Coindesk

Cryptocurrencies in the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) agents sector soared on Tuesday while bitcoin (BTC) stalled below its Monday record highs as traders await for the first crypto-specific actions from the Donald Trump administration.AI16Z and AI Rig Complex's ARC rallied over 30% through the day, while GRIFFAIN, ZEREBRO also booked double-digit advances. Part of the rally might have to do with Tuesday afternoon news about President Trump preparing to announce up to $500 billion in private sector AI infrastructure investment with firms such as OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank involved. Trump also rescinded on Monday Joe Biden's 2023 executive order on AI risks on consumers, rolling back efforts to regulate the fast-growing sector.The crypto AI agent sector garnered significant mindshare among...

Wingbits, a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) startup focused on the aviation industry, has raised $5.6 million in funding.DePIN, the model of using hardware secured by a decentralized network, could be seen as a blockchain equivalent of the cloud computing services offered by Big Tech giants like Amazon and Google. The investment round, which takes Wingbits' total backing to $9.2 million, was led by Borderless Capital and Bullish Capital. The latter's parent company, Bullish Group, is also the owner of CoinDesk.Wingbits' aim is to offer rewards-based flight tracking using cryptographically-secured Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers."Flight tracking has long relied on a global network of volunteers who install home antennas to collect flight data," Wingbits said in an emailed announcement on Tuesday....

It's been a rough year for the Ethereum Foundation, the grant-giving nonprofit that helps support Ethereum, the best-known blockchain behind Bitcoin. As Ethereum loses market cap and mindshare to competitors, the foundation has been beset by scandal. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's co-founder and chief figurehead, has laid out a new plan to right the ship."We are indeed currently in the process of large changes to EF leadership structure, which has been ongoing for close to a year," Buterin said in an X post. "Some of this has already been executed on and made public, and some is still in progress."In his X post outlining the changes, Buterin listed a series of goals, including improving the "technical expertise within EF leadership" and...

Crypto issuers surely seem to think anything is possible now that Donald Trump is in office.Exchange-traded fund issuer Rex Shares and crypto asset manager Osprey Funds on Tuesday filed for numerous crypto-focused exchange-traded funds (ETF), including a Trump ETF, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday.The ETF would track the price of TRUMP, the memecoin launched by the President himself on Friday, a few days before his inauguration. The coin amassed nearly $17 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours while dropping nearly 25% over the same period.First Lady Melania Trump also launched her own token called MELANIA, which currently trades at roughly $4. Both tokens are memecoins and therefore have no...

Smart Valor, a crypto exchange and AI-led investment company, is exploring a possible sale of all or part of its business.The Zug, Switzerland-based company is conducting a strategic review after receiving a number of inquiries from large global exchanges, crypto platforms and traditional finance (TradFi) institutions including banks and trading platforms, CEO and co-founder Olga Feldmeier told CoinDesk in an interview.The European Union's Markets in Crypto Asset (MiCA) rules came into force on Dec. 30, and Smart Valor could be a target for companies that don't have regulatory approval in Europe. While neither Switzerland nor Lichtenstein, where Smart Valor's retail crypto exchange is regulated, are members of the bloc, they belong to the European Economic Area (EEA) and can adopt...