The Ethereum co-founder said many layer‑2s have failed to decentralize and continue to be mediated by multisig bridges instead of inheriting Ethereum’s security advantages.

Crypto traders usually view negative funding rates as a buy signal, but this week’s volatility US earnings outcome may cloud the value of the signal for ETH investors.

Internal discord among Bitcoin developers poses a greater risk than quantum computing, potentially impacting future upgrades and stability.

The post Bitcoin’s biggest risk is governance, not quantum computing, says Galaxy CEO appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Yearn Finance highlights the urgent need for better risk management as DeFi faces growing challenges.

The post Corn: DeFi faces critical customer support challenges, Yearn’s foresight on UST highlights governance risks, and the market is set for recovery in late 2023 | On The Brink with Castle Island appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

A reported $500 million investment by an Abu Dhabi royal into a Trump-linked crypto venture is reverberating well beyond the digital asset space, feeding into a broader debate about political influence, regulatory oversight, and how major financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase navigate crypto-related risk.

The timing of the deal, just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, has sharpened scrutiny at a moment when the bank is already facing a high-profile lawsuit from the US president and renewed tension with crypto firms.

$500M World Liberty Financial Deal Draws Political Scrutiny

According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, entities linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan acquired a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a cryptocurrency platform tied to the Trump family, for $500 million.

The agreement was reportedly signed by Eric Trump four days before Trump returned to office. Trump has denied any knowledge of the transaction, stating that his sons manage the business independently.

The investment was structured in phases, beginning with an initial $250 million payment. Of that amount, about $187 million reportedly went to Trump-family-linked entities, with additional allocations to other WLFI founders. If completed in full, the deal would make the Tahnoon-backed vehicle WLFI’s largest shareholder.

The scale, foreign involvement, and timing of the investment have raised questions among US lawmakers, including calls from Senator Elizabeth Warren to pause regulatory reviews involving WFLI. No investigation has been announced, and WLFI has said the transaction was conducted independently of President Trump.

JPMorgan Lawsuit and Crypto Tensions Collide

The revelation comes as JPMorgan Chase faces a lawsuit from Trump alleging politically motivated account closures. The bank has said its decisions comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

Separately, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has clashed publicly with Coinbase leadership over crypto regulation, highlighting ongoing friction between traditional banks and digital asset firms.

For investors, these overlapping headlines bring renewed attention to how JPMorgan manages reputational and regulatory risk.

The bank’s stock has delivered strong multi-year returns, but analysts note that political controversy, legal costs, and shifting crypto policy could weigh on sentiment, particularly as regulators focus more closely on “debanking” practices and banks’ exposure to digital assets.

The Abu Dhabi stake has drawn added attention because Sheikh Tahnoon also chairs G42, an AI firm that recently received US approval to purchase advanced chips from American suppliers.

While no wrongdoing has been alleged, the overlap between foreign capital, sensitive technology approvals, and a Trump-linked crypto venture has amplified concerns about transparency and influence.

Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart on Tradingview

Tether, the company behind the dominant stablecoin USDT, has put a full Bitcoin mining operating system out in the open. The software, called MiningOS or MOS, is available under an open-source license and aims to let miners run, monitor, and scale rigs without paying for closed vendor platforms.

MiningOS Brings A Modest, Practical Toolkit For Miners

Reports note MiningOS is designed as a modular, self-hosted stack that works from single-rig setups to large sites. It bundles device management, telemetry, energy controls, and developer hooks so operators can mix and match the pieces they need.

The code is open under the Apache 2.0 license and the project publishes docs and a GitHub-style workflow for community fixes and feature requests.

Tether Bitcoin

Tether Mining OS is now fully opensource.

A complete operational platform that can scale from a home setup to industrial grade site, even across multiple geographies.

Super modular, P2P encrypted networking layer. It supports a long list of miners,… https://t.co/VzXywA6IZc

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) February 2, 2026

A Peer-To-Peer Backbone, Not Another Cloud Service

Tether says MOS uses Holepunch peer-to-peer networking so devices can talk directly to one another. That means fewer central servers and no forced dependence on a single provider.

The design is meant to avoid vendor lock-in and to give miners full control over their data and operations. Independent outlets covering the launch highlighted those points when describing how MOS differs from many commercial mining platforms.

