Home Blog Page 1097

Ethereum Falls Below $2,000 as Crypto Sell-Off Deepens

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Ethereum Falls Below $2,000 as Crypto Sell-Off Deepens

Bitcoin plunged under $66,000 while most altcoins cratered.

Ethereum (ETH) traded under $2,000 on Thursday, Feb. 5, for the first time since May 2025, amid a broader sell-off across crypto markets.

ETH fell about 10% over the past 24 hours to trade near $1,925, extending its weekly losses to 30%. Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, said Ethereum’s move lower was driven by a broader shift away from risk in global markets, rather than a crypto-specific event.

ETH Chart

“The defining characteristic of the sell-off was a synchronised de-risking across asset classes, marked by forced unwinds and elevated volatility even in assets typically viewed as hedges, including precious metals,” he said.

Howard also explained that the shift’s catalyst was the markets “rapidly repricing the outlook for monetary policy” following the nomination of Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair.

Meanwhile, data from Lookonchain showed that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sold 2,961.5 ETH (around $6.6 million) at an average price of $2,228 over the past three days.

Bitcoin and Altcoins

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped roughly 10% on the day to around $65,700, extending its seven-day losses to nearly 21%. Among other major tokens, BNB slid 9% to $646, while XRP plunged nearly 20% to about $1.24. Solana (SOL) fell 12% on the day to trade near $82.

“Bitcoin is now testing key technical support between $60,000 and $70,000, the base of the pre-election rally. A sustained break below this range would increase the risk of a more protracted move lower, while stabilization here would point to a corrective reset rather than a structural shift,” Diana Pires, VP at sFOX, told The Defiant.

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization declined to approximately $2.33 trillion, down about 10% over the past 24 hours. Trading activity during the same period totaled roughly $259.5 billion.

A small number of tokens traded higher despite the broader downturn. Rain (RAIN) rose about 7% over the past 24 hours, while MYX Finance (MYX) gained 5.4%. MemeCore (M) added 1.6%.

On the downside, XRP fell more than 16%, while Zcash (ZEC) dropped 15.4%. Monero (XMR) slid nearly 14%.

Liquidations and ETF flows

More than $1.44 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass, with long positions accounting for roughly $1.23 billion of that total.

Bitcoin recorded the largest liquidations at about $738 million, followed by Ethereum at $338 million. Solana posted liquidations of around $77 million. In total, more than 304,000 traders were liquidated on the day.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $544.9 million in net outflows on Feb. 4, while Ethereum ETFs saw $79.5 million in net outflows. Spot Solana ETFs recorded $6.7 million in net outflows. By contrast, spot XRP ETFs posted $4.8 million in net inflows.

Tech Selloff Continues

Elsewhere, political developments are also weighing on digital assets, driven by uncertainty in Washington as lawmakers continue to negotiate key budget and immigration measures.

Weakness in U.S. tech stocks has also placed pressure on the situation, contributing to a broader pullback across global markets.

Meanwhile, gold prices have fallen 1.3% on the day, while silver dropped more than 9%, after hitting all-time highs recently.

BTC could be poised for major rise, based on the RSI indicator

info@uweb3.io
-
0
BTC could be poised for major rise, based on the RSI indicator

Bitcoin tumbled to around $65,000 on Thursday amid a wave of liquidations driven by heavily bearish sentiment, but one technical indicator suggests the cryptocurrency could be set for not just a bounce, but a major move higher.

Bitcoin’s daily Relative Strength Index (RSI), which is a popularly used momentum oscillator that assesses whether an asset is oversold or overbought, flashed 17.6 (on a scale of 0-100) on Thursday — heavily oversold conditions that were topped in the modern BTC era by the Covid crash in 2020, when it fell to 15.6, and the 2018 market bottom, when it dropped to 9.5.

On both of those previous occasions, bitcoin rewarded buyers with violent upside moves. In 2018, BTC more than quadrupled over the ensuing 8 months from $3,150 to $13,800. In 2020, bitcoin soared from $3,900 to a cycle high of $65,000 just more than one year later.

Thursday’s market carnage liquidated more than $1.5 billion across crypto derivatives. While the temptation might be to sell when an asset is weak, astute traders will see the oversold territories as an opportunity — especially as liquidity between $70,000 and $80,000 has effectively been wiped out.

