from tools needing constant human oversight to autonomous systems functioning independently within trusted guardrails.” 

Following their remarks, sources mentioned that x402 has processed 50 million transactions since launching last year. As competition in the ecosystem intensified, Coinbase released an enhanced 2.0 version of its open-source protocol in December 2025.  This upgrade was partially intended to provide broader support for legacy payment systems.

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SEC Chair Paul S. Atkins, in his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, doubled down on what he called a burdensome regulatory system, arguing that the roughly $2.7 billion annual spend by public companies just to prepare and file required annual disclosures with the SEC was too much.

According to Atkins, spending this much on lawyers, accountants, and consultants instead of on business innovation or growth only serves to deter companies from going public, with companies deciding to stay private or list overseas. 

Regulatory burden seen as deterrent to capital formation

Before Congress, Atkins stated that lengthy and bogus public disclosure documents, including annual reports, only “do more to obscure than illuminate” for investors, with many of the public disclosure documents similar in length to the famous novel War and Peace. 

Atkins argues that decades of endless rules and regulations have contributed to a 40% drop in the companies on the U.S. exchange. In the 1990s, it peaked at 7,800, but now it stands at 4,700. 

While the U.S. remains the largest capital market, Atkins fears that it will lose its competitive edge if changes aren’t made. 

In response, Atkins has laid out a three-pillar plan to “make IPOs great again” and cut down on the red tape:

Re-anchoring disclosures in materiality so that investment decisions can turn on economic signals rather than on regulatory noise; 

De-politicizing shareholder meetings by restoring their focus to significant corporate matters; 

Allowing public companies to have litigation alternatives to shield innovators from the frivolous and investors from the fraudulent.

IPO activity has been subdued for years

Atkins’ review has generally been received well. Not so long ago, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) publicly backed Atkins’ efforts to ease regulatory demands on smaller firms that might consider listing on the U.S exchange. 

Acting SIFMA Chair Ronald J. Kruszewski concurs with Chairman Atkins on the need for regulation reduction due to a “lackluster IPO market”.

The U.S. IPO market has dwindled over the past decade, with increased regulatory burdens, higher cost of compliance, and a volatile market taking the blame for smaller firms choosing to accept private funding rather than IPO. 

The JOBS Act of 2012 was supposed to address these issues, but as times have changed, more modern legislation is needed. 

The debate between those who prioritize capital formation and less regulation and those who focus on investor protection will rage on for now. It remains to be seen how Chairman Atkins’ plans will pan out, and a large part of their success will be decided by the market, as always.

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Tether is expected to be one of the 10 largest buyers of the U.S. Treasury bills this year, according to a former White House crypto adviser and the current head of Tether’s U.S. unit, Bo Hines. The company will also buy more Treasury bills as demand for its stablecoins, especially USDT and the new USAT, rises, he added. 

Bo Hines made these remarks at Bitcoin Investor Week in New York City, noting that stablecoin companies are becoming more active in traditional financial markets, particularly in buying U.S. government debt.

Tether’s buying of Treasury bills is growing at a fast pace, he said. He continued, noting that they anticipate continued growth and becoming a global top-10 buyer of Treasury bills. 

The firm already holds a large body of U.S. government debt. Its latest financial attestation reveals that roughly 83.11% of its reserves are in U.S. Treasury bills, totaling more than $122 billion.

Treasury bills are short-term government debt securities that many see as safe and reliable investments. And with these holdings, Tether is already among the top 20 holders of Treasury bills worldwide. The company’s position puts it not far behind countries such as Germany and Saudi Arabia in the league of foreign Treasury holders, Hines stated. Tether is a private company; as such, it is not a national government. 

The reason for large holdings of this sort is straightforward. Stablecoins such as USDT are created to maintain a fixed value, generally equal to 1 U.S. dollar. To fulfill that promise, companies such as Tether need to maintain assets with strong and liquid properties that support each token in circulation. 

USDT growth and USAT launch drive higher reserve requirements

Tether’s flagship stablecoin, USDT, is currently the largest in the world by market value. There are approximately $185 billion worth of USDT tokens in circulation. Consequently, Tether needs massive reserves to support its value.

Now, USDT boasts roughly 530 million users worldwide. The stablecoin issuer is adding around 30 million new users per quarter, indicating solid, consistent growth, he said. This rapid growth is one of the reasons the firm must further increase its Treasury bill holdings.

Real assets must back every token issued. Tether’s reserve strength is not limited to Treasury bills. The company also has roughly $6.3 billion in excess reserves, according to accounting firm BDO.

Moreover, Tether has a large gold reserve. The company owns roughly 140 tons of gold, Hines said, making it the thirteenth-largest gold holder in the world. Gold usually serves as a long-term store of value, providing Tether with an additional source of financial stability. 

New USAT stablecoin and regulation push more Treasury investments

Tether’s Treasury bill purchases could increase even faster because of its newly launched USAT stablecoin. USAT was officially introduced late last month and is issued by Anchorage Bank.

Unlike USDT, USAT was designed specifically to meet U.S. federal stablecoin regulations under the GENIUS Act. This law requires regulated stablecoins to maintain full 1:1 backing with high-quality liquid assets.

Hines played an important role in shaping this law during his time as Executive Director of the White House Crypto Council under President Donald Trump. He stepped down from that role in August shortly after the GENIUS Act was signed into law.

Hines, who’s now at Tether, said the company is adjusting its reserves to meet these new regulatory standards. He explained that Tether is increasing its Treasury bill holdings as part of its efforts to comply with the GENIUS framework. 

He also said that USDT and USAT are built to work well together, describing this as “reciprocity,” meaning the two stablecoins can operate smoothly with each other while remaining part of the same Tether system.

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Paxful Holdings has been mandated by a judge to pay a $4 million fine after the company deliberately invited criminals onto its platform and turned a blind eye to their illegal activities. 

The company ignored anti-money laundering controls such as KYC programs and suspicious activity reports and marketed the lack of security on its platform in order to attract bad actors. 

Paxful fined and sentenced following years of criminal facilitation

A federal court sentenced Paxful Holdings Inc. to pay a $4 million criminal penalty after the company pleaded guilty to several serious charges, including conspiracy to promote illegal prostitution, violating the Bank Secrecy Act, and knowingly transmitting funds stolen or gained through criminal acts.

According to court documents, the Department of Justice originally calculated that the appropriate penalty should have been $112,500,000, but an independent analysis of the company’s finances revealed that it could not afford more than $4 million. 

The penalty is a small amount when compared to BitMEX’s $100 million fine from January 2025 for failing to maintain adequate KYC and anti-money laundering programs or the $297 million penalty that KuCoin had to pay later that month for similar failures.  

Paxful originally operated as a peer-to-peer virtual currency trading platform that allowed people to trade Bitcoin and other digital assets for cash, gift cards, and prepaid cards. Between January 2017 and September 2019, the platform handled more than 26.7 million trades. The total value of these trades was nearly $3 billion, and Paxful earned over $29.7 million in revenue.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva explained that Paxful “profited from moving money for criminals.” The company deliberately attracted these users by bragging that it did not have strict anti-money laundering controls. Because of this, the platform became a favorite tool for people involved in fraud, romance scams, extortion, and human trafficking.