Bitcoin Mining is complex. Mining OS by Tether (MOS) makes it simple.

Introducing MOS — the open-source operating system for real mining infrastructure.

Modular. Scalable. Built for energy + hardware + data.

Explore the Documentation: https://t.co/3zcBHFFzRp Join our… pic.twitter.com/G0GwbtfLKT

— Tether (@tether) February 2, 2026

Many small operators struggle with the cost of managed platforms and the extra complexity when hardware, power systems, and telemetry come from several vendors.

Reports say MiningOS aims to lower that barrier by offering a free, extendable base that communities and integrators can adapt. That could make it easier for hobbyists and emerging miners to run efficient setups without buying expensive licenses.

According to Tether’s announcement, the project is led internally and presented by company leaders at recent Bitcoin gatherings where miners and builders meet.

Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, has been named among the public faces explaining the initiative, and the firm has tied the launch to broader efforts to support open infrastructure around Bitcoin.

Featured image from Verdict, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin is a $1.5 trillion prize pool secured by nothing more than numbers, private keys, generated by math, that unlock wallets holding real money.

That’s the seductive idea behind Keys.lol: a site that spits out batches of Bitcoin private keys and their corresponding addresses, like an infinite roll of digital lottery tickets.

Refresh the page, and you get another set. Refresh again, and you get another.

Somewhere in that endless stream is a key that matches a wallet with a balance, maybe even one holding a life-changing amount.

This is the only lottery where the game is real, and the jackpot exists, yet the odds are so extreme that “never” is the practical outcome.

The keyspace is so vast that even checking billions of addresses at a time doesn’t meaningfully move the needle; the chance of landing on a funded wallet is so close to zero that it effectively disappears.

Keys.lol feels like a shortcut to fortune, but what it actually demonstrates is the opposite: why Bitcoin wallets are secure, and why brute-force “guessing” isn’t a threat model so much as a lesson in how big numbers can get.

How to play the free Bitcoin lottery

Open the website. Hit refresh. Watch it spit out a new batch of 90 Bitcoin private keys and addresses, like scratchcards scrolling past at high speed.

It feels like a loophole in reality: if you can generate enough keys, fast enough, surely you’ll eventually land on one that already controls real BTC.

That temptation is exactly what Keys.lol is built to dramatize. The homepage claims “every Bitcoin private key” is on the site and encourages you to “try your luck.”

But the punchline is mathematical: yes, you can play, and no, you can’t win, at least not in any practical sense.

I'm not trying to advertise how to “hack Bitcoin.” It’s the opposite: a fun, slightly mind-melting way to understand why Bitcoin wallets are secure.

The space of possible keys and addresses is so large that “randomly guessing” is effectively impossible.

An unintended side effect is that refreshing for long enough may well cure your gambling addiction, too. The fun goes from “but what if I hit one?” to “yeah, this is impossible” pretty quickly.

Keys.lol turns keyspace into a game

Keys.lol doesn’t store a literal database of keys (that would be physically impossible). It generates keys procedurally on the fly based on a page number.

That means it can display deterministic slices of the keyspace without ever saving them.

In other words: it’s not a vault of stolen secrets. It’s a number generator with a balance checker and a casino vibe.

And if you’re refreshing random batches, say 90 addresses at a time, you’re essentially buying free lottery tickets against the entire Bitcoin address universe.

The math behind the impossible odds

A Bitcoin private key is basically a number in an astronomically large range. Keys.lol itself describes it as between 1 and (2^256).

But for this “lottery,” the practical target is addresses with a non-zero balance.

As of February 2026, there are 58 million BTC addresses with a non-zero balance. Let’s use that as the “number of winning tickets.”

Now compare it to the size of the space you’re sampling from.

A standard way to think about Bitcoin addresses is that they’re derived via hashing to a 160-bit value.

• (2^160) possible address-hash outcomes
• That’s about 1.46 × 10^48 possible destinations for “where BTC could be,” in address-space terms

Even if tens of millions are funded, that’s still a rounding error against 10^48.

So what are the odds per refresh?

If you sample addresses uniformly at random from the full space, the probability a single random address is one of the 58,000,000 non-zero ones is:

• p = 58,000,000 / 2^160 ≈ 3.97 × 10^-41

If you check 90 addresses in one go, your chance of finding at least one non-zero balance becomes:

• P(≥ 1) ≈ 90p ≈ 3.57 × 10^-39

That’s roughly:

• 1 in (2.8 × 10^38)

Written out, that’s:

1 in 280,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (“280 undecillion.”)

A human way to feel “1 in 2.8×10^38”

Try this mental model:

Imagine you could do one billion refreshes per second (and each refresh checks 90 addresses).

The expected time to hit just one non-zero address would still be on the order of 10^12 years.

The age of the universe is ~10^10 years.

That’s about 10^12 times the age of the universe, or a trillion universe-lifetimes just to find a single funded address.

So you’re not “unlikely” to win. You’re functionally guaranteed not to on any timescale that matters.

How much harder than winning the lottery?

The EuroMillions jackpot odds are about 1 in 139,838,160; the US Powerball odds are 1 in 292,201,338.

Keys.lol's “90-address refresh finds a funded wallet” odds are about 1 in (2.8 × 10^38).

So EuroMillions is roughly:

• (2.8 × 10^38) / (1.398 × 10^8) ≈ 2 × 10^30

That’s about two nonillion times more likely than your refresh ever finding a non-zero address.

Put differently: you’d have a better chance of winning EuroMillions again and again and again than hitting a funded BTC address by random key generation.

This is why Bitcoin wallets are secure

The entire security model of Bitcoin ownership is built on one simple idea:

Even if everyone on Earth used every computer they could possibly build, guessing someone else’s private key is still computationally and probabilistically out of reach.

Keys.lol is compelling because it makes the impossible feel tangible. You’re looking at real-looking keys and real-looking addresses and hoping for a miracle.

But Bitcoin doesn’t rely on secrecy through obscurity. It relies on the sheer scale of the keyspace.

The “attack” you’re simulating, random guessing, isn’t a threat model. It’s a lesson in large numbers.

If you ever “hit” a funded key, it’s theft, not a free jackpot

There’s a reason this “free Bitcoin lottery” is such a useful teaching tool: it exposes the difference between possible in theory and permissible in real life.

If you were to generate a private key that corresponds to a wallet with funds, and then try to “sweep” those coins, you wouldn’t be claiming abandoned treasure.

You’d be taking assets you don’t own, without consent. In plain terms: it’s theft.

Even framing it as “luck” doesn’t change what’s happening. The private key is simply the credential that proves control.

Discovering someone else’s credentials doesn’t grant you ownership any more than finding a stranger’s bank card PIN would.

And there’s a second, subtler risk: trying to turn this into a get-rich scheme can expose you to legal consequences.

Whether it’s prosecuted as theft, fraud, unauthorized access, or another offense depends on the jurisdiction. But the core point is the same: “I guessed it” is not a defense, and “finders keepers” doesn’t apply to digital property.

So yes, Keys.lol is a fascinating window into Bitcoin’s security model. But the only “win condition” here is understanding the math, not trying to cash out someone else’s balance.

“Mathematically never” is still annoying for bots, so Keys.lol adds friction anyway

Even though the odds of finding a funded wallet are so tiny they round to zero for any practical human timeline, Keys.lol still throws up bot protection.

Click “Random page” too aggressively, and you can be redirected to an “Are you human?” captcha.

In other words: even the site itself assumes someone, somewhere, will try to automate refreshes at scale, and it actively tries to slow that down.

That doesn’t make Bitcoin “more secure” (the security comes from the size of the keyspace). But it does make this particular game harder to industrialize.

It’s a reminder that brute-force behavior is expected, and throttled, even when the underlying math already makes success effectively impossible.

The “expected reward” of a refresh (and why the fun math is misleading)

Let’s do some back-of-the-napkin maths anyway.

The average non-zero wallet holds about 0.126 BTC, and we can value that at roughly $9,852 today, then the arithmetic is:

• $9,852 ÷ 58,000,000 ≈ $0.0001362069
• That’s about $1 per 9,852 in this simplified framing.

But here’s the catch: that calculation quietly assumes each refresh is picking from the set of funded wallets.

In reality, you’re sampling from the full address universe. The microscopic part is the chance of landing on any of those 58 million non-zero addresses at all.

Once you include that probability, the true expected value collapses to essentially zero.