Lloyds Banking Group Targets Over £100m Value From ‘Next Gen’ AI in 2026

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Lloyds Banking Group Targets Over £100m Value From ‘Next Gen’ AI in 2026

Lloyds Banking Group expects to derive more than £100million in value from its artificial intelligence initiatives in 2026, doubling the £50million secured during the previous year.

The projections signal a major shift towards “Agentic AI”—autonomous agents capable of taking action rather than just generating content—as the bank seeks to cement its leadership position in the sector.

From Generative to Agentic
Ron van Kemenade, group chief operating officer at Lloyds Banking Group

In 2025, the Group successfully rolled out over 50 AI use cases, which it credits with delivering roughly £50million in value. These initial deployments focused heavily on transforming customer interactions and streamlining internal operations.

However, the strategy for 2026 indicates a pivot toward more advanced applications. Lloyds confirmed it plans to “scale agentic AI across the bank,” a move that will involve launching multiple new use cases and making significant strategic investments to deliver faster, seamless experiences for its 28 million customers.

A key milestone for the year ahead will be the full customer rollout of the Group’s AI-powered financial assistant. Moving beyond basic queries, the assistant is designed to eventually help customers navigate complex financial needs including savings, borrowing, and investments.

Ron van Kemenade, group chief operating officer at Lloyds Banking Group, commented: “AI is already delivering real value for our business, our colleagues and our customers. The progress we’ve made this year shows the scale of the opportunity ahead. By continuing to extend our leadership in AI and scaling the most impactful technologies across the Group, we can unlock new opportunities to better support our customers, strengthen our operations and realise further financial benefits in the years ahead.”

Tools delivering tangible results

The bank highlighted several internal tools that are already driving efficiency:

  • Athena: An AI-powered internal search assistant used by 20,000 colleagues, which has reduced information search times by 66 per cent.
  • GitHub Copilot: Currently utilized by 5,000 engineers, this tool has driven a 50 per cent improvement in converting code for established systems.
  • AI HR Assistant: The tool is reportedly resolving 90 per cent of HR queries correctly on the first contact.

To support this technological acceleration, Lloyds is launching a new AI Academy aimed at its 67,000-strong workforce. The initiative is designed to improve AI literacy across the organisation, ensuring teams have the skills to use the technology responsibly.

The Group’s aggressive adoption strategy appears to be gaining external traction; Lloyds rose 12 places in the Evident AI Global Index last year, marking the strongest improvement of any UK bank.

Telegram’s Durov Sounds Alarm About Spain’s Online Age Verification law

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Telegram’s Durov Sounds Alarm About Spain’s Online Age Verification law

Pavel Durov, co-founder of the Telegram messaging platform, sounded an alarm about the Spanish government’s plan to usher in online age verification and restrict social media platforms for individuals under the age of 16.

The proposed law will lead to increased government-led censorship of online content, breaches of privacy through de-anonymizing users and mass-surveillance, Durov said on Wednesday.

“Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms. Announced just yesterday, these measures could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of ‘protection.’” 

Source: Pavel Durov

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Tuesday that the country will enact online age verification policies seen in other parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom.

“Social media has become a failed state. If we want to protect our children, there is only one thing we can do: Take back control,” Sánchez said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

Privacy, Spain, Freedom, Censorship, Pavel Durov
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces that Spain will adopt online age verification policies. Source: Pedro Sánchez

Sanchez’s comments drew considerable backlash from privacy advocates and cypherpunks, who say such policies curtail freedom of speech and give governments more power to censor content for political reasons. 

Related: UK mulls under‑16 social media ban amid rising online ID push

Age verification is about control, not protecting kids, critics argue

“You want to control people who expose the corruption in your government,” a user named Campari said in response to the announcement. Billionaire Elon Musk also responded negatively by ridiculing Sánchez.

“None of this is about ‘protecting children,” journalist Taylor Lorenz said, urging people around the world to fight against online age verification laws.

Others, like Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki, the CEO of the layer-1 blockchain Concordium, argue that, while protecting minors from harmful content is needed, current age-verification methods are counterproductive.

The current age verification checks are driving users to circumvent the controls by using virtual private networks (VPNs), which mask IP addresses by routing online traffic through servers distributed in various locations, Bohrer-Bilowitzki wrote.

Instead, blockchain technology should be used to prove personhood in a cryptographically secure way, without revealing the specific contents of any user’s identity, he added.

Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice