Home Blog Page 306

Iran Peace Deal Talk Costs Bitcoin a Trip to $83,000 After New 13-Week Highs

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Iran Peace Deal Talk Costs Bitcoin a Trip to $83,000 After New 13-Week Highs

Bitcoin (BTC) cooled from new 13-week highs at Wednesday’s Wall Street open amid mixed signals over a US-Iran peace deal.

Key points:

  • Bitcoin stops short of tapping $83,000 as momentum becomes guided by geopolitical developments.
  • Oil sees flash volatility around rumors of the Strait of Hormuz opening.
  • Bitcoin trader sees a price reset to a $78,400 trend line.

Iran deal let-down sours Bitcoin’s attack on $83,000

Data from TradingView showed a new local peak for BTC/USD of $82,833 on Bitstamp.

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

The pair made fresh gains amid reports of a 14-point ceasefire agreement potentially coming into effect — one that would include resumption of oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Hours later, however, US President Donald Trump said that Iran’s agreement to the terms of the truce was “perhaps, a big assumption.”

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” he added in a post on Truth Social.

Source: Truth Social

Bitcoin reacted by erasing its upside to circle $81,500 at the time of writing, still up around 1% on the day.

Oil also saw volatility, with WTI dropping over 10% in a matter of hours before rebounding to $96 per barrel.

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

Commenting on X, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter reported what it called “unusually large” short interest on WTI, which totaled nearly $1 billion, immediately before the drop.

Light crude oil futures chart. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/X

BTC price focus switches to $78,000 and higher

Bitcoin traders, meanwhile, looked to patches of potential liquidations on exchange order books for clues as to where price might head next.

Related: Bitcoin can crash to $50K if ‘most critical’ bear market test fails: Analysis

“Above, the $82.4K area still has some left. But price did take out most of the local liquidity from the past day. With price at 3 month highs, we would need to zoom out to see the other major levels,” trader Daan Crypto Trades told X followers. 

“Below, the $80.1K & $78.2K levels are good to watch if price were to trade into them.”

Crypto liquidation history (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

Data from CoinGlass put total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours at more than $550 million, with shorts accounting for $400 million of the total.

Trader CrypNuevo called BTC/USD “overextended” on short time frames, seeking a retracement to the 50-period simple moving average (SMA) on the four-hour chart. That stood at $78,432.

“Ideally it continues pushing straight higher without any exhaustion signs and it will overextend price even more so the short will be more atractive and worth it when we see those signs at higher prices,” he wrote on X.

BTC/USD four-hour chart with 50SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on concerns that historical precedent called for the failure of Bitcoin’s current breakout attempt.

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

Kraken Launches Spot Margin Trading for US Clients

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Kraken Launches Spot Margin Trading for US Clients

Retail users can now post crypto as collateral and trade with up to 10x leverage on Kraken Pro.

Kraken on Wednesday launched CFTC-regulated spot margin trading for U.S. retail clients on Kraken Pro, giving customers up to 10x leverage on long and short crypto positions with no accredited investor requirement.

Traders can post existing crypto holdings as collateral, view real-time risk metrics including liquidation prices and borrowing costs, and use 24/7 stop-loss functionality. Risk is isolated to the collateral allocated to each position rather than the entire portfolio. Eligibility is gated by state and customer criteria.

Kraken framed the rollout as closing a long-running gap in the U.S. market, where regulatory friction had pushed leveraged crypto traders toward offshore venues.

The product is offered through NinjaTrader Clearing, doing business as Kraken Derivatives US, a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant, with financing provided by Payward Accredited LLC.

It is the first concrete result from Payward’s acquisition of Bitnomial, the Chicago derivatives firm Kraken agreed to buy in April. The deal, which closed Monday, hands Payward a full CFTC stack: a Futures Commission Merchant, a Designated Contract Market, and a Derivatives Clearing Organization. Kraken has said the infrastructure will underpin a broader push into regulated spot margin, perpetual futures, and options products for U.S. customers.