Using today’s BTC price (~$78,195), 0.126 BTC is about $9,852.

But the expected value per 90-address refresh is still only about:

• $3.5 × 10^-35 per refresh

That’s the kind of number where “expected $1” would require roughly 2.8 × 10^34 refreshes on average.

Bitcoin’s market cap is currently around $1.5T on major trackers (it fluctuates daily).

That headline number is what makes the “free lottery” feel so seductive: a giant pool of value, sitting behind “just a number.”

But the lock is better than anything physical, it is built on cold, hard math.

Play the lottery on the first page of Bitcoin private and public keys.

The post The trillion dollar Bitcoin lottery you can play now for free – but will never win appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin fell around 8% on Feb. 3, briefly losing the $73,000 level.

A quick rebound took prices to $74,500 as of press time, dampening the intraday correction to 5.8%. The decline marks the lowest price point in the President Donald Trump administration and the weakest level since the November 2024 Presidential Election.

The selloff pushed Bitcoin as low as its March 2024 all-time high of $73,500, a level that held through the early stages of the decline but ultimately gave way under sustained selling pressure.

The move revived a cluster of support zones that traders have monitored as critical technical thresholds for nearly a year.

Macro risk-off drives crypto lower

The crypto weakness is linked to broad risk-off sentiment across markets, sparked by Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair.

Warsh's selection stoked concerns about a more hawkish policy mix and tighter financial conditions, pressures that historically weigh on high-beta assets, including cryptocurrencies. A stronger dollar, which typically accompanies such expectations, compounds the headwind for digital assets. The current dollar weakness, however, makes this decline even more painful.

Microsoft's Azure growth disappointment added to the selling pressure, souring broader risk sentiment and triggering cross-asset contagion.

The AI trade wobble demonstrated how crypto remains vulnerable to spillover effects from growth-sensitive technology sectors, particularly when positioning is stretched and liquidity is thin.

Leverage unwind amplifies decline

CoinGlass data shows over $2.5 billion in Bitcoin liquidations in recent days, turning what began as a macro-driven selloff into a cascade of forced selling.

Thin weekend liquidity exacerbated the selloff that began at $84,000 on Saturday, according to a Bitfinex note.

The combination of macro triggers and leverage unwinding created conditions in which relatively modest initial selling pressure could force far larger moves, as stop-losses and margin calls compounded the decline.

Additionally, institutional flows in 2026 have been uneven.

Exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, often followed by outflows during volatility episodes, suggest tactical rebalancing rather than aggressive dip-buying, leaving prices exposed as liquidation pressure accelerates.

The absence of consistent institutional demand meant there was no meaningful buffer when forced selling began.

Galaxy Digital research also noted that near-term catalysts appear scarce, with diminished odds of legislative progress on market structure acting as a narrative headwind.

Without clear positive drivers on the horizon, traders lack the conviction to step in aggressively during drawdowns.

Critical support and resistance levels

Bitcoin now trades within a tightly watched technical range.

The $73,500 level from 2024 and the Feb. 3 intraday low of $72,945 form the immediate support zone.

IG Markets identifies a broader support band between $73,581 and $76,703, an area associated with prior cycle highs and 2025 lows that has been tested multiple times over the past year.

CryptoSlate also identified several support and resistance levels for 2026 in Akiba's bear market analysis.

A daily close below this band would increase the probability of follow-through selling toward the next support cluster between $72,757 and $71,725. If that zone fails to hold, the July 2024 peak of around $70,041 becomes the next major downside waypoint.

On the resistance side, Bitcoin's reclamation of the 2024 all-time high of $73,500 indicates that buyers are willing to defend the recent breakdown level. The April 2025 trough zone around $74,508 now acts as resistance after previously serving as support.

Above that, minor resistance sits at $78,300, with the November 2025 low of $80,620 and the psychological $80,000 level forming the next meaningful barrier.

Distinguishing bounce from recovery

A single-day rebound does not constitute a durable bottom.

Historical patterns suggest that sustainable recoveries typically require at least two conditions: repeated daily closes above the $74,500 level, converting the April 2025 reference zone from resistance to support, and evidence that liquidation pressure has faded following the $2.56 billion forced-selling wave.

Without these confirmations, rallies risk becoming dead-cat bounces into overhead resistance as sellers use strength to exit positions.