One of the most serious parts of the case involved Backpage, a website used for illegal prostitution and sex trafficking, including the exploitation of minors. Paxful’s founders reportedly celebrated the “Backpage Effect,” which helped their company grow quickly. 

Between 2015 and 2022, Paxful helped move nearly $17 million worth of Bitcoin to Backpage and similar websites. From these specific transactions, Paxful made at least $2.7 million in profit.

Paxful moved millions of dollars for criminals

Under the Bank Secrecy Act, money-transmitting businesses must have “Know Your Customer” (KYC) programs in order to verify the identity of their users to prevent money laundering. Paxful chose to ignore these rules for a long time.

In fact, Paxful and its founders marketed the lack of verification on the platform as a plus, and when the company had to show its policies to third parties, it presented fake anti-money laundering rules. 

Furthermore, Paxful failed to file “Suspicious Activity Reports” which are documents that financial institutions must send to the government when they see signs of a crime. 

Even though Paxful knew its users were involved in romance scams and extortion, they did not report the activity. Their silence about the illegal activities and allowance of it caused the platform to be used for hacking and distributing child sexual abuse material.

On July 8, 2024, Artur Schaback, who was a co-founder and the former Chief Technology Officer at the company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He admitted that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. 

As part of his plea deal, Schaback resigned from the company’s board of directors and faced up to five years in prison.

The other co-founder, Ray Youssef, left the company in 2023 after a legal battle with Schaback. Youssef went on to launch a new platform called “Noones,” which focuses on markets in the Global South. 

Paxful announced on October 1, 2025, that it would wind down all operations. It officially ceased trading on November 1, 2025. 

In its farewell message, Paxful blamed its closure on the “historic misconduct” of its founders. The company stated that the costs of legal fees and trying to fix its compliance issues were simply too high to continue. They encouraged their 14 million users to withdraw their funds before the platform became inaccessible.

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Elon Musk has tore xAI down and stitched it straight into SpaceX.That’s where we are now.The so-called “reorganization” of the AI startup has already pushed out a pile of key names.

Jimmy Ba and Tony Wu, both co-founders, said they were leaving earlier this week. Before that, Igor Babuschkin, Kyle Kosic, Christian Szegedy, and Greg Yang had already packed their bags. Elon called it a cleanup “to improve speed of execution.” Sure. He also said, “We are hiring aggressively,” so apparently the purge was just step one.

This mess came right after SpaceX swallowed xAI in a giant all-stock deal. The merger, confirmed last week, valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. Elon didn’t mention layoffs, but he didn’t deny them either. “Parting ways” is how he put it.

xAI faces legal heat as SpaceX prepares for IPO

The exits and restructuring are landing while xAI is already under serious pressure.Investigators in the U.S., Europe, and Asia are looking into how its chatbot Grok ended up spreading explicit deepfake images of real people, including minors.

These images were made and pushed out at scale using xAI’s AI systems. Regulators are now digging into whether the company violated any laws in those regions. It’s the kind of legal mess that can wreck a public listing if not cleaned up fast.

Meanwhile, SpaceX is getting ready to go public. Elon wants to list the company later this year. The IPO could hit a valuation of $1.5 trillion, according to Bloomberg. Big banks are already in line to help. Bank of America, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are all expected to lead. And Robinhood, the same one that brought Gen Z into stock trading, is also fighting for a piece of the action.

The deal also wrapped xAI’s other assets under SpaceX, including the Grok chatbot and the social platform X, which Elon bought earlier in March 2025 using another all-stock transaction through xAI. Now that’s all under one roof, tied directly to SpaceX.

Elon started xAI in 2023, along with eleven other people. He said the goal was to “understand the true nature of the universe.” Not exactly small talk. At the time, it was meant to battle OpenAI and Google. That ambition still exists. But now xAI is a part of a bigger machine, one that’s also launching satellites, rockets, and maybe soon, IPO paperwork.

On the tech side, Elon wants to put AI data centers in space. The idea is for SpaceX to host computing power in orbit, with xAI tapping into that for large-scale AI processing. If the engineering holds up, it could be a major step.

The idea is to run AI data centers in space using Tesla energy systems and SpaceX rockets. Tesla’s energy storage would keep the power flowing through solar. Elon even said Starship could carry Tesla’s Optimus robots to the moon or Mars. Nobody knows exactly why, but he keeps talking about it.

Want your project in front of crypto’s top minds? Feature it in our next industry report, where data meets impact.

Large investors do not typically chase hype. They chase efficiency, timing, and upside. This has been evident in the crypto market over the last couple of weeks. While Ethereum (ETH) continues to hold as an infrastructure project, the scale of the project makes it more difficult to achieve massive price growth. This has brought more focus on newer projects. One of those projects showing strong growth metrics this month is Mutuum Finance (MUTM), which is increasingly being considered as the top crypto as investors look for a high-potential crypto to buy for maximizing returns in the current cycle.

Ethereum’s Holding Pattern 

Currently, Ethereum (ETH) is trading below the $2,111 mark. The selling pressure continues to persist as the asset tries to show some short-term upward movement. From a technical standpoint, ETH would need to clear the 20-day EMA priced at $2,447 to show some upward movement. As of now, Ethereum is vulnerable to further downside movement, and the only support levels lie between $1,750 and $1,537.

MUTM Presale Momentum

Since the beginning of the presale phase in 2025, Mutuum Finance has seen strong traction in the crypto market. The project has raised over $20.4 million and has gained over 19,000 unique token holders. Currently, the tokens in phase 7 are priced at $0.04. This represents an increase of 4x from the initial phase 1 token price of $0.01. The best upside is yet to come once the token starts trading, positioning MUTM as a better crypto to buy among emerging DeFi assets.

For example, if the price increases 10x over the current price, the price would be $0.40. With an investment of $750 based on the current price of $0.04, the user would receive 18,750 MUTM tokens. At the higher price level, the user would have an investment worth $7,500. Some analysts call this a conservative prediction. They have set a price target for MUTM to reach $1 in the future based on the observed demand for the coin during the ongoing presale, its recent successful testnet launch, and upcoming exchange listings.

At the price level of $1, the user would have an investment worth $18,750 after investing $750 in the coin. With the potential to increase by a factor of 2,400%, MUTM is a strong contender for investors looking for the top crypto in the future of DeFi innovation.

Expanding Use Cases and Adoption

Mutuum Finance is planning to expand its ecosystem with a number of features. A native over-collateralized stablecoin is planned for future development, which will allow users to borrow it while still earning yield on their collateral. In addition, Layer 2 deployment will allow for increased user adoption.

In addition to these plans for the future, the team has also introduced a number of community-driven incentives to increase the adoption rate. A daily leaderboard rewards the highest presale buyer of the day with $500 worth of MUTM tokens. In addition to this, there is also a $100,000 giveaway with a prize of $10,000 in MUTM tokens for ten presale participants.

Borrowing with Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

One of the key strengths of Mutuum Finance is the flexible borrowing system that is designed to fit different DeFi strategies. Users have the option to borrow at variable interest rates that change according to market supply and demand. Alternatively, users also have the option to borrow at fixed interest rates that remain the same throughout the borrowing period.

