Home Blog Page 272

Mark Cuban Sells Most Of His Bitcoin, Calls It Failed Hedge

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Mark Cuban Sells Most Of His Bitcoin, Calls It Failed Hedge

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has parted with most of his Bitcoin holdings, saying the asset failed to deliver on its core promise as a hedge against fiat currency weakness and geopolitical turmoil.

Cuban made the remarks during an interview with Front Office Sports, where he said Bitcoin “has lost the plot.” The Shark Tank personality and former Dallas Mavericks owner had long positioned Bitcoin as a superior alternative to gold, citing its fixed supply and decentralized structure. That conviction has eroded.

“I always thought it was a better version of gold than gold,” Cuban said. “But gold just blew up and went to $5,000. Bitcoin dropped.”

The billionaire pointed to price behavior during the U.S.-Iran conflict as the moment his confidence broke. Gold surged through the period of heightened tensions, setting a record above $5,500 per ounce earlier this year. 

Bitcoin, meanwhile, struggled to hold momentum. Cuban said he expected Bitcoin to rise each time the dollar fell. It did not.

“Every time the dollar dropped, Bitcoin should’ve gone up,” he said. “It’s not the hedge I expected it to be.”

Bitcoin traded near $77,500 on Thursday, down roughly 30% over the past year and 38% below its all-time high of $126,080 set in October. Gold, despite its own pullback from recent peaks, remains up more than 37% over the same 12-month stretch and commands a market cap above $31 trillion — the largest of any asset in the world.

Bitcoin has outperformed gold since the Iran conflict

The data does offer a counterpoint to Cuban’s critique. Since the first signs of U.S.-Iran conflict emerged in late February, Bitcoin has risen more than 16% while gold has fallen over 15%. Bitcoin’s defenders argue that framing matters — the asset’s performance depends on the window of analysis chosen.

Cuban acknowledged a distinction within the crypto space. He expressed less disappointment in Ethereum, which he sees as underpinned by real utility through decentralized finance and blockchain applications. He was categorical about meme coins and speculative tokens, calling them “garbage.”

His earlier crypto profile was broader. In 2021, he held a portfolio split roughly 60% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum, and 10% in other assets. He was a vocal NFT enthusiast, displayed his wallets publicly, and even accepted Dogecoin as payment for Mavericks merchandise. He once predicted Dogecoin would reach $1 and function as a stablecoin.

Cuban said the crypto sector as a whole has disappointed him by failing to find mainstream utility. “It hasn’t found an application for grandma,” he said.

Petition Against South Korea’s 22% Crypto Tax Hits 50K Threshold

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Petition Against South Korea’s 22% Crypto Tax Hits 50K Threshold

A petition to scrap a 22% tax on crypto investment gains in South Korea reached the 50,000-signature threshold required for the country’s Finance and Economic Planning Committee to review objections to the new tax regime.

The 22% tax, set to take effect in January 2027, imposes financial and reporting “burdens” on investors, while also limiting upward mobility for younger individuals, who are locked out of housing markets due to skyrocketing real estate prices, according to the petition.

The petition now has more than 52,000 signatures. Source: South Korea Assembly

The petition also said that taxing crypto gains at 22%, while giving other asset classes preferential tax treatment, undermines South Korea’s share of the crypto market. In a translated statement, the authors of the petition wrote:

“If taxation is enforced in order to secure short-term tax revenues, it is likely to lead to greater losses in the long term, namely, a contraction of industry and an outflow of capital and talent abroad.”

South Korea is a key crypto hub in the Asia-Pacific region, and in March 2025, about 32% of the country’s population owned cryptocurrencies, according to local news agency Yonhap. However, ownership has declined so far this year as crypto prices remain under pressure.

Related: South Korea plans July rules for tokenized securities

South Korea’s crypto market contracts as tighter controls are proposed

The total value of crypto held by South Koreans declined from about 121.8 trillion won ($83.3 billion) in January 2025 to about 60.6 trillion won ($41.4 billion) in February 2026, according to industry data.

Daily trading volumes on the five largest crypto exchanges in the country, which include Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax,  also fell from $11.6 billion in December 2024 to just $3 billion in February.

Daily trading volume for South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges. Source: CoinGecko

Tighter Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations and Know Your Customer controls in South Korea are also driving investors away from the sector, critics of the policies say. 

In March, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) proposed that all crypto transactions above 10 million won ($6,630) sent to or from foreign crypto wallets should be automatically flagged as suspicious.

Crypto industry advocacy organizations in the country have pushed back against the new rules, arguing that the reporting requirements would create an operational burden for exchanges.

Magazine: South Korea gets rich from crypto… North Korea gets weapons

Bitcoin Trader Sees Breakout Move ‘Soon’ With BTC Circling $77,000

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Bitcoin Trader Sees Breakout Move ‘Soon’ With BTC Circling $77,000

Bitcoin (BTC) focused on $77,000 on Thursday as analysis eyed a minimum 5% BTC price move.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin waits for a breakout move as it circles the $77,000 mark.
  • Analysis sees risk in shorting price at current levels, with bears in the firing line.
  • Macro hurdles keep risk assets down across the board, while US bond yields cool.

Trader sees 5% BTC price move “soon”

Data from TradingView showed BTC price action sticking to a narrow range, with leveraged positions on either side of spot.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

“Some big clusters right around price. Most notably: the ~$78K area and the $76.5K-$77K area in the short term,” trader Daan Crypto Trades wrote in his latest analysis on X. 

“Price has been in a pretty tight price range the past few days so expecting some larger 5%+ move to occur here soon again.”

Crypto liquidation history (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

Data from CoinGlass revealed that short positions had taken the majority of losses across crypto over the 24 hours to the time of writing.

“Bears on $BTC are getting SQUEEZED in real-time,” X analytics account Cryptic Trades commented. 

“While the price is going up, the Open-Interest has dropped by over 12K. This is exactly why you don’t short a BULLISH BACKTEST.”

BTC/USDT one-hour chart with open interest data. Source: Cryptic Trades/X

Cryptic Trades remained optimistic about BTC market strength despite the loss of various support levels in recent days. Holding above $74,000, it continued, was the “most likely outcome.”

“Shorting here, or hedging your spot holdings simply doesn’t make sense from a technical perspective, because the market structure remains intact,” it argued.

BTC/USD three-day chart. Source: Cryptic Trades/X

Oil returns to triple figures on Iran cues

Bitcoin and other risk assets faced familiar macro headwinds on the day, with WTI oil prices heading back above $100 per barrel.

Related: BTC price ‘bull trap’ at $76.5K? Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

The US-Iran war remained the key catalyst amid mixed reports over uranium enrichment and a permanent toll on oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

CFDs on WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The day prior, US President Donald Trump had sent oil and US bond yields lower with hints that an Iran peace deal was near.

“It’s the same recipe, if this trend is prolonged and the deal is likely finalized, you’ll see yields continue to fall even more, especially in Japan,” crypto trader and analyst Michaël Van de Poppe responded. 

“If those yields come down –> risk-on assets to rally even higher.”

US 30-year treasury yield one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Blockchain.com files with SEC for U.S. IPO

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Blockchain.com files with SEC for U.S. IPO

Blockchain.com said it confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO).

The number of shares to be offered and the proposed price range have not yet been determined, according to an announcement on Thursday.

A confidential filing allows companies to begin the SEC review process before publicly disclosing financial details tied to the listing. The IPO remains subject to market conditions and completion of the SEC review process.

Blockchain.com is a cryptocurrency financial services company that offers a range of products tied to digital assets, including a crypto exchange, wallet services, institutional trading and lending products.

The company held talks last year about going public in the U.S. through a merger with the a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), according to reports.

Crypto firms entered 2026 expecting a blockbuster year for IPOs after public debuts from companies including Circle (CRCL) and Bullish (BLSH) (the parent company of CoinDesk) helped reopen investors to digital-asset businesses last year.

But deteriorating market conditions, weaker trading volumes and disappointing post-listing performance from newly public companies like BitGo (BTGO) have since cooled investor appetite.

As a result, several major firms, including Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, Ethereum app builder Consensys and hardware wallet maker Ledger, have either delayed or paused their IPO plans altogether while they wait for market conditions to improve.