The launch comes as Kraken accelerates its push into regulated U.S. derivatives infrastructure ahead of a planned public listing. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed last month that the exchange has confidentially filed for an IPO, alongside a $200 million strategic investment from Deutsche Börse that valued Payward at roughly $13.3 billion.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Laka Acquires VeloLife’s Bike Insurance Business, Marking Its Fourth Acquisition as M&A Strategy Accelerates

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Laka Acquires VeloLife’s Bike Insurance Business, Marking Its Fourth Acquisition as M&A Strategy Accelerates

Laka, the award-winning UK & EU green mobility insurtech, today announces the acquisition of assets from VeloLife, the specialist cycle insurance provider. This marks Laka’s fourth acquisition in three years and the first public milestone in the active M&A pipeline that Laka signalled when it closed its £14.1 million Series B – which included a dedicated £6.5 million venture debt facility from HSBC Innovation Banking, secured specifically to fund strategic acquisitions.

The acquisition accelerates Laka’s footprint in the UK bike dealer channel. A cornerstone of this growth is a partnership with EPOS provider Citrus Lime, which allows Laka to embed its insurance products directly into the retail workflow of hundreds of independent bike shops – deepening Laka’s B2B2C model at the point of sale.

The M&A strategy, now in motion:

When Laka closed its Series B equity round of £7.6 million in July 2025, co-led by Shift4Good and MS&AD Ventures, the company signalled its intent to consolidate Europe’s highly fragmented micromobility insurance market through targeted acquisitions. 

That intent was reinforced in November 2025, when Laka secured a further £6.5 million venture debt facility from HSBC Innovation Banking – capital earmarked specifically for M&A. VeloLife is the first public announcement of that pipeline.

It follows the successful integration of three prior acquisitions: French e-bike insurance broker Cylantro (2023), CoverCloud’s UK bike insurance renewal rights (2024), and Luko’s e-scooter portfolio, acquired from Allianz Direct (2025). 

Each deal has added scale, geography, or capability to Laka’s platform – and VeloLife continues that pattern, bringing a curated network of more than 100 UK bike dealer locations into Laka’s partner ecosystem.

The urgency of this strategy is underlined by market fundamentals. By 2030, the global micromobility market is projected to more than double – from approximately $160 billion today to $340 billion, according to McKinsey. Europe is expected to be the largest regional contributor, growing from around $60 billion in 2022 to $140 billion by 2030. Yet insurance for this sector remains highly fragmented, and Laka’s disciplined acquisition strategy is designed to capture that consolidation opportunity.

Deepening the dealer ecosystem:

By integrating VeloLife’s dealer network, Laka continues to build a diverse B2B2C ecosystem that supports independent bike shops alongside its existing global brand partners, including Decathlon, Ribble, Gazelle, Riese & Müller, Tenways, and others. Licensed across the EEA and now operating in eleven countries, Laka has scaled from a UK direct-to-consumer insurer into a European platform insurer – and the dealer channel represents a significant growth vector for that next phase. 

To mark the transition, all VeloLife customers who migrate to Laka will receive their first 30 days of insurance free of charge.

Tobias Taupitz, CEO and Co-Founder of Laka, said: “This acquisition is a key milestone in our bike dealer strategy – and a clear signal that our M&A pipeline is now moving. VeloLife has built a fantastic set of partners, and we look forward to welcoming them to Laka’s network. When we raised our Series B and secured the HSBC debt facility, we were explicit that acquisition-led consolidation was central to our strategy. VeloLife is exactly the kind of deal that strategy was designed for.”

Justin Rodley, Director and Co-Founder of VeoLife, said: “We are delighted to be joining Laka. This new relationship is a very good fit for our ambition to launch into Europe and beyond. Most importantly, it was clear that Tobi and his team share our passion for quality service for the dealer network and customers. With Laka’s award-winning track record and strong brand, we are excited about what the future holds.”