A trader may borrow 10,000 USDT for short-term trading, say at a variable rate of 4% APY. The interest cost for the period, say 45 days, will be approximately $49. This keeps costs low while still providing access to liquidity, a cost-effective option for the trader. A borrower who wants to borrow for a longer period may borrow 25,000 USDT at a fixed rate of 6.5% APY for six months. The interest cost will be approximately $812. This protects the borrower from unexpected rate surges that may happen during peak periods of the year.

As big investors are moving their focus from the existing platforms to the newer ones that have more asymmetry, Mutuum Finance (MUTM) is gaining immense traction as the crypto to buy to reap huge profits. While the price of Ethereum is consolidating, MUTM is offering a live DeFi lending platform, adaptive borrowing systems, and a roadmap that includes the development of a native stablecoin and a scaling solution. With more than $20.4 million raised, the cryptocurrency is rapidly gaining traction as the top crypto to invest in.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://mutuum.com/ 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance 

Binance has responded to onchain data discrepancies reported by some third-party trackers like Coinglass and previously DefiLlama, as the world’s largest exchange dismisses the latest attempt to shake confidence in its operation. 

The latest post addresses concerns about Binance’s asset reserves sparked by onchain data anomalies flagged by third-party trackers Coinglass and DefiLlama.

The response was necessary as what would have been dismissed as a lag in algorithms could have quickly compounded concerns about the platform’s liquidity, especially as the crypto market goes through a dramatic dip that has led to something of a paranoid inquisition to find answers. 

How Binance addressed liquidity concerns 

In a post shared via its official X account, Binance thanked users for their concern about Binance. Then it went ahead to clarify that the data cited by Coinglass is curated from third-party sources, and DefiLlama had also dealt with discrepancies in the past. 

“It will take another 24 to 48 hours for their data to be restored,” the post read, urging those who need to verify their assets to do so via Binance’s official Proof of Reserves tools. They urged users to use sites like CoinMarketCap to view their total asset balance, or Oklink to check the inflow and outflow of various platforms. 

The post continued with Binance expressing its belief about how “regularly conducting withdrawal tests on all trading platforms is a positive and healthy practice.” Of course, it urged whoever is performing such tests to be sure to double-check the address carefully. 

The post ended with the proposal of the establishment of an annual “Withdrawal Day” when users of all platforms, not just Binance, can verify the authenticity of their assets. The plan would see the crypto industry collectively designate one day each year in which users and the community coordinate mass withdrawals for verification tests. 

This could help uniformly confirm the authenticity and backing of assets on various exchanges, and can boost overall transparency, trust and accountability in the sector. 

Binance deals with insolvency rumors 

Binance’s official statement regarding the withdrawal tests comes after its co-founder He Yi responded to the “withdrawal movement” initiated by the overseas community. 

Cryptopolitan reported last week that Binance CEO Yi He shared a post on X to address ongoing rumors about the platform’s insolvency, claiming the chatter has actually increased the number of exchange addresses. 

“Some friends in the community have launched a vigorous withdrawal movement. Although we have not yet figured out why there have been more deposits after the movement started, I believe it is also a good thing to regularly stress test all platforms,” she claimed. 

This is not the first time Binance has dealt with FUD, either. In a recent episode of the All-In podcast hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, CZ recounted how his relationship with SBF broke down when the convicted FTX executive began poaching his employees, attempting to poach high-profile clients from Binance, and also using his significant political influence in D.C. to lobby for regulations that would essentially “carve out” Binance from the American market.

CZ clarified that the November 2022 tweet where he announced Binance would sell its remaining FTT tokens was not a premeditated attack to destroy a competitor. He was stunned by the total lack of liquidity at FTX, stating he had no idea that SBF was allegedly misusing customer funds on the scale that was later revealed in court.

Sam Bankman-Fried remains in federal prison, currently serving the early years of his 25-year sentence. Current reports from the FTX bankruptcy proceedings show that most creditors have now been repaid in full, thanks to the surging prices of the estate’s holdings in 2025 and 2026.

While the truthfulness of the related FUD statements still needs further verification, onchain evidence has shown that there was no real bank run and Binance has not displayed any insolvency signs. 

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Billy Ackman just bought $2 billion worth of Meta shares. His fund, Pershing Square, made it official this week. That one bet now makes up 10% of the entire fund.

“We believe Meta’s current share price underappreciates the company’s long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation for one of the world’s greatest businesses,” Pershing Square wrote in its annual investor letter.

Meta stock fell 0.8% on Wednesday, but Billy clearly doesn’t care. He’s calling the whole thing a massive opportunity.

Over the past year, Meta shares have dropped 16%. That’s mostly because investors are stressed about Meta spending billions on artificial intelligence.

In its last earnings report, Meta said it plans to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion on AI-related projects in 2026. That’s a huge jump, and it made people nervous. But not Billy.

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Pershing Square lays out Meta thesis in full detail

“We believe concerns around META’s AI-related spending initiatives are underestimating the company’s long-term upside potential from AI,” the firm wrote. Billy’s team sees all that AI spending as a smart play, not a problem.

Meta is currently trading at $677 per share, with a total market value of $1.7 trillion. It runs two parts: the Core Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The first group includes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and that’s where most of the money comes from.

The second group is all the wearables and virtual reality stuff, which is still losing money. Right now, Reality Labs accounts for about 25% of the total losses in the business.

Despite that, Meta’s overall numbers are strong. It pulled in $200 billion in revenue in 2025, which was up 22% from the year before. The daily user base sits at 3.5 billion people and grew by 7% in the last quarter.

That’s massive. Even more important, it shows the company still knows how to keep people hooked.

Billy and his team say Meta’s ad model has real power. With more people using the apps every day, ad placements keep going up in value. Advertisers can target users based on behavior and interests. That’s what makes Meta so profitable. And now, with AI, they believe things can get even better.

The investor letter listed several ways AI will help Meta. Content recommendations will get smarter. Ads will become more personalized. Advertisers will be able to use AI tools to create their own campaigns.

Even digital assistants could be added for business users. Pershing Square believes all this opens the door to even more use cases.

Billy’s team also pointed out that Meta has already been cutting costs. In 2023, they called it the “Year of Efficiency.”

And just recently, the company reduced spending on Reality Labs. That’s where all the losses have been. They believe the company is showing discipline, even while spending big on AI.

They also think the core business is strong enough to handle extra spending.

If there’s any overbuilding, they believe Meta can grow into it. They say the company has the financial flexibility and enough users to absorb that kind of investment.

Meta is trading at 22 times forward earnings. But when you take out the Reality Labs losses, that number drops. Billy and his fund believe the rest of the market is missing this.

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Robinhood reported weaker-than-expected revenue in the fourth quarter, and Wall Street didn’t care. Instead of backing off, most analysts turned around and kept pushing Buy ratings.

The company brought in $1.28 billion, missing the $1.35 billion analysts were looking for. But it still posted earnings of 66 cents per share, better than the expected 63 cents.

The stock still dropped 9% early Wednesday. It was already down 24% year-to-date by Tuesday.

The big red flag was the drop in net new assets (NNAs). But Barclays’ Benjamin said things started looking better in February. He pointed out that NNAs were down in December but ticked up in January and early February.

He added, “February looks off to a stronger start, particularly with NNAs, though commentary on trading volumes was ambiguous.” Even with that unclear part, he sounded confident the worst was already over.