Blockchain.com Confidentially Files For U.S. IPO, Joining Wave Of Crypto Listings

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Blockchain.com Confidentially Files For U.S. IPO, Joining Wave Of Crypto Listings

Blockchain.com Group Holdings Inc., one of the oldest companies in the crypto industry, has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering, the Dallas-based firm announced Thursday.

The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The IPO remains subject to market conditions and the completion of the SEC’s review process. They expect to go public before the end of 2026.

Founded in 2011 by three members of the original Bitcoin online forum BitcoinTalk.org, Blockchain.com is among the earliest institutions built around digital assets. The company initially tracked activity on the Bitcoin blockchain before expanding into a consumer wallet and exchange, and later into institutional products and services. 

Today, it supports more than 95 million wallets and counts more than 43 million confirmed accounts. The firm employs approximately 500 people and has been profitable on an adjusted basis for three consecutive years, according to the source familiar with its plans.

Crypto firms entering public markets

The filing marks the latest milestone in a sustained push by crypto companies into the public markets. In 2025 alone, Circle, eToro, Bullish, and Gemini — the Winklevoss brothers’ exchange — all went public, collectively raising an estimated $14.6 billion across at least 11 offerings. 

BitGo listed on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2026, becoming the first major crypto firm to go public this year. 

Kraken parent Payward Inc. filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO in November 2025 targeting a first-quarter debut, but shelved those plans in March as market conditions deteriorated. Grayscale remains among the firms still in the pipeline.

Blockchain.com’s path to a public listing has been a long one. The company initially considered going public as early as 2022, when it carried a valuation of $14 billion. But in 2023, it raised $110 million in a Series E round led by UK-based Kingsway Capital at a valuation that had fallen to less than half its 2022 peak — a sharp reset that reflected the broad crypto market downturn that followed that year’s industry collapses.

The confidential filing process, permitted under U.S. securities law, allows companies to prepare for public offerings away from market scrutiny while the SEC conducts its review. Should Blockchain.com complete its listing, it would add another veteran name to a rapidly growing roster of publicly traded crypto businesses.

Sam Altman-Backed World’s Proof-of-Human Tool Stopped 100,000 Ticket Bot Requests

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Sam Altman-Backed World’s Proof-of-Human Tool Stopped 100,000 Ticket Bot Requests

World Network has launched Concert Kit, a proof-of-human ticketing tool designed to help artists reserve ticket access for verified fans rather than bots and scalpers.

The Sam Altman co-founded identity network tested the system at its “Humans Only Concert” in San Francisco on April 17, where DJ Pee .Wee, Anderson .Paak’s DJ project, performed at The Midway. The event required fans to claim free tickets using a verified World ID.

World said the first Concert Kit deployment blocked more than 100,000 automated requests before tickets reached fans. Nearly 1,000 verified humans claimed tickets, while more than 1,600 total seats were released once plus-ones were included. Every successful claim carried a verified World ID.

Concert Kit is built around a simple model.

Artists or their teams can reserve a portion of tickets for verified humans, create a Concert Kit page, set verification requirements and upload ticket codes from existing ticketing platforms. Fans then verify with World ID to unlock access before completing the purchase or claim through a ticketing platform.

The system does not replace companies such as Ticketmaster or AXS.

Instead, it sits in front of ticket access as an identity layer, allowing artists to allocate presales, free tickets or special experiences to users who can prove they are unique humans.

The launch comes as online ticketing faces growing pressure from automated traffic.

Imperva’s 2025 Bad Bot Report found that automated traffic accounted for 51% of all web traffic in 2024, surpassing human activity for the first time in a decade. The same report said bad bots represented 37% of all internet traffic.

Live events have become one of the clearest consumer examples of the problem.

High-demand concerts often sell out quickly, only for tickets to appear on resale platforms at higher prices.

The issue became a political flashpoint after Ticketmaster’s problems with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour presale. This led to a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2023 on competition and consumer protection in live entertainment.

Regulators have since increased scrutiny of the ticketing sector.

In September 2025, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster, alleging illegal ticket resale tactics and deceptive pricing practices. The FTC said mandatory fees could reach as high as 44% of the ticket cost.

World is positioning Concert Kit as a technical response to a market structure problem.