 Dan Duran, Head of Marketing, Citrus Lime, commented:“Independent bike retailers are at the centre of everything we do, and partnerships that strengthen the services available through the dealer channel matter to us. Laka’s growth in the UK cycling market reflects a broader shift in how independent retailers are building more complete customer propositions. We look forward to seeing what this next phase brings.”

ETH Stuck Below $2.4K Despite Wider Crypto Market Recovery

info@uweb3.io
-
0
ETH Stuck Below $2.4K Despite Wider Crypto Market Recovery

Key takeaways:

  • A sharp fifty percent drop in exchange activity and decentralized application revenue is stalling Ether price growth.
  • Institutional investor interest in Ether remains under pressure as major holders like Bitmine face billions in unrealized losses. 

Ether (ETH) has failed to sustain levels above $2,400 for the past three months, consistently lagging behind most of its peers. Ether’s down 21% in 2026, and investors have expressed uncertainty about the altcoin’s inability to mirror the broader market recovery.

Total crypto market capitalization vs. ETH, USD. Source: TradingView

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is down 11% year-to-date, suggesting specific headwinds for Ether remain in play. A decline in decentralized applications (DApps) activity partially explains this fading interest. Regardless of whether this trend has affected the industry as a whole, the shift negatively affects ETH price formation.

Ethereum DEX monthly volumes vs. DApps revenue, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Decentralized exchanges (DEX) volumes fell by 53% in six months, a sector largely responsible for Ethereum’s DApps activity. Consequently, these DApps experienced a 49% decline in revenue over the same period. While the sharp drop in memecoin prices and token launches contributed to reduced DEX appeal, other factors, including protocol hacks, also played a significant role.

Multiple hacks had a negative impact on DApp activity

The cryptocurrency industry suffered $630 million in hacks in April, with KelpDAO and Drift Protocol accounting for 82% of the losses. Blockchain security company Hacken attributed the attacks to actors linked to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Aggregate crypto industry DEX activity dropped by 47% in three months.

Blockchain DApps revenue market share. Source: DefiLlama

Some Ethereum competitors have opted for base layer scalability, providing less friction for regular users. While Ethereum remains the absolute leader in the aggregate ecosystem, including its layer-2 solutions, Solana and Hyperliquid account for a combined 42% market share in DApp revenue. Such data is even more impressive given that Ethereum’s total value locked is six times larger.

Source: X/uttam_singhk

Uttam Singh, engineer at Alchemy, noted that part of the market incorrectly judged that Ethereum’s upcoming glamstedam hard fork would put rollups “in danger.” The upcoming network upgrade should result in a threefold increase in base-layer capacity and allow clients to pre-fetch block data, thereby enabling parallel transaction execution.

Fierce blockchain competition, ETH whales underwater

Regardless of how straightforward Ethereum’s scaling plans are, most users and investors struggle to understand the need for layer-2 rollups once base-layer scalability reaches a certain threshold. There is also limited visibility on whether these changes will actually generate higher network fees, which ultimately act as a catalyst for higher staking yields.

Related: Ethereum backers pledge up to 30,000 ETH to rsETH recovery after bridge incident

Institutional investors’ perception of Ether has also been negatively impacted as Bitmine (BMNR US), the largest publicly listed holder of ETH, remains underwater in its corporate reserves. The company, led by chairman Tom Lee, spent $12.2 billion to acquire ETH, but its position is currently valued at $10.8 billion. While this does not pose an immediate sell-off risk, it reduces the asset’s institutional appeal.

None of these factors is an absolute impediment for Ether price to reach $2,800. However, declining onchain activity, fierce competition in the DApps industry, and reduced institutional appeal continue to contribute to its underperformance relative to the broader crypto market.