Analysts lower targets but keep buy ratings

Goldman Sachs’ James lowered his 12-month price target for Robinhood from $152 to $130, still expecting a 52% gain. He also cut 2026 and 2027 earnings forecasts by 7% and 3%, while adding new projections for 2028. He said they dropped their P/E target from 54x to 45.5x, since the market is valuing stocks lower in general. Still, he’s standing behind Robinhood.

Deutsche Bank’s Brian also dropped his price target, from $155 to $130, but didn’t change his view. He called the fourth quarter “mixed.” Their adjusted earnings came in at 57 cents, which was lower than his own estimate of 61 cents, and below the 63-cent consensus. Robinhood got a 9-cent bump from taxes coming in lower than expected. Their adjusted EBITDA was $761 million, falling short of Deutsche’s $815 million and the $833 million average.

Barclays, despite pointing out weak securities lending and take rates, stayed optimistic. They cut their target from $159 to $124, but still expect a 45% upside.

They admitted some growth numbers were slowing down, but said Robinhood’s long-term goals could still keep the stock in play.

Morgan Stanley’s team, on the other hand, didn’t join the crowd. They left their equal-weight rating untouched, with a price target of $147, a 72% jump from Robinhood’s Tuesday price.

They noted that product development is strong heading into 2026, naming tools like Social, Cortex, the UK ISA rollout, prediction markets, and the Rothera JV. But they warned that NNAs and crypto could cause problems in the short term.

Crypto recovery and prediction markets draw new optimism

Bernstein’s Gautam had one of the most aggressive targets at $160, which would mean an 87% surge. He pointed out Robinhood’s prediction markets business just hit $435 million in annual revenue and said it’s on track to become a $1 billion business.

Gautam called the crypto weakness “expected” and brushed off the crash. He wrote, “We would ride out the crypto volatility and see no point in turning negative on the stock closer to the bottom.”

JPMorgan didn’t see it that way. Their team dropped its target from $130 to $113 and stuck with a neutral rating. They saw too many weak spots. Net deposits came in at $15.9 billion, which was below both their estimate of $18.5 billion and the $19.4 billion consensus. They also flagged slowing growth in Gold subscribers, account growth, and overall deposits. They wrote, “We thought the results were weaker than anticipated.”

Still, Robinhood posted a full-year EPS of $2.12, slightly ahead of expectations. And despite the revenue miss, key user metrics hit new highs. Gold users, funded accounts, and Gold card holders all reached record levels. That’s why most analysts aren’t panicking.

In their eyes, Robinhood has enough going for it to push through the short-term mess. Most of them are still betting big on what happens next.

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Ethereum is currently being talked about a lot. According to a well-known expert, named Tom Lee, Ethereum has a chance of recovering quickly, that is, in a ‘V-shape,’ after this recent decline. At the same time,  Bitmine has bought over 40,000 more ETH, showing that even big investors are interested in this coin. However, according to experts, Ethereum’s recovery will not be strong, and it will continue to go lower.

However, even though many are watching Ethereum, many analysts are predicting that there will be a new cryptocurrency that will become very popular, named Mutuum Finance (MUTM). According to many, this new cryptocurrency, currently valued at only $0.04, has all it takes to become the next big cryptocurrency because it has a working product that can be used immediately.

Mutuum Finance (MUTM)

Unlike many new cryptocurrencies, Mutuum Finance has a working product that can be used immediately. Its main function will be to enable users to lend and borrow digital currency safely and with ease. Mutuum Finance V1 Protocol is already live on Sepolia testnet. Testnet allows users to test all of its features without risking any real money. For example, users can test it out by providing test money, such as ETH or USDT, and see how they can earn on it, as well as how safe it is to use this system. Other features users can interact with during the Mutuum Finance testnet are mtTokens, which are yield-bearing tokens issued to lenders when they deposit funds, debt tokens that keep track of loans, and an automated liquidator bot. 

Two Smart Ways to Grow Your Crypto

Mutuum Finance uses two smart systems to help users grow their money. The first one is the Peer to Contract (P2C) Market or pooled lending. If you have $1,000 in digital assets you don’t want to sell, you can add them to the pool. The platform might then offer a 12% return on the assets based on demand from borrowers. This means your $1,000 can earn you about $120 within the first year. 

The second smart system is the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Market. This is for making direct deals between the borrower and lender. For instance, you can lend $5000 to a borrower for 6 months at an agreed 10% interest rate. This means you can earn $250. This makes the platform suitable for many different DeFi users, and this increases the demand for the MUTM token. 

The Low Cost Chance to Join the Presale

Mutuum Finance is currently in Phase 7 of its presale. The token is currently priced at $0.04, while its launch price is $0.06. However, many analysts feel that the token can increase significantly in the short period following the launch. This is mainly because the token’s total supply is capped at 4 billion. Almost half of the tokens are for the presale, and with 840 million tokens already sold, the tokens for sale are dwindling.

Once the token is listed on the exchanges, there will be a huge demand for the token by investors. However, the supply will be limited. This could cause the price to rise significantly. Analysts see the token touching $1, days after its launch, speaking to its strong momentum. This is the reason why the token is considered a top cryptocurrency to buy.

Why This New Crypto Stands Out

The search for the next big cryptocurrency has led people to seek the one with the best foundation. Mutuum Finance stands out as a cryptocurrency that has gone beyond promises and has a product that can actually be tested on the testnet. It has a dual market system that has real-world applications in earning yields. Additionally, the presale process and the token supply make for a good prospect for the cryptocurrency after it lists on the major exchanges. 

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://mutuum.com/ 
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

Meta announced Wednesday it will pour more than $10 billion into a new data center in Lebanon, Indiana, marking another huge bet on artificial intelligence infrastructure even as questions pile up about how the social media giant finances these projects.

The company broke ground on the site that will deliver one gigawatt of electricity to power AI systems and Meta’s social networks. This makes it one of the company’s biggest data center projects ever, alongside its Hyperion campus in Louisiana and Prometheus facility in Ohio. The Lebanon campus is Meta’s second major tech project in Indiana.

Mark Zuckerberg has turned AI into Meta’s top priority and is spending money like water to win what he sees as a critical technology race. Just last month, Meta said it expects to spend somewhere between $115 billion and $135 billion this year on building AI infrastructure—a record amount that makes last year’s spending look small. The company now operates or is building more than 30 data centers worldwide.

At its busiest point during construction, the company expects to have more than 4,000 workers on site. Once it opens, Meta will need about 300 people for long-term jobs. The company also pledged to put more than $120 million into local infrastructure improvements, including roads, water systems, transmission lines, and utility upgrades over the course of the project.

In another update, Meta rolled out a new AI feature called “Dear Algo” on Wednesday that lets people using its Threads app customize what they want to see in their feed. Users can tell the system what kinds of posts they want, similar to how people chat with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The company has been pushing AI features across all its apps lately, including tools on Facebook that let users animate their profile photos and change images using Meta’s AI assistant.

Auditor Raises Red Flag on $27 Billion Deal

Last month, Meta told investors it plans to spend between $115 billion and $135 billion this year on AI-related spending, nearly double what it spent last year when it overhauled its AI unit. The company now operates or is building more than 30 data centers worldwide.

Meta’s spending spree is raising eyebrows in Washington and on Wall Street. Meta’s auditor Ernst & Young flagged concerns about a $27 billion data center project that Meta moved off its books last October.

