Bitcoin has become an “element of resistance" in Iran, providing liquidity in an increasingly restricted economic environment, says Chainalysis. Crypto usage in Iran has spiked amid the country’s mass protests, with a surge of Iranians withdrawing Bitcoin to preserve value amid instability, according to Chainalysis. Protests in Iran began around Dec. 28 over worsening economic conditions, after the Iranian rial hit record lows against the US dollar. Demonstrations escalated nationwide, with Iran’s regime responding by cutting internet access, carrying out mass arrests, and reportedly killing thousands. Chainalysis said in a report on Thursday that Iran’s crypto ecosystem hit $7.78 billion in 2025, which accelerated amid the ongoing unrest with a substantial increase in the number of daily crypto transfers and the amounts transacted. Read more
The Kaito.ai and Cookie DAO tokens fell over 15% after X’s ban, a move X’s head of product Nikita Bier said should improve user experience on the social media platform. Artificial intelligence-powered crypto platforms such as Kaito.ai and Cookie DAO have been banned from paying users to post content on X to curb the amount of so-called “AI slop” on the social media site. “We will no longer allow apps that reward users for posting on X (aka ‘infofi’),” X head of product Nikita Bier said on Thursday. “This has led to a tremendous amount of AI slop [and] reply spam on the platform.” “We have revoked API access from these apps, so your X experience should start improving soon (once the bots realize they’re not getting paid anymore),” he added. Read more
The integration marks a key step in the crypto exchange's second-phase rollout, bringing Uniswap’s markets directly to its layer-2 network. Uniswap has launched on X Layer, a layer-2 blockchain built by crypto exchange OKX, becoming the chain’s preferred decentralized exchange as OKX expands its decentralized finance footprint. The integration gives X Layer users access to Uniswap’s markets, including crypto token pairs and liquidity pools, with swaps executed at layer-2 costs and no fees charged by Uniswap Labs, the protocol told Cointelegraph. Launched in 2024, X Layer is OKX's Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible network, serving as core infrastructure for its DeFi applications. The network is integrated with OKX’s wallet and exchange, allowing users to move assets into the layer-2 network. Read more