Coindesk

Over the last few months, AI agents running on crypto rails have captivated the crypto community. Natural memeticists, these agents are becoming social media stars calibrated to thrill, and sometimes enrich, an “audience” of speculators betting on their meme tokens.The original and most famous of them, Truth Terminal, was created by putting instances of the large foundation model, Claude Opus, in conversation with itself and prioritizing content drawn from the back alleys of the internet including Reddit and 4Chan. What emerged was a bawdy prophet with a magnetic personality and a fanatical bent for spreading the Gospel of Goetse, a neo-religion inspired by a grotesque 90s internet meme.The rest, as they say, is crypto lore. Shortly after it debuted on...

Crypto asset prices slid on Thursday, building on Wednesday's market-wide selloff spurred by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell disappointing investors with his comments on U.S. interest rate cut expectations for next year.Bitcoin's (BTC) attempt to bounce back above $100,000 quickly faded earlier during the day and slid to the low-$97,000s during the U.S. day. Recently, it modestly recovered to around $98,000, but was still down 4.8% over the past 24 hours.Altcoins fared much worse, with the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index diving more than 10% during the same period. Ethereum's ether (ETH) dipped 10.8% to below $3,500, while Cardano's ADA, Chainlink's LINK, Aptos' APT, Avalanche's AVAX and Dogecoin's DOGE all suffered 15%-20% losses. Notably, SOL sank to its weakest price since...

As nations explore the implications of digital currencies, Bitcoin is becoming part of national strategies. El Salvador made headlines as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, while the United States is considering a national Bitcoin reserve. Even China, despite its cautious stance on cryptocurrency, has embraced blockchain technology to support its digital yuan. Amid these changes, Bhutan stands out — not by following global trends, but by charting its own path.Nestled in the Himalayas between China and India, Bhutan has long defied conventional economic models. Instead of prioritizing Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the country measures success using Gross National Happiness (GNH), focusing on the well-being of its citizens. Under the leadership of King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck,...

El Salvador is in the process of securing a $3.5 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund, but is making some concessions around bitcoin (BTC) to get the funding.Stacey Herbert, director of the Bitcoin Office in El Salvador, posted on Thursday that the government-issued Chivo wallet — launched in 2021 in a bid to spread bitcoin adoption across the country — will be "sold off or wound down" as part of the deal. Other bitcoin wallets operated by private companies will "continue serving El Salvador," Herbert said.The IMF stated on Wednesday that, under the agreement, El Salvador will also make bitcoin acceptance by the private sector voluntary, and that taxes will only be paid in U.S. dollars (not bitcoin). "For...

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3644.43, down 0.3% (-9.33) since 4 pm ET on Wednesday.Four of 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: HBAR (+3.1%) and APT (+2.9%).Laggards: AVAX (-3.7%) and ICP (-3.7%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.Source link