The company created a joint venture with Blue Owl Capital for its Hyperion campus, with Meta owning 20% and Blue Owl owning the other 80%. A company called Beignet Investor sold $27.3 billion in bonds to investors to fund the project. Previous Cryptopolitan coverage detailed how this arrangement allows Meta to control operations while keeping billions in debt off its balance sheet.

Ernst & Young approved Meta’s accounting treatment but called it a “critical audit matter”, audit speak for one of the hardest and riskiest decisions they had to make.

Meta’s $46 billion hidden risk revealed

The auditor said figuring out who really controls the venture was “especially challenging” because it required complex judgment calls about which company has the power to make the most important decisions.

According to Meta’s financial filing as seen by Cryptopolitan, the company put in $4.30 billion worth of assets when the venture started and got back a one-time payment of $2.55 billion. Meta owns 20% of the venture and handles the construction management and day-to-day operations.

But Meta’s financial commitments go much deeper. The company has agreed to rent space in the data centers for about $12.31 billion total, with leases starting in 2029. Each lease lasts four years but can be extended up to 20 years.

Meta has also made financial guarantees worth up to $28 billion. If Meta decides to walk away from a lease, it might have to pay the difference between what the property is actually worth and what it guaranteed to be worth.

When you add everything up, Meta’s ownership stake, the lease agreements, future funding promises, and financial guarantees, Meta could be on the hook for up to $45.95 billion if things go wrong.

Meta says it doesn’t have to show the venture’s assets and debts on its own financial statements because it’s not the “primary beneficiary” of the entity. But that claim is debatable. Meta knows how to run data centers for AI. Blue Owl just provides money. Whether this venture succeeds will come down to Meta’s decisions and know-how, not Blue Owl’s.

Meta is spending so heavily because the AI race feels like an existential fight for big tech companies.   The company believes whoever builds the biggest AI infrastructure wins the market, just as other tech giants are spending hundreds of billions on their own data center buildouts.

If AI companies can’t generate enough revenue to cover their massive debt loads, the fallout could hit everyday Americans. Warren’s letter warned that “destabilizing losses for an interconnected set of financial institutions” could trigger a broader crisis that “crush retirement savers and retail investors exposed to the AI industry.” The senators gave regulators until February 13 to respond.

Meta’s continued spending suggests it believes AI will eventually pay off, but the clock is ticking. With construction timelines stretching into 2028 and beyond, these companies need AI applications to start making serious money before the bills come due.

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Sky Protocol, formerly MakerDAO, closed 2025 with significant revenue growth, reaching $338M. The lending platform adapted to the shifting market by lowering its expenses by 63%. 

Sky Protocol achieved $338M in total revenues for 2025, showing its model was robust even under non-ideal trading conditions. Sky Protocol retained its momentum in early 2026, as it remained in the green despite the market drawdown. 

Following the latest positive results, SKY traded near its higher range for the past three months at $0.065. Trading volumes recovered to a three-month high of $19M in 24 hours.

During market turbulence, Sky Protocol remained a reliable source of loans and liquidity. In 2025, the protocol increased its USDS stablecoin supply by 74%, showing trust in the lending mechanism. 

The biggest driver of stability was the buybacks. Sky Protocol did not take up haphazard buybacks to stave off market decline. Instead, support for the SKY token directly reflects the fees generated by the protocol. 

Sky Protocol: leaner and a better fee producer

Sky Protocol showed a successful pivot from the Maker DAO stablecoin mechanism. The chief tool of the protocol was the adaptable savings rate, which is currently recovered to 4%, from lows of 2.75%. During previous cycles, Sky Protocol offered up to 12.5% return on USDS. 

The protocol still carries the legacy DAI token, which is also active in DeFi. 

During the 2025 market cycle, Sky Protocol operated with a lower value locked, lagging behind Aave. Sky Protocol drew in $5.34B, decreasing from $9.18B in early 2025. Spark Lend carries $2.43B in liquidity, ranking within the top 5 on-chain lenders. 

Despite the lower liquidity, Sky Protocol grew its fee production to a higher baseline, drawing in around $1.13M in 24 hours. 

USDS also supplies near-record liquidity, with a supply of over 9.57B tokens. The ecosystem continued to grow slowly in the first months of 2026, despite the downturn in ETH and BTC. 

USDS expands its DEX activity

In addition to being used for lending, USDS is spreading across the DeFi ecosystem. In the past four months, USDS volumes on decentralized markets grew to new peaks. 

The token is most actively trading on the new Manifest DEX, as well as Curve, its traditional legacy market. Recently, SUI announced it will add suiUSDSe, a native version of the Sky Protocol token. 

USDS activity increased on DEX in the past three months, boosted by a growing supply and new partnerships. | Source: Dune Analytics

Over the course of 2025, Token Terminal data shows USDS activity on Sky Protocol expanded by 400%, based on more active transfers. Those transfers also translated into higher fees. Sky Protocol shows the rising demand for alternative sources of liquidity and reliable lending vaults to tap the value of crypto collaterals. Lenders also put their USDS to work, making it one of the key stablecoins to distribute passive income.

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In a further move to integrate digital currency into regular banking, Standard Chartered has partnered with B2C2, a business that offers bitcoin trading services to big investors.

The partnership was announced this week as the total value of all cryptocurrencies worldwide has fluctuated significantly, having peaked above $4 trillion in late 2025 before settling to around $2.4 trillion as of mid-February 2026. Asian markets are seeing the most trading activity, while banks and financial firms in Western countries are working through new regulations to participate in the crypto space.

Bridging the gap between banks and crypto exchanges

The two companies say they want to solve a problem that has frustrated big investors: the difficulty of moving money between regular banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. They intend to facilitate the purchase and sale of digital assets by establishing a direct connection between a leading international bank and a leading cryptocurrency trading company.

Customers of B2C2, which include companies, hedge funds, asset management firms, and affluent families, will now have direct access to Standard Chartered’s global banking network and payment settlement systems. Due to significant regulatory developments in the banking sector in 2025, timing is crucial.

The UK made major progress on its own digital asset legislation, while the European Union implemented its MiCAR standards. Banks have been forced by these new frameworks to start trading cryptocurrency instead of merely discussing it.

The transaction combines B2C2’s capacity to supply liquidity for both standard cryptocurrency trading and options markets with Standard Chartered’s banking capabilities. The Asia-Pacific region had the fastest growth in blockchain activity, according to statistics from the 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Nearly $2.36 trillion worth of transactions were made in the region overall, a 69% rise from the year before.

According to Luke Boland, Standard Chartered’s head of financial technology for Asia, it offers “regulated, scalable market linkage without compromising execution or risk management.”

Thomas Restout, the top executive at B2C2, pointed to Standard Chartered’s worldwide presence and strong regulatory standing. He called the bank “an ideal strategic counterpart” for helping more institutional investors get into digital markets. His comments align with B2C2’s recent improvements to its operations, including earning a SOC 2 attestation in late 2025. That certification shows the company meets the strict requirements that top-tier financial institutions demand.

Building on months of preparation

The new arrangement allows B2C2’s clients to tap into Standard Chartered’s banking system across multiple countries. This means institutional investors can handle both regular currencies and digital assets more easily and with better supervision. Standard Chartered recently took on another role in the crypto world when it was named custodian for 21Shares, creating what amounts to a complete service package that traditional fund managers find appealing.