ETF flows must stabilize beyond isolated green days, consistent with the tactical rather than aggressive institutional behavior.

Two near-term scenarios

If Bitcoin holds the $73,000 to $73,445 support zone and reclaims $74,500, the path of least resistance becomes a grind toward $78,300, then the $80,000 to $80,620 range.

This scenario requires both technical follow-through and the absence of new macroeconomic headwinds.

Alternatively, a daily close below the $73,581 lower band increases the odds of continuation selling into the $72,757 to $71,725 zone, with the $70,000 level as the next major psychological and technical waypoint.

This scenario becomes more likely if liquidation pressure remains elevated or if macro conditions deteriorate further.

Bitcoin's decline below its 2024 all-time high after nearly a year of holding that level as support constitutes a technical breakdown, shifting the burden of proof to buyers.

The combination of macro risk-off sentiment, leverage unwinding, and tactical institutional flows created conditions in which support levels that had held for months gave way within hours.

The post Bitcoin in freefall hitting lowest price since Trump took office as leverage turns a macro wobble into a brutal cascade appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Ondo Finance announced a major integration with MetaMask to bring tokenized US stocks and ETFs directly into the popular self-custodial wallet.

Yet the ONDO token barely moved on the news, continuing a month-long decline that has seen it lose over a third of its value.

MetaMask Opens Door to Tokenized Securities

MetaMask and Ondo Finance unveiled their integration at the Ondo Global Summit on February 3. The partnership brings more than 200 tokenized US securities to the MetaMask mobile wallet through Ondo Global Markets.

Users in supported jurisdictions can now buy, hold, and trade tokenized versions of major stocks, including Tesla, NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. The offering also includes ETFs such as SLV for silver exposure, IAU for gold, and QQQ for tech stocks.

The integration works through MetaMask Swaps on the Ethereum mainnet. Users acquire Ondo Global Markets tokens using USDC, with trading available 24 hours a day, five days a week. Token transfers remain possible around the clock.

“Access to US markets still runs through legacy rails. Brokerage accounts, fragmented apps, and rigid trading windows haven’t meaningfully evolved,” said Joe Lubin, Founder and CEO of Consensys and Co-Founder of Ethereum. “Bringing Ondo’s tokenized US stocks and ETFs directly into MetaMask shows what a better model looks like.”

Ian De Bode, President at Ondo Finance, emphasized the strategic value of reaching MetaMask’s user base. He noted that the integration brings pricing comparable to traditional brokerages like Robinhood into a self-custodial, on-chain environment.

Geographic Restrictions Limit Impact

Despite the headline-grabbing announcement, a closer look reveals significant limitations. The list of excluded jurisdictions reads like a directory of the world’s major financial markets.

Users in the United States, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, China (including Hong Kong), Singapore, Japan, Korea, and Brazil cannot access the service. The exclusions effectively limit availability to less-regulated emerging markets.

This geographic constraint likely explains the muted market reaction. The integration represents a technical milestone, but the addressable market remains small.

ONDO Token Shrugs Off the News

The ONDO token traded at $0.2811 at the time of publication, down 37.3% over the past month. The 24-hour price change showed a modest 0.2% decline, suggesting the market viewed the integration as a non-event for token value.

Looking at the monthly chart, ONDO has been in a steady decline from around $0.45 in early January to its current level near $0.28. The MetaMask news failed to reverse or even pause this downtrend.

Market data shows ONDO with a market cap of $1.37 billion and total value locked exceeding $2 billion. The disconnect between protocol metrics and token performance reflects a broader pattern in the real-world asset sector.

RWA Tokens Struggle Despite Sector Growth

Ondo’s price action fits a well-documented trend across RWA governance tokens. According to CoinGecko’s 2025 RWA Report, most tokens in the sector posted negative returns between January 2024 and April 2025, ranging from -26% to -79%.

The report attributes this disconnect to structural factors. During bull markets, DeFi lending protocols offer alternative yield opportunities without requiring RWA exposure. Meanwhile, capital flows primarily into institutional products like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and stablecoin infrastructure rather than governance tokens.

Tokenized treasuries grew 544% to $5.6 billion in market cap, with BlackRock’s BUIDL capturing 44% market share. Private credit protocols like Maple Finance dominate, accounting for 67% of active loans. Yet these successes rarely translate into token-holder returns.