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

$150M DSJ Crypto Ponzi Collapses, $41.5M Frozen

info@uweb3.io
-
0
$150M DSJ Crypto Ponzi Collapses, $41.5M Frozen

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Crypto on-chain investigator ZachXBT said the DSJ Exchange, also known as DSJEX, and BG Wealth Sharing Ponzi scheme collapsed last week after allegedly drawing in more than $150 million. The case now carries a second, market-relevant dimension: a rapid cross-chain laundering attempt that moved more than $92 million in less than a week and triggered a coordinated freeze of over $41.5 million.

ZachXBT said he helped lead an initiative involving Tether, Binance’s Security Team, OKX and US law enforcement after tracking the movement of funds between April 27 and May 3. According to his account, illicit actors attempted to obscure the money trail across multiple chains before a portion of the assets could be immobilized.

“The $150M+ DSJ Exchange (DSJEX) / BG Wealth Sharing Ponzi scheme collapsed last week,” ZachXBT wrote on X. “From April 27 – May 3, illicit actors laundered $92M+ across chains to obscure the trail. I helped lead an initiative with Tether, Binance Security Team, OKX, & US law enforcement that has since frozen $41.5M+.”

$150M Crypto Ponzi Collapses After Regulators Warned Investors

According to ZachXBT, DSJ and BG had been operating since 2025, promoting daily returns of 1.3% to 2.6% alongside referral commissions and rank-based bonuses. He described DSJ as a fake trading platform and BG as the investment group tied to the scheme. A purported CEO, Stephen Beard, allegedly fronted the operation, while domains and hot wallets were rotated regularly in an apparent effort to evade enforcement.

The crypto scheme’s recruitment engine, ZachXBT said, was built around social channels rather than sophisticated DeFi mechanics. Fake trading signals were allegedly pushed through a group on BonChat, a Hong Kong messaging app. He credited Dehek and BehindMLM for early coverage of the investment fraud.

Regulatory warnings had already been piling up before the collapse. ZachXBT said 13 regulators across five continents had publicly warned about DSJ and BG, while US law enforcement seized one BG-linked domain, Bgwealthsharing.com, on April 23, 2026.

The unraveling appears to have followed a familiar Ponzi pattern: withdrawals were disabled, then users were asked for more money. On May 2, ZachXBT said Beard posted a video claiming DSJ would soon pursue an IPO and demanded a 12% “tax” on account balances as part of a supposed regulatory process.

“By this point, withdrawals had already been disabled,” ZachXBT wrote.

The laundering trail, as described by ZachXBT, moved through several routes. Funds from DSJ and BG hot wallets were allegedly processed through Tokenlon swaps, Bridgers, Butter Network and USDT0 bridging, USDD wrapping and unwrapping, and consolidation across hundreds of addresses. He published multiple Ethereum and Tron hot wallet addresses tied to the investigation.

The largest traced outflows, according to ZachXBT, went to Cobo-linked deposit addresses. He said he traced more than $93 million in outflows from consolidations to multiple deposit addresses between April 27 and May 3, with Cobo receiving $63 million in total. He also performed timing analysis to identify withdrawals, located Solana and Tron deposits to Binance, found matching Tron withdrawals, and provided those details to relevant parties.

That work, he said, led to $38.4 million being frozen by Tether on May 4, with more than $3.1 million additionally frozen at various services and exchanges.

ZachXBT framed the case as less technically complex than many crypto crime investigations, but still significant because of the scale of victims and the speed of the laundering attempt. “While these Chinese investment frauds are obvious to most, they purposely target unsophisticated retail investors via social media,” he wrote. “Reading through victim posts, many still seem to be in denial that they were scammed.”

He advised victims of BG or DSJ to file police reports in their own jurisdictions, and directed US victims to IC3.gov. ZachXBT also cautioned that the $150 million estimate may understate the real damage, saying the figure is “likely significantly higher” because the scheme had been operating since 2025 and thousands of victim exchange withdrawals had been identified.