Traditional bot defenses use rate limits, CAPTCHA systems, VPN filtering, browser checks and DDoS mitigation. But sophisticated bot operators can rotate accounts, proxies and devices, making ticketing a constant “cat-and-mouse” contest.

World ID changes the checkpoint.

Rather than asking whether a browser session looks human, it asks whether the user has already been verified as a unique person. World’s network now includes over 18 million verified humans across 160 countries.

Anderson .Paak framed the issue in fan terms.

“I hate bots…they make everything worse. Especially for the fans. The real people that matter…And a lot of the time these bad bots ruin it…We need something like Concert Kit to get in there and help with the real fans,” he said during World’s Lift Off event in San Francisco.

The first test also gives World a consumer-facing use case beyond crypto-native identity.

World ID has been pitched as a way to distinguish humans from bots and AI agents across online services. The company has also announced proof-of-human integrations for areas such as dating, gaming, business software and digital agents.

Read Also: Malaysia Adopts Worldcoin’s Iris-Scan Tech for Identity Verification

Ticketing may be a more visible test.

The value proposition for fans is easy to understand. If a scarce ticket is reserved for verified humans, bots should have less room to intercept access before real buyers arrive.

The ticketing platform offers artists control on the process.

Concert Kit gives artists a way to reserve allocations for human fans without rebuilding the entire ticketing stack. That could matter for presales, VIP experiences, fan-club access and free events where bot traffic can overwhelm pages even when resale profit is uncertain.

World said Thirty Seconds to Mars will reserve a portion of tickets for verified humans on its upcoming 2027 European tour. The band’s official site lists 2027 European dates, including stops in Lisbon, Madrid, Valencia and Milan.

Jared Leto, lead vocalist of Thirty Seconds to Mars, said the goal is to protect the fan experience.

“Live music is about connection, energy, and shared experience. Fans wait years for these moments, and too often bots get there first. We wanted to work with World to create something that helps protect the fan experience and gives real people a fair shot at being part of it,” Leto said in a statement shared with AlexaBlockchain.

The model still has open questions.

World’s identity system has faced scrutiny because biometric verification is central to how users obtain World ID. The company says World ID allows users to prove humanness without sharing personal information with platforms, but adoption in ticketing will depend on whether artists, fans and regulators are comfortable with that tradeoff.

It also does not solve every ticketing problem.

Bots are only one part of the live-event access debate. High primary prices, dynamic pricing, venue fees, resale rules, exclusive presales and market concentration continue to shape the fan experience.

Still, Concert Kit is an attempt to address one specific point of failure: automated access at the moment tickets are distributed.

If the system scales beyond one San Francisco show and a limited artist allocation, it could turn proof-of-human technology into a practical layer for live events.

The above article “Sam Altman-Backed World’s Proof-of-Human Tool Stopped 100,000 Ticket Bot Requests” was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/sam-altman-backed-world-proof-of-human-tool-stopped-100000-ticket-bot-requests/

Read Also: The NYC Iconic Music Venue LPR Brings Its Ticketing System On-chain

Disclaimer: The information provided on AlexaBlockchain is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Read complete disclaimer here.

Image Credits: World Network, Shutterstock, Canva, Wiki Commons

Satoshi’s 1.1M bitcoin and millions more can be saved from quantum attack, says expert

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Satoshi’s 1.1M bitcoin and millions more can be saved from quantum attack, says expert

AmericanFortress researchers introduced a patent-pending post-quantum signature scheme that could secure the global crypto ecosystem against future quantum attacks without requiring mass fund migrations.

According to the company, the breakthrough means even Satoshi Nakamoto’s huge 1.1 million bitcoin stash, alongside nearly 5 million BTC in dormant accounts, can be saved, with a combined value of about $400 billion.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Michal Pospieszalski, CEO of AmericanFortress, explained that inactive and dormant wallets do not have to remain vulnerable to unscrupulous hackers, who could sweep up the loot and dump it onto the market with incalculable consequences.

However, Pospieszalski said a major point of confusion is the older bitcoin. Because Satoshi-era wallets are “Pre-BIP32” addresses with no seed phrase derivation and therefore cannot automatically be upgraded like the newer created wallets. Instead, the AmericanFortress’ protocol would execute a defensive freeze via a backward-compatible soft fork.