The pattern suggests RWA governance tokens function more as speculative instruments than as direct claims on protocol growth.

What Comes Next

The MetaMask integration positions Ondo for growth if regulatory environments evolve. The infrastructure now exists for seamless trading of tokenized securities within a major self-custodial wallet.

Until key markets open up, the practical impact remains constrained. For ONDO holders, the announcement serves as another reminder that protocol milestones and token performance often diverge in the RWA sector.

The post ONDO Flat on MetaMask Tokenized Securities Integration Following 37% Monthly Drop appeared first on BeInCrypto.

French prosecutors raided X’s Paris headquarters on Tuesday as part of a widening investigation into alleged child sexual abuse imagery, AI-generated deepfakes, and Holocaust denial on the platform.

The raid, supported by Europol, marks a significant escalation in European regulators’ crackdown on Elon Musk’s social media empire. Prosecutors have summoned Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for “voluntary interviews” scheduled for April 20.

Investigation Scope

The Paris prosecutors’ cybercrime unit opened a preliminary investigation in January 2025, initially focusing on allegations that biased algorithms on X distorted automated data-processing systems. The probe expanded significantly after Musk’s AI chatbot Grok generated content that allegedly denied the Holocaust and produced sexually explicit deepfakes.

Charges under investigation include complicity in possessing and spreading child sexual abuse imagery and sexually explicit deepfakes. Prosecutors are also probing denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of automated data processing systems as part of an organized group.

The prosecutors’ office announced the ongoing searches on X itself. It then declared it was leaving the platform, calling on followers to join it on other social media services.

Grok at the Center of Controversy

The xAI-developed chatbot Grok sparked global outrage last month. Its “spicy mode” generated tens of thousands of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to user requests.

The chatbot also posted Holocaust denial content in French. It claimed gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than mass murder—language long associated with Holocaust deniers.

While Grok later reversed itself and acknowledged the error, the damage was done. Malaysia and Indonesia became the first countries to block Grok entirely, with Malaysia announcing legal action against X and xAI.

X Fires Back

In a statement posted on its own platform, X condemned the raid as “an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice.”

The company denied all allegations, characterizing the French action as politically motivated censorship.

Durov Weighs In

Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who himself faces similar charges in France after his August 2024 arrest, defended X and attacked French authorities.

“French police is currently raiding X’s office in Paris. France is the only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom (Telegram, X, TikTok…). Don’t be mistaken: this is not a free country,” Durov wrote on X.

In a follow-up comment, he added: “Weaponising child protection to legitimise censorship and mass surveillance is disgusting. These people will stop at nothing.”

Mixed Reactions

Durov’s characterization drew both support and pushback online. Some users echoed his framing, with one calling France’s approach a “Digital Autocracy starter pack” and describing Durov’s arrest as “the warning” of things to come.

Others urged nuance. “Platforms like Telegram and X aren’t just ‘freedom tools’. They can be used to spread hate, coordinate violence, and destabilise societies,” one user wrote. “Reducing it to ‘free country vs not free’ misses a lot of the reality on both sides.”

Regulatory Pressure Mounts

France is not alone in scrutinizing Musk’s platforms. Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office opened formal investigations into how X and xAI handled personal data when developing Grok, while UK media regulator Ofcom continues a separate probe that could take months.

The European Union launched its own investigation last month following the deepfake incident and has already fined X €120 million for violations of digital regulations, including deceptive blue-checkmark practices.

The legal pressure comes as Musk consolidates his tech holdings. SpaceX announced Monday that it acquired xAI in a deal that would combine Grok, X, and the satellite communications company Starlink under one corporate umbrella—a move that could complicate regulatory oversight across multiple jurisdictions.

The post Durov Slams France as “Not Free” After Police Raid X’s Paris Office appeared first on BeInCrypto.

XRP’s recent price rebound has come at an unusual moment. The token is slowly recovering from levels last seen nearly two years ago, even as fresh controversy arises around resurfaced Jeffrey Epstein emails and renewed scrutiny of early XRP-related experiments such as Mojaloop.

Related Reading: Bitcoin’s Crash Spells Trouble For Strategy: 10-Month Low Stings Below Average Purchase Price

For many traders, the timing raises a simple question, Why is XRP finding buyers now, despite headlines that could have weighed on sentiment?