B2C2 has built a reputation for delivering steady cryptocurrency trading services to institutional clients around the world. Standard Chartered operates across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, helping customers move money across borders and access different markets.

The two firms say they plan to create a reliable system for institutional crypto trading that supports digital assets becoming part of mainstream finance.

The groundwork for this deal started months ago. Standard Chartered announced in July 2025 that it would expand its regulated digital asset services for institutional customers. The bank has now started offering spot Bitcoin trading through its branch in the United Kingdom.

That trading is built into the bank’s existing foreign exchange platforms, giving clients options for how they settle trades and store their holdings. This setup lets traders work with Bitcoin and Ethereum using the same methods they already know from trading major world currencies like the dollar, euro, and yen.

The partnership between Standard Chartered and B2C2 represents a shift in how digital assets are handled within the core of global finance, making it simpler for institutions to work in both traditional banking and newer cryptocurrency markets.

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T-Mobile is set to roll out the beta version of a live translation service that employs an agentic AI, hosted on its 5G Advanced network, to interpret over 50 languages. Free user testing registration opens January 12; access is planned for select users this spring, and general availability is scheduled for later this year.

According to T-Mobile, while translation services have been around for some time, they either work on specific devices, require app downloads and subscriptions, or are too expensive to adopt at scale. Some may even route data in ways that are not always secure or private. 

However, T-Mobile’s Live Translation integrates an agentic AI directly into the Un-carrier’s network, making AI a capability rather than an add-on. Users on the T-Mobile network will enjoy the first-of-its-kind network-integrated translation service without new devices, subscriptions, or app downloads. 

T-Mobile CEO says new AI feature turns conversations into community 

Srini Gopalan, the CEO of T-Mobile, said that by bringing real-time AI directly into the network, the Un-carrier is delivering more than connectivity, turning conversations into a community. According to Gopalan, Live Translation is making it easier for the estimated 60 million Americans living in multilingual households to pick up the phone. Many of these families find it challenging to navigate the language differences between generations, making it harder to share minor daily updates or critical life moments. 

“Live Translation shows what’s possible when you rethink the role of a wireless provider…We started this journey years ago by betting big on 5G, and creating a network that wasn’t just about speed, but also one that could adapt and evolve.”

–John Saw, President of Technology & CTO, T-Mobile 

Meanwhile, with nationwide 5G Advanced as the foundation, Saw emphasizes that Live Translation is pioneering a new era of AI-driven experiences for customers. The only requirement is for at least one person to be on the T-Mobile network to initiate instantaneous translation after activation. Users on family calls, making reservations abroad, or handling customer inquiries will soon be able to confidently answer the phone and avoid missed opportunities caused by language barriers. 

Beta participants will be required to dial *87* to speak to anyone in more than 50 languages at no cost, and for as long as they want. Saw says the feature simply works whether using flip phones or the latest smartphones.

T-Mobile raises the bar and increases multi-year growth outlook

T-Mobile’s top boss, Srini Gopalan, has emphasized that the Un-carrier is raising the bar on what customers, stakeholders, and the industry can expect from the network. The company’s unique value proposition also continues to expand its margin of differentiation in the industry. 

Meanwhile, T-Mobile expects to continue delivering industry-leading growth across service revenues, postpaid accounts, and profitability driven by its core business. The total postpaid net account additions in 2026 are expected to range between 900,000 and 1 million, while postpaid APRA growth in 2026 is projected to be between 2.5% and 3.0%.

On the other hand, service revenues are estimated to reach $77 billion in 2026 and $80.5-$81.5 billion in 2027. Core Adjusted EBITDA is also expected to be $37-$37.5 billion in 2026 and $40-$41 billion in 2027, while Adjusted Free Cash Flow is projected to be $18-$18.7 billion in 2026 and $19.5-$20.5 billion in 2027.

The American wireless network operator also continues to balance its approach to capital allocation, expecting to maintain a prudent 2.5x leverage target. T-Mobile has returned over $20 billion to stockholders since its 2024 Capital Markets Day and invested nearly $12 billion in accretive M&A. 

Additionally, more than $50 billion remains in the company’s capital envelope through 2027, including up to nearly $30 billion for shareholder returns. T-Mobile currently expects to double its Q1 2026 share repurchases to up to $5 billion.  

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BlackRock’s plan to tokenize its flagship iShares ETF lineup has triggered a bubbly response from the crypto community, with analysts calling the development a critical catalyst that could potentially lift the crypto market out of its prolonged downturn.

Latest developments reveal that BlackRock is in active discussion with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to move its flagship iShares ETFs onto blockchain rails. 

If it succeeds, this could lead to the creation of programmable, 24/7-settling ETF tokens that can be used as collateral in DeFi protocols. However, this is still an uncertainty, with BlackRock’s CFO Martin Small acknowledging that he could not determine whether the process would be completed “in 90 days or 12 months”.

"I can't tell you if it happens in 90 days or 12 months," said Martin Small, CFO of BlackRock.

That's 12 months at the outside.

If you're wondering what narratives will lead us out of the bear market, this is one of them. Bullish L1s and quite bullish DeFi imo. pic.twitter.com/Z40c22ZLGY

— Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) February 11, 2026

Tokenized ETFs promise 24/7 settlement and DeFi integration

For iShares ETFs (representing holdings in stocks, bonds, and other traditional securities), tokenization would allow investors to trade, transfer, or use these assets as collateral in DeFi lending protocols without having to leave their digital wallets.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer, Matt Hougan, considers this move a transformative one, saying that it is “one of the key narratives to lead the market out of a bear market” and emphasizing that the development is “very positive for Layer one blockchains and the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.” 

As such, tokenized iShares could serve as a potential new base layer of collateral backed by regulated cash flows and established issuers.

The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, had previously described tokenization as “one of the most exciting areas of growth in financial markets” during an earnings call. 

Being the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock views the nearly $4 trillion held in digital wallets across crypto assets, stablecoins, and tokenized assets as a major growth opportunity, especially with younger investors who are already comfortable with tokenized assets but lack access to high-quality traditional investment programs.

Other analysts suggest that BlackRock’s tokenized iShares may likely operate on established blockchain networks like Ethereum, or potentially on other private/permissioned blockchains, as the infrastructure choice will be critical for ensuring scalability and security.

Is Bitwise pivoting strategy because of Bitcoin?

This tokenization strategy comes as one of the avenues for navigating a bearish crypto market. Bitcoin is currently trading near $66,000, down by approximately 4.57% over the last 24 hours, with about $47 billion in trading volume. Ethereum is trading at approximately $2,000 per token (down by nearly 5%), and Solana is trading around $78 (about a 6.5% reduction), leaving many firms with crypto exposure looking for ways to stay afloat in a very volatile period.

Hougan told investors that he expects Bitcoin to settle between $75,000 and $100,000 in the first half of 2026, before spiking to record-breaking highs in the second half of the year as falling interest rates, institutional flows, and lower volatility replace the usual four-year cycle pattern.

However, for Bitwise, which trades across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP ETFs (plus its Crypto Industry Innovators equity fund), the tokenization wave delivers both opportunity and competitive pressure. 

The firm has already started preparing itself for the shift by launching the Model Portfolio Solutions for Digital Assets (now available across various billion-dollar advisory firms) earlier this month. This will give financial advisors more structured frameworks to allocate crypto through ETFs.

