Crypto

Sanctions evasion networks, guarantee marketplaces, and large-scale money laundering schemes dominated illicit stablecoin use, says TRM Labs. Illicit entities received around $141 billion via stablecoins in 2025, the highest level observed in the last five years, says blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs. TRM said in a report released on Tuesday that the increase doesn’t reflect a broader growth in crypto-enabled crime, but does show a “deeper reliance on stablecoins within specific activity types where they offer clear operational advantages.” Stablecoins have been particularly used in sanctions-linked networks and large-scale money movement services, it said.  Read more

Bitcoin developer Matt Carallo says Bitcoiners are looking to “blame something” for the asset’s sluggish price, dismissing quantum fears as the culprit. Bitcoin’s recent sell-off isn’t due to quantum computing fears, because if that were the case, Ether would be soaring, says Bitcoin developer Matt Carallo. “I strongly disagree with the characterization that Bitcoin's current price is materially, because of some kind of quantum risk,” Carallo told journalist Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast on Thursday. “If that were true, then Ethereum would be up substantially on Bitcoin,” he added. Ether (ETH) is down 58% since a major crypto market crash in early October, trading at $1,957 at the time of publication. Read more

U.S. prosecutors say the former defense contractor executive took about $1.26 million in crypto to transfer sensitive exploit tools tied to Five Eyes intelligence work.

Making Bitcoin quantum secure is the biggest challenge the protocol has ever faced. Here are the six biggest obstacles to be overcome.

Tech investor Jason Calacanis says he’s paying around $110,000 annualized to run an AI agent, more than most US salaries, and it’s not running at full capacity. The high costs of deploying and running artificial intelligence agents in the workforce may prevent them from replacing humans who can do the same work at lower cost, say two multimillionaire tech investors. Tech investor Jason Calacanis said on the All-In podcast on Saturday that he has been paying $300 per day for an Anthropic Claude AI agent to help run his businesses, despite the bot only operating at 10% to 20% of full capacity. “When do tokens outpace the salary of the employee?” Calacanis questioned, referring to the usage allowance, called tokens, that users must purchase to use most AI models. Read more

Stablecoin incentives remain a key unresolved issue as lawmakers seek to advance digital-asset market-structure legislation.

Sources familiar with the talks on stablecoin yields say the White House urged bankers to get on board with a deal that lets the market structure bill advance.

A mix of fresh industry catalysts and improving technical signals suggests XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin could be lining up for new all-time highs (ATHs) sooner than many expect.Here’s a closer examination of the narratives emerging in the news and on the charts that could significantly lift prices by the end of Q2.Discover: The best meme […] The post Crypto Price Prediction Today 19 February – XRP, Solana, Dogecoin appeared first on Cryptonews.

Running a well-crafted prompt through Alibaba AI model KIMI can surface some eye-opening 2026 price scenarios for XRP, Shiba Inu, and Pepe.According to Alibaba’s outlook, all three digital assets could generate substantial returns by New Year, perhaps much sooner than investors expect.Below is a closer look at the projections and the logic behind them.XRP ($XRP): […] The post China’s Alibaba AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Shiba Inu and PEPE By the End of 2026 appeared first on Cryptonews.

Bitcoin may stay capped under $70,000 as traders deploy bearish options strategies, and spot BTC ETF outflows point to a retest of the yearly low. Key takeaways: Professional traders are paying a 13% premium for downside protection as Bitcoin struggles to maintain support above $66,000. While stocks and gold remain strong, $910 million in Bitcoin ETF outflows suggest that institutional investor caution is rising. Read more

Ripple just made a move most traders missed.The XRP Ledger rolled out XLS 81. It adds a permissioned DEX directly on chain. Think members-only trading venues. Only approved players can trade and match orders.This is not for retail degens. It is built for banks and regulated firms. Full compliance. KYC. AML. Controlled access. The kind […] The post XRP Price Prediction: Ripple Just Built a “Fast Lane” for Banks – Why Big Money Is Choosing XRP Over Every Other Coin appeared first on Cryptonews.

The longtime Warhammer designer backed Games Workshop’s generative AI ban, arguing the technology undermines creative work.

A fresh $1M Bitcoin target just got repeated on live television by Trump insiders.In a recent CNBC interview during the World Liberty Forum, Eric Trump doubled down on the long-running seven-figure BTC forecast. He framed the move as inevitable, pointing to institutional adoption, regulatory clarity, and Bitcoin fixed 21 million supply as core drivers.This is […] The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Trump Insider Confirms $1 Million BTC Target – Are Whales Preparing for a Massive Rally? appeared first on Cryptonews.

Blockchain-based versions of US stocks are drawing growing investor activity, with onchain wallets and cross-venue trading expanding rapidly. Kraken’s tokenized equities platform, xStocks, has surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume less than eight months after launch, underscoring accelerating adoption as tokenization gains traction among mainstream investors. Kraken disclosed Thursday that the $25 billion figure includes trading across centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges, as well as minting and redemption activity. The milestone represents a 150% increase since November, when xStocks first crossed $10 billion in cumulative transaction volume. The xStocks tokens are issued by Backed Finance, a regulated asset provider that creates 1:1 backed tokenized representations of publicly traded equities and exchange-traded funds. Kraken serves as a primary distribution and trading venue, while Backed is responsible for structuring and issuing the tokenized instruments. Read more

Rather than reacting to market drops, Paul Atkins signaled regulators are prioritizing crypto frameworks over price stabilization efforts.

“Silicon Valley” actor T.J. Miller joked that an AI bot “replaced” him as this week’s ETH Denver host, amid actual growing job fears.

Analysis by Bitcoin services company River forecasts a transaction surge as individuals and businesses experiment with AI agentic payments. Monthly transaction volume on the Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network, a secondary layer for BTC that enables payment use cases, surpassed the $1 billion milestone in November 2025, according to a report from Bitcoin financial services company River. Transaction volume on the Lightning Network hit an estimated $1.1 billion in November, across 5.2 million transactions, according to a report shared by Sam Wouters, River’s director of marketing. The report said: However, the total transaction count in 2025 is lower compared with 2023, when monthly Lightning transactions peaked at 6.6 million in August of that year, which River attributed to experiments with micropayments in gaming and messaging apps. Read more

Bitcoin is on course to lock in another negative month, but one analyst says major differences in the current market structure could be a sign of a pending trend reversal. Bitcoin (BTC) is forming what may prove to be a fifth consecutive red monthly candle, which would be the longest losing streak since 2018. The silver lining is that data suggests that March may prove to be a profitable month for BTC. Historical price data from CoinGlass confirms Bitcoin is now facing its fifth consecutive red month, down 15% this month after closing the previous four months in the red. The last time this happened was in 2018, when it entered a bear market after reaching record highs in 2017.  Read more

The average bitcoin ETF investor now sits on a 20% paper loss, leaving the market vulnerable to capitulation selling if prices slide further, a Wintermute trader said.

Google AI music generator Lyria 3 is now available on the Gemini app. It works—mostly—but the competition has a big head start.