The answer appears to lie less in historical debates and more in present-day market structure, regulation, and real-world use cases that are beginning to show measurable traction.

Epstein Emails and Mojaloop Reignite Old Debates

Recently released emails linked to Jeffrey Epstein have drawn attention to how early crypto insiders viewed XRP and similar payment networks. Parity involving figures from Bitcoin-centric firms suggested that supporting projects like XRP or Stellar was seen as politically and strategically risky within early crypto circles.

Separate leaked discussions from the Mojaloop Foundation compared XRP-based models with Stellar, highlighting push payments and real-time settlement, while also pointing to integration and adoption challenges.

Industry figures, including Ripple’s chief technology officer David Schwartz, have stressed that these documents show opinion and proximity, not involvement or control.

The emails largely reinforce what was already known, XRP’s design and goals put it at odds with Bitcoin-aligned investors in its early years, slowing adoption despite technical promise. While the renewed attention has stirred online speculation, it has not introduced evidence of misconduct or direct operational ties.

XRP Price Rebound Driven by Market and Regulatory Signals

Despite the chatters, XRP recently bounced from around $1.50, its lowest level in almost two years, as the broader crypto market staged a modest recovery. Bitcoin and Ethereum also moved higher, helping lift sentiment across major tokens. XRP has since traded near $1.60, even after falling more than 15% over the past month.

Beyond market beta, regulatory developments have played a role. Ripple’s approval for a full Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg allows it to operate across the European Union and expand its regulated payment services.

In parallel, a partnership with DXC Technology is integrating XRP into banking systems for settlement and payments, reinforcing its utility narrative at a time when investors are looking for assets with tangible use cases.

Another factor supporting sentiment is growing activity on the XRP Ledger beyond payments. In the UAE, more than $280 million worth of polished diamonds have been tokenized using Ripple-backed custody infrastructure and the XRPL.

While the project remains in a controlled phase pending regulatory approvals, it highlights how the network is being used for real-world asset experiments rather than speculation alone.

Related Reading: Bitcoin Net Taker Volume Sees Third-Largest Bearish Spike In 2 Years

Taken together, XRP’s bounce appears to be driven less by the dismissal of historical concerns and more by current fundamentals. Regulatory progress, institutional-facing partnerships, and broader market stabilization have, for now, outweighed renewed debate over old emails and early adoption struggles.

Cover image from ChatGPT, XRPUSD chart on Tradingview

Bitcoin price extended its decline below $75,000. BTC is now attempting to recover from $72,850 but faces many hurdles near $76,500.

• Bitcoin is attempting to recover above $74,000 and $75,000.
• The price is trading below $79,000 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
• There is a bearish trend line forming with resistance at $77,200 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair might dip again if it trades below the $75,000 and $74,000 levels.

Bitcoin Price Faces Hurdles

Bitcoin price failed to remain stable above the $76,000 zone. BTC extended its decline below the $75,000 and $74,000 levels. The bears were able to push the price below $73,500.

A low was formed at $72,865, and the price is now attempting to recover. There was a move above $75,000. The price surpassed the 50% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $79,120 swing high to the $72,865 low.

However, the bears are active near $77,000 and the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the downward move from the $79,120 swing high to the $72,865 low. Bitcoin is now trading below $77,000 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

If the price remains stable above $75,000, it could attempt a fresh increase. Immediate resistance is near the $76,750 level. The first key resistance is near the $77,000 level. There is also a bearish trend line forming with resistance at $77,200 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair.

A close above the $77,200 resistance might send the price further higher. In the stated case, the price could rise and test the $78,500 resistance. Any more gains might send the price toward the $79,000 level. The next barrier for the bulls could be $80,000 and $80,500.

Another Decline In BTC?

If Bitcoin fails to rise above the $77,200 resistance zone, it could start another decline. Immediate support is near the $75,000 level. The first major support is near the $74,000 level.

The next support is now near the $72,850 zone. Any more losses might send the price toward the $71,500 support in the near term. The main support sits at $70,000, below which BTC might struggle to recover in the near term.

Technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD is now gaining pace in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is now below the 50 level.

Major Support Levels – $75,000, followed by $74,000.

Major Resistance Levels – $76,750 and $77,200.