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.68 trillion.

Total crypto market cap chart
Total crypto market cap moves toward $3 trillion again, 1-week chart | Source: TOTAL on TradingView.com

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

Nasdaq’s president says the SEC’s new crypto stance is letting markets ‘build’ again

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Nasdaq’s president says the SEC’s new crypto stance is letting markets ‘build’ again

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Nasdaq President Tal Cohen said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) changing approach to crypto regulation is giving market operators more room to experiment with blockchain-based infrastructure and tokenized assets.

Speaking at Consensus in Miami on Wednesday, Cohen said the industry now feels it can “build” again after years of regulatory uncertainty.

“The gray zone four years ago was a no-fly zone,” Cohen said. “The gray zone now is we can build. We can gain some scale. We can experiment without maybe any brush back.”

Cohen described a broader shift inside financial markets toward “always on” trading systems that operate nearly around the clock and move money, securities and collateral faster than traditional infrastructure.

Nasdaq, which provides trading technology to more than 130 markets globally, is investing in blockchain infrastructure, tokenization and artificial intelligence as part of that transition, Cohen said.

“We’re embracing two trends,” he said. “Always on market infrastructure” and “convergence” between traditional financial rails and digital asset systems.

Cohen said interoperability between those systems remains one of the largest hurdles for the industry. Firms do not want to operate separate infrastructures for traditional securities and tokenized assets, he said.

“Whether you’re in the existing world or you’re in the digital world, let me tell you, I’m bringing it all together for you so you get the benefits of both,” Cohen said.

He also pointed to a more collaborative stance from regulators.

“The SEC is much more constructive,” Cohen said. “It’s not even open mindedness. It’s a proactivity.”

Cohen said tokenization could eventually make assets easier to move, finance and trade while giving issuers better insight into shareholders.

“What it really does is take an asset and put it in motion,” he said.

Nasdaq is also testing AI systems designed to simulate trading activity in a digital replica of its matching engine. Cohen said the technology could help the exchange test market stress scenarios and improve software reliability as markets move toward extended trading hours.

Bitcoin-real estate strategy could outperform REITs, says Grant Cardone. Adds more BTC to treasury.

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Bitcoin-real estate strategy could outperform REITs, says Grant Cardone. Adds more BTC to treasury.

Grant Cardone, a multibillionaire real estate investor, said Wednesday he added another $100 million in bitcoin as part of a strategy combining the asset with income-producing real estate, during a Fireside chat at Consensus Miami 2026.

“We just simply added another $100 million of bitcoin,” Cardone said, describing a recent property deal where BTC was paired with a $235 million asset, a hybrid strategy he believes will outperform real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Cardone said traditional real estate investment trusts are structurally limited. “These companies can never, ever hold bitcoin on their balance sheet,” he said. “We believe by combining real estate and bitcoin […] I’ll end up with somewhere between a 22 and a 32% return.”

The property investor said the latest allocation builds on an earlier bitcoin purchase made in 2025, when Cardone Capital added 1,000 BTC to its balance sheet, a position valued at just over $100 million at the time, bringing the firm’s total bitcoin exposure to roughly $200 million.

The real estate mogul said the structure combines two asset types within a single investment vehicle. “I have two assets that we just fused together in an LLC,” Cardone said.

He explained the approach also consists of introducing new investors to bitcoin. “Eighty percent of the people that invested in that fund own zero bitcoin,” he said, adding that the strategy does not involve putting real estate directly on blockchain rails.

“I’m not putting real estate on the blockchain,” Cardone said. “All I’m doing is buying a bunch of bitcoin and stuffing it into the discount gap.”

However, in February, In an X post, the investor said that Cardone Capital had plans to tokenize its holdings to give investors “collateral and liquidity in the secondary markets.” At the time, he also said the firm aimed to become a market leader in tokenizing assets at scale.