The race to capture $4 trillion in digital wallet capital is on

The strategic importance of tokenized traditional assets goes beyond just adding blockchain settlement to existing assets. BlackRock’s strategy is targeting a critical gap: the $4 trillion sitting in digital wallets belonging to users who would like to remain in the crypto space but can’t access stocks, bonds, or diversified ETFs without converting their assets back into regular currency and using more traditional methods.

“If we could orchestrate a business plan around tokenization of ETFs, it is young people who are heavy users of tokenized assets, and then we could introduce them to more traditional assets sooner in their life path,” Fink explained during BlackRock’s earnings discussion.

For crypto platforms like Bitwise, the challenge is clear: BlackRock’s $10 trillion in assets under management plus the dominating iShares brand could quickly mop up market share in tokenized products, possibly repeating the pattern that happened with Bitcoin ETFs. 

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is now the fastest-growing ETF in history, accumulating over $70 billion in assets.

According to RWA.xyz, the distributed asset value of the tokenized real-world asset market is close to $25 billion in on-chain value, with private credit organizations and US Treasury-backed products emerging as early adopters.

Other major asset managers like Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and Goldman Sachs are also expected to accelerate their tokenization strategies.

As blockchain technology continues to mature, Hougan’s theory that tokenization will help lead crypto out of this bear market may be proven right. Nonetheless, at the moment, the race is on to sit comfortably at the intersection of traditional finance credibility and crypto distribution, with billions in assets and the future of digital finance at stake.

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The price of XRP has had a very tough six months. Since it hit its high in July of last year, its price has been halved. Today, it trades below $1.50. On-chain data indicates that holders are selling their XRP in the hopes of cutting their losses. This poses a huge problem for investors looking to purchase XRP. The prices of XRP have been slow, and the selling pressure remains high. As a result, investors are looking to the next crypto to explode. They want to find a crypto with a real use case and a roadmap to success, rather than relying on hope.

XRP Struggles Under Heavy Selling Pressure

XRP finds itself in a very difficult position. After losing from its high of over $3.60, it now struggles to trade above $1.40. From the charts, it is clear that each time it attempts to rise towards the $1.50 mark, it ends up being forced back down. This is because there are so many people who bought XRP when it was trading at $1.50. They are now selling it in the hopes of cutting their losses. 

Other very important indicators, such as the Spent Output Profit Ratio, have been below one for an extensive period. This indicates that, on average, people are selling their XRP at a loss. They are not holding out in the hopes of better times. This makes it extremely difficult for the price to rise. For investors, it can be a situation where their money is being lost while they wait. For them, it is essential to look for the best crypto to buy now.

Finding a Project Built for Real Use

So, where should an investor look? The answer is a project that is already in the business of building a working product, rather than one that promises to do so someday. One such token is the new cryptocurrency called Mutuum Finance (MUTM). It is a decentralized lending platform. This means that people can use it to lend out their cryptocurrency to make money from the interest they collect, or they can use it to borrow funds. The big advantage is that the project is already live in testing on the Sepolia testnet.

This means that users can give it a go and see how it works using test money. It allows users to use USDT, ETH, LINK, and WBTC as testnet tokens. They also get to interact with core features, among them lending & mtTokens, borrowing & best tokens, and a liquidator bot. For someone looking to know what is the best cryptocurrency to invest in, the fact that the project has a working product is a big advantage.

The Power of Early Participation and Shared Rewards

The best way to make the biggest returns is to get into a strong project early on. Currently,  Mutuum Finance is in the presale stage, which means that people can still get in early before it is launched. It is in Phase 7 of the presale stage, and the price per MUTM is only $0.04. This is compared to the price per MUTM, which is set to be $0.06 during exchange launch. 

However, the potential for the cryptocurrency is higher than this for many reasons, including the fact that the supply of the cryptocurrency is only 4 billion tokens in total. Almost half of them are for the presale, and over 850 million have already sold. The diminishing supply, combined with the benefits of the live platform, might contribute to the demand after the launch. An investment of $500 at a price of $0.04 will yield 12,500 tokens. If the price goes up due to the demand after the launch and reaches $0.40, which is 10 times the current price during the presale, the investment will grow to $5,000.

Furthermore, there are rewards for long-term holders. A portion of the fees collected from the lending platform will be used to buy back MUTM tokens, which will then be given to users who have staked their assets on the platform. If you have staked mtTokens with a $3,000 deposit, you can potentially receive more MUTM tokens through this process every few months. There is a cycle where you can earn more just by using this platform.

A Clear Path in an Uncertain Market

As XRP struggles with low adoption and constant selling, there is a new strategy that can bring success, even in an uncertain market. Mutuum Finance has set itself apart with a tested product and ways to make money with it. It has a live testnet that has already proven that it works. It also has two markets that provide real yield from day one, and it has tokenomics that reward early adopters with great potential for growth.

If you are an investor looking for a new cryptocurrency that has great potential to explode with good fundamentals, this new cryptocurrency has a great case to offer, especially since it focuses on creating a useful product, which will bring real value.

For more information about Mutuum Finance (MUTM) visit the links below:

Website: https://mutuum.com/ 
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mutuumfinance

The cryptocurrency market brings Kyrgyzstan more tax money than the country’s largest bazaar and all patent-paying businesses put together.

The calculation comes amid efforts to update the nation’s crypto regulations and threats of penalties over its role in Russia’s sanctions evasion through crypto.

Kyrgyz crypto industry pays nearly $23 million in annual taxes

Kyrgyzstan’s nascent market for digital assets has quickly become one of its fastest-growing economic sectors, regional media noted this week.

In the first three quarters of 2025, its turnover surpassed $7.9 billion, and industry watchers are convinced there’s room for further growth.

Official data revealed that the total volume of Kyrgyz crypto transactions exceeded $20.5 billion last year, resulting in $22.8 million of tax income for the state.

According to Temir Kazybaev, Chairman of Kyrgyzstan’s Association of Virtual Asset Market Participants, tax revenue from the crypto business is already larger than that from the country’s largest trading hub for commodities and the total received from voluntary patent fees.

Speaking to the English-language Times of Central Asia, he elaborated:

“Just over $7.9 million in taxes was collected from the Dordoi bazaar over the year. Patent tax collection totaled $13.6 million. In other words, the entire market and all individuals in Kyrgyzstan working under a patent paid as much tax as was collected from cryptocurrency turnover.”

Dordoi is a major wholesale and retail market in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, which is not only the largest in the country, but also one of Asia’s biggest public marketplaces.

Kazybaev highlighted the significant shift in public opinion about the industry in Kyrgyzstan, where most people viewed the crypto market as a scam or a pyramid scheme only a few years ago.

“That perception is changing. People and businesses now see it as an opportunity,” he said, emphasizing the role of the country’s President Sadyr Zhaparov in that regard.

The representative of the crypto sector also noted the positive trend in the development of the market’s infrastructure, providing another set of industry figures.

More than 200 cryptocurrency exchanges and 11 mining companies are currently registered in Kyrgyzstan, he detailed.

The head of the crypto association mentioned the recent launch of the gold-backed stablecoin USDKG as a boosting factor for the crypto space, acknowledging its growing recognition in the country.

“The development of virtual assets is a critical area … and our association is deeply involved” in it through educational events, he remarked, adding his organization is training compliance officers and accountants working in the crypto sphere.

Kyrgyzstan government upgrades country’s crypto regulations

The numbers signaling the growing significance of Kyrgyzstan’s crypto market come amid efforts to update the nation’s regulatory framework.

While cryptocurrency transactions have been legalized already, Bishkek is still working to enhance the rules, the Times of Central Asia pointed out.

Earlier in February, the media revealed that Kyrgyz authorities had added specific legal definitions for cryptocurrencies and stablecoins and regulated the state’s involvement in crypto mining.

A bill signed by President Zhaparov empowers his administration to determine the exact procedures for the issuance and circulation of digital assets.

The rules concern coins issued in Kyrgyzstan that are backed by other assets under the strict control of the government, such as the dollar-denominated USDKG and another stablecoin called KGST, which is tied to the Kyrgyz som, the national fiat currency.

Kyrgyzstan is becoming a stablecoin hotspot in its region. It’s also home to the largest non-dollar cryptocurrency of this kind, the Russian ruble-pegged A7A5, which has processed transactions worth over $100 billion in the first year since its launch in early 2025.

The coin, created by a Russian company but issued by a Kyrgyz-registered entity, has caused a lot of headaches for Bishkek lately due to its suspected use by Russia for sanctions evasion.

As a result of their alleged role in facilitating Russian crypto transactions, Kyrgyz financial institutions and crypto platforms have been sanctioned by the EU, the U.S., and the U.K.

The latest European package of punitive measures against Russia and its supporters is reportedly targeting two of Kyrgyzstan’s banks based on the same allegations.

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India just threw down a challenge that might be impossible to meet. Starting February 20, social media companies operating in the country must label every piece of fake AI content and take down illegal deepfakes within three hours. The technology to do this properly doesn’t exist yet.

The rules, announced Tuesday, put pressure on platforms like Meta, Google, and X to deploy systems that catch and mark AI-generated images, videos, and audio before users see them. Companies must also stop people from removing or hiding these labels. Even with billions in resources, these tech giants struggle to make their current detection tools work reliably.

Most big platforms already use something called C2PA, which plants invisible information inside files to show how they were made. It’s like a nutrition label for digital content. When it works, you can see if a photo came from a real camera or an AI generator. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn try to flag this content, but the labels are easy to miss, and plenty of fake stuff slips through.

The system has major holes. Open-source AI tools and apps that make fake nude photos often skip the labeling process completely. Even when labels exist, they disappear during file uploads on many sites. C2PA’s supporters have spent years saying the technology just needs wider adoption to succeed. India is about to test that claim with 500 million social media users.

Why India’s market power changes everything

India has 481 million Instagram users, 403 million on Facebook, 500 million watching YouTube, and 213 million using Snapchat. X considers India its third-biggest market. When a country this large makes new rules, global tech companies typically adjust their systems everywhere, not just in one place.

This push comes after India spent months dealing with a deepfake crisis. Cryptopolitan reported last October that Bollywood actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan sued over fake videos using their faces, seeking nearly half a million dollars in damages. The couple claimed YouTube’s AI trainers grabbed public content without permission to train systems that later created fake media with their images. Cases like these, along with viral fake videos of actress Rashmika Mandanna, pushed officials to act.

The timing lines up with India’s AI ambitions. Google is building a $15 billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam that will become the company’s largest facility outside America. The site will have gigawatt-scale computing power and is set to open in July 2028. With that kind of AI infrastructure arriving, regulators want content safety rules in place first.

Critics warn of “rapid fire censorship”

The tight deadlines worry free speech advocates. The Internet Freedom Foundation says the three-hour takedown window will force companies to use automated systems that delete too much content by mistake. They call it creating “rapid fire censors” because there’s no time for humans to review reports properly.

Platforms like X, which haven’t set up any AI labeling yet, now have just nine days to build entire systems from scratch. Meta, Google, and X all declined to comment. Adobe, the company behind C2PA, stayed silent too.

Officials writing the rules seem to know current technology isn’t ready. The requirements say platforms should use detection methods “to the extent technically feasible” – legal language that admits perfection isn’t expected. India’s leaders believe pressure will drive innovation. They’re betting that when you force tech companies to either build better systems or lose access to hundreds of millions of users, they’ll figure it out fast.

Whether better AI detection technology actually exists to be built, or if India just ordered companies to deliver something that can’t be made yet, remains to be seen. We’ll find out in nine days.

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Digital currencies were supposed to make sending money across borders cheaper and faster. The cost of converting these digital dollars into actual currency, however, is still higher than expected for African users.

According to recent research, while the median conversion cost across Africa is about 3%, some countries face significantly worse rates, with Botswana experiencing costs as high as 19.4%.

The data presents a concerning picture. The median cost for Botswana residents to convert their digital currency into local currency in January 2026 was 19.4%. Research that examined almost 94,000 pricing checks across 66 currency corridors in Africa revealed this to be the highest rate.

Source: borderless.xyz

Competition drives the price gap

Research from payments company Borderless.xyz found that while the technology itself works fine, moving money around the world for almost nothing, the real problem happens at the end of the line. That final step, when digital money becomes cash you can actually spend, is where costs pile up.

Across Africa, the typical cost for this conversion sits at about 3%, or 299 basis points. Compare that to Latin America, where users pay around 1.3%, or Asia, where the cost drops to just 0.07%. African customers are clearly getting a worse deal.

Congo wasn’t far behind Botswana, with conversion costs running over 13%. These high prices show up in places where only one or two companies handle these transactions. Without competition, there’s nothing stopping them from charging whatever they want.

South Africa tells a different story. There, multiple companies compete for business, and conversion costs stayed around 1.5% in early 2026. The pattern is clear: more competition means lower prices. The technology isn’t the issue; it’s about how many companies are fighting for customers.

This creates a strange situation. Mobile technologies and services in Africa generated $220 billion in economic value in 2024. But that growth isn’t helping everyone equally. People in certain countries are stuck paying premium prices while their neighbors get better deals.

Researchers created a measurement called the “TradFi Premium” to compare digital currency rates with traditional bank exchange rates. Around the world, the difference between the two is tiny, just 0.05%. In Africa, that gap jumps to 1.2%, or 119 basis points. African users are paying extra just to access the same digital money that costs almost nothing elsewhere.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 24, economist Vera Songwe talked about how digital currencies are cutting costs in a region where traditional money transfer services often charge 6% or more, about $6 for every $100 sent. She’s right about some places. However, the new data shows this only works where companies actually compete.

The findings reveal that in some African countries, using digital currencies actually costs more than the old-fashioned wire transfer services everyone thought they would replace. That is the opposite of what was supposed to happen.

More providers needed to lower costs

More technology is not the answer. The only thing these pricey avenues need is more businesses eager to conduct business there. Customers are forced to pay the established price when a market is controlled by a single provider.

Government rules matter too. Countries without clear regulations for digital currencies end up stuck in place. New companies will not enter markets where the legal situation remains unclear, and without new companies, prices stay high.

The blockchain technology works exactly as promised, it moves money across borders quickly and cheaply. But until more providers enter markets like Botswana and Congo, and until governments create clear rules that encourage competition, many African users will keep paying far more than they should. The revolution in money transfers is here, but it’s not reaching everyone yet.

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