“Our quantum-resistant protocol would automatically freeze and protect those funds until governance decides what to do with them after Q-day,” Pospieszalski said, noting the community would eventually have to vote to move, burn, or redistribute the frozen assets.

“But this means even Satoshi wallets can be protected with a minor BIP, which we are working on,” Pospieszalski said. “This means integrity for Bitcoin going forward—and that’s just BTC. It applies to all other major chains as well, like Ethereum, Solana, and Tron.”

The announcement follows an $8 million seed funding raise co-led by SAVA Digital Asset Fund, Moon Pursuit Capital and 0G Labs. Along with the funding round, the firm released a cryptographic paper that identifies the specific network performance bottlenecks that have plagued other post-quantum trials.

This week, a standard quantum-security test on BNB Chain worked but significantly slowed transaction throughput by 40%.

Unlike traditional approaches that require entirely new blockchains or exhaustive address rotations, AmericanFortress’s approach uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to prove master seed ownership at the point of spend. The strategy deploys three distinct solutions: Pre-BIP32 raw key protection, standard BIP32 quantum protection, and a high-speed “QBIP32” derivation scheme. Because it integrates natively with existing curves, it causes no performance degradation.

“It’s just a node and wallet software update in that order,” Pospieszalski noted.

The threat to crypto is highly concentrated, the AmericanFortress CEO said, adding that while quantum computers cannot crack master seed phrases, they can reverse-engineer individual private keys from wallet addresses whose public keys have been exposed onchain.

Research indicates that over $600 billion in crypto assets are in this precise vulnerable state, including 100% of Solana addresses, said Pospieszalski, describing this as “common knowledge.”

For active users, migrating to a quantum-proof level takes a mere 50 milliseconds via a simple wallet prompt, he explained, adding that for dormant seed-derived wallets, protection can be executed programmatically at the base layer.

Pospieszalski said the cost of this quantum-proofing is extremely low, equivalent to the price of a single rollup transaction, rather than paying for every historical transaction individually.

Pospieszalski revealed that AmericanFortress is actively licensing the SDK out to Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains in exchange for marketing positioning, although he said the firm is open to exclusive acquisitions.

The cryptographic methods for bitcoin are expected to be ready for discussion within the next few weeks, ahead of an official presentation on June 2 in Paris, AmericanFortress said.

Ultimately, Pospieszalski sees this as a turning point for the longevity of digital assets. “Sudden quantum proofing of BTC is now possible,” he said.

Live markets: yet another Iran peace deal and Mark Cuban sells his bitcoin

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Live markets: yet another Iran peace deal and Mark Cuban sells his bitcoin

Hyperliquid’s HYPE is the outlier in crypto, rising 16.5% over the past 24 hours to a new record high.

New U.S. Bill Introduced To Codify Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

info@uweb3.io
-
0
New U.S. Bill Introduced To Codify Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, introduced legislation Thursday to permanently establish a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve, unveiling the American Reserve Modernization Act (ARMA) — a bill designed to codify President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order and give the reserve a durable legal foundation in statute.

The measure, which has garnered bipartisan support and more than a dozen co-sponsors in Congress, would task the Treasury Department with overseeing the reserve while creating a separate digital asset stockpile for federally held cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. Begich drew a direct comparison between bitcoin and gold, arguing the market has already determined both assets as the dominant stores of value in their respective classes.

“When you look at gold, it is the dominant precious metal reserve,” Begich told Fox Business. “When you look at bitcoin, it represents about 60% of all market cap for the entire crypto space. So the market has decided, in the case of gold and in the case of bitcoin, that this will be the predominant store of value within that asset class.”

ARMA builds on the earlier BITCOIN Act, which Begich originally introduced in March 2025 alongside Sen. Cynthia Lummis. The updated legislation would authorize the Treasury to acquire up to 200,000 BTC per year for five years — targeting a total of 1 million bitcoin, or roughly 5% of global supply — with all holdings locked for a minimum of 20 years. 

The U.S. government currently holds an estimated 328,372 BTC accumulated through law enforcement seizures, including proceeds from the Silk Road takedown and the 2022 Bitfinex hack recovery.