At Consensus, Cardone explained his hybrid strategy combines stable cash flow with bitcoin exposure. “If bitcoin goes to zero, I’m not getting rid of the real estate.” He said the combined model is intended to compete with existing real estate structures. “I’m going to rip [their] face off,” referring to competing investments without bitcoin exposure.

AI agents becoming more relevant than humans by 2035 has Big Tech ‘terrified’, says Hoskinson

info@uweb3.io
-
0
AI agents becoming more relevant than humans by 2035 has Big Tech ‘terrified’, says Hoskinson

AI agents will become more relevant than humans on the internet within the next decade, a shift already already forcing Google, Facebook and Amazon to react, said Charles Hoskinson.

In his keynote at Consensus Miami 2026 on Wednesday, Hoskinson also said that “by 2035, the majority of searches, commerce and activity on the internet will be AI agents instead of people.”

He said the change threatens existing business models. “Amazon, Google, Facebook, they’re terrified of the agentic revolution,” Hoskinson said, adding that companies are investing heavily because “all of their business models are going to be disrupted.”

AI Agents do not click ads or have brand preferences, Hoskinson explained, saying this “threatens the advertising-driven models of platforms like Google, Amazon and Facebook.”

“Why do you think Google is interested in x402?” he asked his audience of the Coinbase-backed protocol that enables AI agents and applications to make direct, programmatic payments over the internet using stablecoins and crypto rails.

Hoskinson noted this shift will change how crypto is used, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) will increasingly handle tasks such as due diligence, transaction execution and interaction with decentralized finance.

Hoskinson AI agent forecast echoes that of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said “very soon there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions” and Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, who predicted they “will make one million times more payments than humans.”

On the flipside, Hoskinson said AI agents are the “single best thing to ever happen to cryptocurrencies” because it simplifies user experience.

The Cardano founder warned crypto users against relying on intermediaries rather than maintaining direct control of their assets, which is the principle, he said, crypto was built on.

“You have to own your data. You have to own your identity. You have to own your money,” he said, adding that users are “outsourcing that to custodial wallets,” “permissioned networks,” and “third parties that they come to regret trusting when they get their account shut down.”

He also pointed to fragmentation across blockchain ecosystems as a barrier to progress, saying it has slowed down development. “There’s been 11 million tokens issued over the years. We have enough of them,” Hoskinson said. “What I want is cooperation. What I want is the mission to be achieved.”

User experience remains a key issue limiting user adoption, said Hoskinson, who described the current crypto onboarding processes as complex and prone to error. “That is the user experience in 2026,” he said. “Is this like a product you want to use?”

He said technologies such as account abstraction and chain abstraction could simplify how users interact with crypto systems, while maintaining control over assets and identity.

Hoskinson highlighted changing attitudes among financial institutions, noting that JPMorgan has moved from restricting crypto-related activity to developing blockchain-based products. “Back when we started JPMorgan was turning people’s bank accounts off and now they have a blockchain product,” he said.

Hut 8 Stock Surges Over 30% Following $9.8B Deal

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Hut 8 Stock Surges Over 30% Following $9.8B Deal

Investors appeared to disregard Hut 8’s reported first quarter 2026 net loss of more than $253 million on Wednesday, lifting the shares of the Bitcoin mining company by more than 33%.

Hut 8 attributed the loss to a reduction in the market value of its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, which fell from a high of over $126,000 apiece in October to a low of $60,000 in February.

Revenue for quarter totaled more than $71 million, down by about 22% from the previous period’s $88.4 million, according to Hut 8’s earnings statements. Analysts had forecast $78.5 million, according to FactSet.

The company also announced a $9.8 billion deal that will see Hut 8 lease 352 megawatts to a third-party AI company over a 15-year period. Wednesday’s results showed the company generated $66.0 million in first quarter revenue from ASIC compute, AI cloud and traditional cloud solutions.

Hut 8’s stock surged following news of a $9.8 billion deal. Source: Yahoo Finance

The company’s diversification into AI and energy infrastructure comes amid an industry-wide pivot away from crypto mining, as public crypto mining companies struggle with high costs and declining revenues.

Related: Bitcoin miner Core Scientific shifts to AI with 1.5GW data center push

AI and Bitcoin mining increasingly compete for power 

The shift to AI threatens the Bitcoin mining industry, according to crypto trader and market analyst Ran Neuner.

“Both industries compete for the same thing: electricity,” Neuner said, adding, “right now, AI is willing to pay much more for it.”

Mining companies can make anywhere between $57 and $129 per MW securing the blockchain, compared to between $200 and $500 per MW for AI infrastructure, he said.

Revenue comparison for Bitcoin mining and AI hosting. Source: Ran Neuner

As miners shift their focus to more-profitable AI ventures, the total amount of computing power dedicated to securing the Bitcoin blockchain declines, making the network easier to attack, Neuner said.

The need for massive amounts of energy to power high-performance computing applications, including Bitcoin mining and AI workloads, has driven demand for nuclear energy generation. 

Since 2024, several AI hyperscaling companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have announced nuclear energy deals to power their AI infrastructure.

Magazine:  How AI just dramatically sped up the quantum risk for Bitcoin

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Best’s Special Report: Most insurers expect to leverage AI though data, security challenges may impede fast adoption

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Best’s Special Report: Most insurers expect to leverage AI though data, security challenges may impede fast adoption

An AM Best survey of carriers and managing general agents (MGAs) to gauge the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the insurance industry found that while nearly 60% of respondents expect AI to significantly transform their business models within the next one to three years, data readiness, security and privacy and integration with legacy systems are their largest impediments in deploying AI within their organizations.

The survey results can be found in a new Best’s Segment Report, titled, “Artificial Intelligence Appears to be Ready, But Most Insurers Are Not.” According to the results from more than 150 respondents, made up of rated insurers and MGAs with a Best’s Performance Assessment, insurers are rapidly deploying AI, with 41% stating that their organization is actively using AI across core business areas and nearly 20% agreeing or strongly agreeing that their organization is at an advanced stage of implementation. A majority of respondents said their company has a formal AI policy in place. The survey also found that insurers are less concerned with change resistance and third-party model risk but viewed the potential for breaches of AI systems by bad actors, or data readiness, as significant challenges to AI implementation.

“AI systems are heavily dependent on high-quality, clean and well-structured data. Legacy systems can create significant barriers when implementing AI because they simply were not built for this type of data integration. Many of these legacy systems are outdated and store data in inconsistent formats lacking standardization,” said Kaitlin Piasecki, industry research analyst, AM Best.

Sridhar Manyem, senior director, Industry Research and Analytics, AM Best, added: “AI systems can produce unreliable outputs when underlying data is of poor quality, fragmented across legacy systems, insufficiently governed or lacking appropriate context. Insurers that have invested in modernizing their legacy systems and have robust data governance will find it easier to integrate AI into their workflow.”

Approximately two thirds of respondents said they seek to increase their AI investment in the next 12-24 months, with improving employee productivity, lowering operating costs and assisting with underwriting functions for risk selection and pricing leading goals sought by insurers. For those that have implemented AI solutions, 63% of respondents reported a small improvement in workforce productivity and satisfaction, with 11% reporting a significant improvement. Overall, 31% of the respondents said there would not be any material change to staffing with 37% expecting employees to be redeployed to higher-value work.

“Given that this technology is still relatively new, a return on investment in AI would be difficult to measure at this stage; the cost benefits will likely take years to materialize,” said Jason Hopper, associate director, Industry Research and Analytics, AM Best. “Insurance roles, especially those that require judgment, critical thinking and accountability, were ones respondents felt AI wouldn’t yet be able to fully replicate.”

1...305306307...1,269Page 306 of 1,269